Gamertell

Title: Space Ace
Price: $4.99
System(s): iPhone, iPod Touch
Release Date: April 26, 2009
Publisher (Developer): Dragon’s Lair LLC
ESRB Rating: “Everyone” for animated violence
Pros: The same game you’ve seen in every other format, just much easier to play. Amazing art, good voice acting.
Cons: Super fast animation pace. So easy on some levels you might feel swindled. Price.
Overall Score: Two thumbs up; 90/100; A-; * * * * out of five.

If you were alive and plunking quarters in the early 1980s, then you completely understand laserdisc games. They were the most expensive arcade games of the time, charging a dollar or more when the next priciest game was 50 cents or less. And there was always a line at the cabinet.

If not, then they are an oddity of the times. A temporarily fascinating diversion of the time that was over priced, over hyped and too hard to play. (And, by the way, screw you.)

It doesn’t really matter where you fall on that spectrum since laserdisc games were an amazing amalgam of animation and video gaming that was not only way ahead of its time but a historical work of gaming art.

Behold The Bluth

Created by former Disney animator Don Bluth, Space Ace was a followup to the uber popular Dragon’s Lair arcade game by the same company. It stars a nerdly hero-to-be Ace who is trying to rescue the sexy Kimberly who has been taken hostage by the evil Borf. (Yeah, it’s a ye olde rescue the princess game). The difference here is that all of the video is hand-drawn and colored animation that was previously presented via laserdisc.

To play the iPhone and iPod Touch version you press lit virtual controller buttons as they glow yellow on the touch screen. Too slow and you face a return to nerdome or a grizzly demise. Just right and you progress to the next bit of animation and another context-sensitive segment of high-end animation.

The imagery includes robots, crazy furry aliens and plenty of explosions. There’s even a few surreal moments where you fight yourself and a your giant rolling head tries to crush you to death.

Everything is essentially canned so you hand little control other than to react at the right moment within a very limited amount of time,

He is the Don

I have reviewed earlier versions of this game and was a bit negative due to unnecessarily difficulty. For this version, however, the game controls have been converted into a easy-to-use guided tour. Instead of spending an hour or more frustrated and pissy that you got stuck in one weird space ship tunnel, you can instead complete the game with relative ease, experiencing each segment, each death and each progression without a bout of slamming the iPhone or iPod Touch on a table in frustration.

The art is wonderfully rendered for this release and the controls have finally found the perfect balance of ease and difficulty. There’s no need for a play-through video since you can get through the entire game and experience all the animations in one or two sittings.

Even with that relative quickness, you hardly feel cheated. In earlier versions you might get stuck at one stupid place, forced to memorize the moves in order to progress. Here, a moderately quick set of thumbs are sufficient for optimum enjoyment. Even if you cannot get through it well enough, there are three difficult settings to offer either the ease or challenge you are looking for.

For It is Good

Finally a version of this game that you can enjoy. Part of the experience of this game is not necessarily perfecting the moves but enjoying the animation and absorbing the voice acting. Sure it’s a little fast (an over-response to criticism that Dragon’s Lair was a little slow) but you can finally be able to get through the game with minimal frustration.

This is a game not to purchase to play but to purchase to experience. It’s both a quintessential game of the era and yet so completely unique. It features a princess in trouble and a boss that must be beaten yet utilizes technology that was ahead of its time.

Very few games achieve this level of character and craftsmanship in every scene. It is not only a part of gaming history that you can carry in your hands (and being released in yet another format, much like the White album) but an actually enjoyable version.

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Check out the gallery: Space Ace screen shots for iPhone and iPod Touch