A playthrough of Absolute's 1994 action-arcade game for the Super Nintendo, Space Ace.

In this video I finish the entire game with a "Space Ace" rating, giving me the best possible ending.

Space Ace is one of those games, like Dragon's Lair on the NES, that does its absolute utmost, despite an entire shift in genre, to retain the feel and flow of the original arcade laserdisc title. Though much of the game is comprised of 2.5 platforming stages, the gameplay heavily leans on trial-and-error segments that require near perfect timing. It's a game that you won't finish the first, second, or even tenth time playing it. If you have even the slightest prayer of getting anywhere, you'll be memorizing layouts and drawing maps.

That said, like Dragon's Lair, the game is really quite playable regardless of what so many people on the internet like to claim. It's not going to be everyone's cup of tea, but I actually found it somewhat enjoyable. The real trick is to not just give up out of frustration on the faster moving maze stages. These are a real sticking point in the game - with no brakes, little health, and few visual landmarks, they really require a lot of concentration to navigate, but flying through these areas is how you reach each of the main stages. I actually drew myself maps - a painstakingly slow process, I assure you - and this helped immensely, especially when it came to shooting all of the green balls in the space maze. You have to clear all 22 of them in a single-run to get an Ace rating on that stage, and to see the best ending you have to "ace" every single level. Every. Single. Level.

Yeah. It's a tall order, but it is quite doable with a lot of patience, a pen in hand, and (most likely) a lot of liquor hanging out somewhere nearby.

Most of the scenes from the arcade FMV game have been recreated here, and they generally resemble the things they are supposed to. The line art is a bit on the fugly side - the lack of shading makes a lot of the sprites appear too sharp and pixelated on the edges, and the colors are a bit too garish and bright, but it runs smoothly and the animation is decent. It also includes FMV clips that play when you die or reach the end of the level. They're very low resolution and short, but they do a fantastic job of reminding you of the source material. The sound is also reminiscent of the original, with lots of little voice clips (Far out!) and sampled laser effects, but the music leaves a bit to be desired. It repeats entirely too often, and the low sample quality makes everything sound muffled.

The gameplay takes a page from the Dragon's Lair on the NES, particularly in its utter lack of forgiveness and the floaty controls. Dexter is far more responsive here than Dirk was in DL, but the angled jumping controls can be difficult to come to grips with, and the targeting controls are goofy and never really become intuitive. One important thing to note is that most of the non-maze stages have secret areas, and these usually hold important power ups for Dexter's gun. You won't likely get the Ace rating if you miss these secrets, and you aren't likely going to be able to finish the final set of levels if you haven't powered up sufficiently. Like I said before, lots of trial-and-error. Even once I came to grips with the game, it took me a good solid 20+ playthroughs before I was confident in my abilities enough to record this. I died a few times, but this was as good as it was going to get.

Funnily enough given how much the English-speaking side of the web seems to utterly loathe Space Ace, I found in my research that a lot of Japanese gamers seemed to loved it. They appreciated its consistency, its challenge level, and the general logic driving the game. Even Famitsu didn't hate it, giving it a score of 25 out of 40 when they first covered it. It makes you work for everything, but it does reward that effort with steady progress in a way that makes it feel a lot like an 80s computer game.

While I'll never claim that Space Ace is a great game that everyone must play, I will argue that too many people are too quick to dismiss it without giving it a fair chance. You probably will get a game over within two minutes of starting the first time you play, but everything starts to make sense more as you become more experienced. It has always reminded me of the NES game Legacy of the Wizard in that sense.

It's far too hard for its own good, but even with its annoying reliance on mazes and the occasionally wonky controls, Space Ace is a solid title that will keep anyone that is able to invest themselves in it occupied for many hours.
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No cheats were used during the recording of this video.

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