When Space Ace showed up on my doorstep, I kicked me heels in a fit of joy. OK, maybe I’m not athletic enough to actually do that anymore, but you get the point. I had seen the previous Dragon’s Lair Blu-ray/HD DVD release and was very curious about the quality, but never took the plunge myself. This was probably due to all of the mediocre PC and console releases I’ve seen and played over the years which had left *mostly* a bad taste in my gaming mouth. But I had high hopes for Space Ace and I am more than pleased with the results.

For the unfamiliar, Don Bluth’s animation (An American Tail, Secret of Nimh) helped create a new videogame format. Rather than the blocky graphics we were used to seeing in the arcades as kids in the 80s, here we had a fully animated Laserdisc based videogame; an interactive cartoon if you will. Instead of controlling all the characters movements (like Pac-man running through a maze), the player controls the movements only at key points of the game. For example, the hero would come on screen, have some dialog, run around (in full animation), and the player would only hit the button at a key time when the hero would have to draw his sword or gun. Or, maybe the character needs to run in a specific direction, and the player would have to move the stick in that direction at the appropriate time. If you missed the window of opportunity, or used the wrong command (i.e. needed to draw the gun instead of run), your hero would die. If you are fortunate enough to guess the right move at the right time, the animation would continue.

This proved for a unique, and very difficult experience. With Dragon’s Lair (the first of this type of game), it was extremely hard at times to know what command to use and at what time. See, there aren’t really too many cues to help the player know when a command is needed, so it was very hit and miss. You die, put in more quarters, and try to hit a command at the point before dying. Sounds kind of pointless, and it kind of is, but it was thrilling (and still kind of is) to figure out the right sequence of commands to play through the game.

After Dragon’s Lair was a hit, Space Ace came out next with many improvements. In Space Ace your hero is out to save the kidnapped Kimberly from the evil Commander Borf. The game moved more fluidly, was faster paced, and offered at least a few visual cues to help the players progress. Also was the addition that there was more than one way to progress through the game. It seems that Commander Borf has turned the hunky space hero into a scrawny wimp, at certain points in the game, the screen flashes orange, and if you can hit the button at the right time, Ace will turn back into his more macho self for a short period of time, this gives rise to different animated sequences with a higher difficulty. If you don’t hit the button, you can still proceed through the sequence in a different manner (the scrawny Ace mostly just runs away from stuff).  So there you have it, Space Ace helped user in “Seamless Branching” How about that?

This is all presented via this Blu-ray as true to the original as I can remember. It was obviously recreated by fans for fans and I thank Digital Leisure for that. I used my PS3 Dual Shock for playing the game, as that seemed most appropriate, however I don’t think anyone using a traditional remote instead of a gamepad would be missing out on any of the experience.

Video

Remastered in 1080p/MPEG-2, the animation looks by far the best I’ve seen it since the original arcade game. Colors are as vibrant as ever and the animation looks fantastic. Gone is the crappy computer animation fans of Space Ace have grown accustomed to. The original fullscreen animation is intact, but there is also a widescreen option which is a nice alternative and one I didn’t hesitate to use. The animation isn’t as eye-popping as a new film such as The Simpsons Movie, but the video is clean with little grain. If you’re a fan of 80s fantasy animation, this will be right up your alley.

Audio

We also get a newly minted 640kbps 5.1 Dolby Digital soundtrack and it sounds great. Remember, this was an 80s arcade game, but due to being on Laserdisc, it did have impressive sound at the time. It is fully recreated here and is more immersive than ever. Mostly made up of dialog and sound effects, I was impressed nevertheless. There isn’t a lot of dynamics, but I believe that is to be expected. Otherwise, it’s crystal clear.

Extras

Fans, myself included, will appreciate the attempt to include some extras on the disc in the form of some featurettes.

• Video Commentary- there is a nice, albeit brief, PIP commentary with Don Bluth, Gary Goldman, and Rick Dyer that can be watched during the game
• Demonstration Reel - shows the difference between the original and the remastered version
• Previews - some playable versions of Dragon’s Lair, and the soon to be released Dragon’s Lair II

Aside from these, there is also the option to watch the game as a short film rather than playing it all the way through. I feel this is also a worthy addition, as Space Ace really is a short animated film in the guise of a videogame.

There are also options for the games such as Unlimited Lives, and three difficulty modes.

Overall

For fans of retro gaming, Space Ace on Blu-ray is something that shouldn’t be overlooked. Yes, once you play through it, you probably will have no desire to do so again (at least for quite a while), but it’s worth the trip to me. So much so in fact that I’ll soon be looking into picking up the Dragon’s Lair release and look forward to Dragon’s Lair II as well. End the end, however, Space Ace has the most personal sentiment and I’m thrilled to have what I believe is the definitive version (barring my own arcade cabinet…maybe someday next to my NeoGeo).