What Video Game Did I Play Yesterday?

Space Ace (PS4)

December 31st, 2023

It's my last post of 2023, and I actually cleared a game last night! To be fair, it's not a very impressive one, but I turned on my PS4 to do a replay of Space Ace last night. I wanted to play it again just as a point of comparison to Time Gal, since the sci-fi trappings are superficially similar. The protagonist's laser gun lighting up when you have to shoot in each game is less superficially similar, but I'm not sure how else such a limited format could get that across.

For readers who have never played a laserdisc game, it's kind of like running through 15 minutes solid of quick time events superimposed over a cartoon. Modern ports have button prompts on the screen, which I think is particularly helpful with some of the direction/perspective issues in Space Ace specifically, but in their original formats, you had to watch super closely to see something flash on the screen, then push the corresponding button- either your attack button, or the direction of the flashing object.

I totally understand why these games are not held in high regard today. Especially in their original formats, they're pretty miserable to play, and as a home gamer, I can't imagine how mad I would have been spending actual quarters on them. While the modern button prompts help, they can make these games a little too easy, which I am fine with, but can also see as a problem. (Time Gal has an interesting way around this I'll talk about in a later post.)

Despite those pretty valid problems, I think laserdisc games are an extremely interesting way to make games feel more "cinematic" within the limitations of 1980s tech. Even in the 90s, I remember being amazed at the thought of "playing a cartoon" when I first played Dragon's Lair and Space Ace on the 3DO, even though I never saw past the second screen on either. This is not a thought I have ever gotten past, even in the midst of my most controller-throwing-rage at these games, so I'm willing to cut them a lot of slack.

All that aside, I've played Space Ace a few times before, always on an easier mode to preserve my sanity. That being surprised, I was really surprised I managed to clear it in one sitting last night! I think it's an aesthetically cool game, but it moves so fast that some of the button press timings come off feeling extremely unfair. My last playthrough, I used saves to scum through it over three nights, which was kind of what I expected to end up doing here. That didn't happen, though, so I felt somewhat good about myself. It helps that the final boss has somewhat generous timing compared to the rest of the game, but that's fine. I took a path where I didn't get to see the nifty rollerskating scene, though, so I might replay it again fairly soon.

I played Time Gal for a few credits, too, and am starting to get a feel for it.

After gaming time was over, I built a tiny LOZ sweets shop, too. Microblocks are a challenge, and this design was perhaps a bit overcomplicated, so the friend I was chatting with as I worked on this heard many complaints. It came out so cute, though! My tiny bootleg Lego city is coming along nicely.

For today, I am not sure what I'll do, but I do have another bootleg lego building half-finished on my craft table. Once I get that done, I'll figure everything else out!