Rating : 88% Pretty Darn Good
Artech Studios, made a pretty darn good action packed Xbox Live Arcade game. Aces of the Galaxy is well put together action packed 3d space shoot'em up game. It's a bit surprising considering their previous XBLA game was Boogie Bunnies.
It is pretty obviously influenced by Star Fox on the Super Nintendo and N-64 and I was not surprised to hear that brought up by one of the games producers on Major Nelson's Podcast. The play control feels a lot like Star Fox with it's responsive handling and evasive rolls using the top triggers. They also have a branching layout of courses and hidden ways of finishing a level just like Star Fox. I don't have a problem with this since I sort of feel that they brought enough new stuff to their game. At least it is not a Mario Kart clone.. actually Xbox Live Arcade could use a really well done multiplayer Mario Kart clone.
Of course I still feel that Star Fox owes a lot to Atari's 1983 Star Wars arcade game.
There are twenty five levels that go pretty fast but they have several metric tons of action in them.
It is a lot of fun dodging the enemy lasers blast and shooting down waves and waves of bad guy space ships. The graphics have a nice colorful crisp edge to them and the lighting, space warps and explosions make it look as brilliant as a full retail game. I liked having to use an sensor beam to hunt for cloaked invisible enemy ships. There is a big reward for keeping a combo score going Ikaruga style.
It's' got co-op multiplayer over Xbox Live and I need to get the achievement for finishing the game co-op. I got the one for finishing the game without dying once! Woot!
It is a pretty good classic arcade style shoot'em up. Had this game been around in 1980s I could totally see it as a vector based quarter operated game at my old local arcade with some Rush playing in the background. It is not the most mind blowing super hyper advanced game ever made but I did have a fun time playing it.
It is a simple very well executed original game and it totally worthy of checking out.
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