all games are not created equal

Laserdisc games certainly set out to set themselves apart from all the other arcade games out there, and they did with flying colors.  Full color animation brought from Disney animator Don Bluth made these games
as much of a joy to watch as they were to play.

Dragon's Lair and Space Ace are easily the most popular titles from a series of laserdisc games, and the basic concept plays the same among all of them.  You essentially watch a cartoon where your character tries to achieve their goal, with many hazards along the way.  When a hazard is about to cripple your hero, you must press either the proper direction on a joystick or the button.  Succeed, and your character overcomes the obstacle.  Fail, which you'll do OFTEN, and you get to watch your character die, and die, and die.  This gameplay is seriously flawed due to the EXTREME amount of trial and error, but also holds a certain charm that can make some gamers return for more and more.

The difference between Space Ace and Dragon's Lair is mostly the difference between castles and spaceships.  Dragon's Lair has you playing as the loveable yet clumsy Dirk the Daring as he sets out to rescue Princess Daphne from a generic dragon in a generic wizard's castle.  The castle is anything but generic, which is filled with firepits, crumbling floors in every room, giant marbles, headless horsemen, evil lizard kings and more.  All the scenes are enjoyable to watch, and watching the many ways to see Dirk get destroyed is probably even more entertaining than watching him succeed.  Daphne is also entertaining, as she seems to be more of a parody of a princess than anything.

Space Ace puts you in the role of Ace, a musclebound space hero which feels very familiar to Futurama's Zapf Brannigan.  Ace gets shot by the evil Borf's Infanto Ray, cause Ace to turn into his younger and dorkier persona Dexter.  You guide Dexter through perils and pitfalls while chasing after Kimberly and eventually going after Borf himself.  Throughout the stages, you will change back and forth between Dexter and Ace, avoiding obstacles and tackling them head-on respectively.  Space Ace's characters and levels are just as enjoyable as Dragon's Lair.

Space Ace does have a head's up on Dragon's Lair because it allows multiple paths to complete the levels, generally by either choosing to morph into Ace or stick around as Dexter.  However, which game you prefer is largely dependant on your taste for castles or spaceships.  In this case, I choose lasers over swords, but I encourage you to check out both.