Last updated on January 3rd, 2026 at 12:43 pm
Space Ace – Adventure Game Review
Space Ace is a Adventure/Casual/Entertainment game from Dragon's Lair LLC, first launched in 27th May 2009.
It’s rated 12+ and currently has 37+ ratings on the App Store.
What Makes Space Ace Stand Out
In Space Ace you play the heroic Ace who must stop the evil Commander Borf from taking over the Earth! Borf plans to reduce all of humankind to infants and take over the planet. Only two people have the courage and strength to stop Borf and save Earth: the beautiful Kimberly and the heroic Ace. But as they approach Borf’s stronghold, Ace is hit by the Infanto Ray, changing him into a child, and Kimberly is kidnapped by the evil madman. Armed with only a laser gun, Ace must find and destroy the Infanto Ray, rescue Kimberly and save the Earth.
The fate of Earth is in your hands!
This release of Don Bluth’s legendary animated arcade game features video transferred directly from the stunning high definition master, delivering the sharpest images and most vibrant colors ever – far better than the original laserdisc release.
Simply press on the direction pad to guide Ace in the right direction or fire your laser gun and blast those aliens away.
Don Bluth and his production teams are the creative genius behind such beloved classics as The Secret of NIMH, An American Tail and Anastasia to name but a few.
We hope you enjoy Space Ace!
This Adventure game offers engaging gameplay and regular updates for mobile players.
Player Feedback
As a newer release, Space Ace is building its player community. Early feedback suggests .
Recent Updates & Development
Latest Update: 11th September 2017
Recent improvements include:
This app has been updated by Apple to display the Apple Watch app icon.
Space Ace has been updated to ensure continued iOS compatibility. We've also updated the UI and fixed up some pesky bugs.
Happy Retro Gaming!
Download & Availability
Space Ace is available through the official App Store for iOS devices.
Requirements: Requires iPhone 5s / iPad Air / iPad Air (Cellular) / iPad Mini 2 (Retina) / iPad Mini 2 (Retina, Cellular) / iPhone 6 / iPhone 6 Plus / iPad Air 2 / iPad Air 2 (Cellular) / iPad Mini 3 or later.
Compatible with iPhone and iPad devices.
Player Experience Highlights
Community Insight:
Need to wrk with backbone controller.
So this really helped us with finding one of our childhood games, ITS SO COOL and we really want others to play it. It takes practice to play this game but we played it for 3 years and its SO MUCH FUN.
Sound works great! Arcade controls are nice. Wii console sell a great version of these games also for play on your big screen. So much fun to play this again.
Awesome game from an ex imagineer at Disney Don Bluth so cool Disney style all over it dropped a lot of quarters on the real one back in the day.
This awesome game used to work beautifully on our iPhone 5s. Now on our iPhone 11 Pro there is STILL no sound even though that problem was reported over a year ago. This game should be fixed or removed from the App Store.
There is no sound and no way to enable sound. Not worth the $ until resolved.
The game is identical to the original laser disc game. However, there is NO SOUND to the game. No options for sound/music like all others games on App Store. Also, the control arrows make it difficult to play. If you enjoy games with no sound, this one is for you. We WOULD NOT have bought it for $4.99 if we knew there was no sound available on this game. So we give it 1 star because of that.
We've enjoyed this game through many versions. It has been a faithful reproduction of the arcade classic, including its problems and shortcomings. This version's higher resolution video looks very nice. But the final level is completely botched and totally unplayable.
We agree with 1lapilot The ending level Is way out of sync,unbeatable please fix this ASAP.
The game's visuals are amazing. And if you have the Move Guide, you'll beat this game easy. But we know that there is more than one way to beat it. But none of the other ways work. It keeps glitching. The controls don't respond sometimes. If they would update the game there should be none of these problems. We want to love this game, but we can't with these game ruining issues.
We loved this game when it originally came out and beat both it and Dragon's Lair. We cant believe this is an iPhone app, but very glad it is!!! It has become our favorite game all over again.our only minor complaint is that when playing the Captain level or above the movement is wrong, the screen will blink right and it only accepts it if you move left , the correct movement is not corresponding to the opposite screens. Hopefully there will be a fix for this in the near future , otherwise its flawless!! Thank you Don Bluth! Update 5/13/15 As stated by others for sometime now, we are still having issues with these games. The final scene against Borf is completely bugged and unplayable. From what we understand, Dragons Lair has the exact same problem. We don't think the company checks these reviews because this has been ongoing for sometime. We would love to play these again but in its current state, that is simply not possible. Update 7/17/15 For the love of Ace, somebody, anybody from this company, please fix this game…..still waiting… It should not take months to get this app working properly again.
This is a great game BUT it's missing a few levels. For example, Dexter is still on the space station, going through what appears to be a junk level. Then he leaves the space station and is pursued by space fighters. Then he goes through a checker board tunnel being shot at by flying robots. Please fix this. Other than that, awesome game.
This game is great except that the last level moves are out of sync with the video.
Loading up gives you need to update error like the other non-HD version of Dragon's Lair. Wait for a new one instead of wasting $5.
This game will be most likely be replaced with a new version. You will probably have to buy it again for $4.99. The developer has done this with Dragons Lair 1 and 2. Buyer beware. The one star rating is an evaluation of company trust and willingness to listen to consumer concerns to fix game issues.
We love this game, but it doesnt work on our iPhone 6 or our iPad Air 2.
We love this game and grew up with it as a kid. We would honestly give it five stars except we just got the new iPhone six and ever since we got it none of the games made by digital leisure are functioning properly. On this particular game the very last level goes haywire and it starts playing on its own and then you die from a completely different scene. We've uninstalled it and installed it over five times with the same glitch. Dragon's layer has the exact same problem if you go into the menu the screen goes black and the game won't play at all. We're hoping this will be fixed soon as it's been messed up since the release of the new iPhones! Please fix this soon.
How many years now has there been Retena screen on iPhone, and the icon is still fuzzy? How could you miss this.
Great but last scene has an error please fix.
It is awesome to play these great games. Please bring back Thayer's Quest/Shadoan ;).
Amazing port of the original arcade classic, don't miss it! The video quality exceeds the original.
Reminds us of our childhood, and it's perfect on IOS.
Good update, works great on iPhone 5 now. Could the app's icon be fixed? It still looks fuzzy and not high def. Also there are a few scenes missing, one we can think of is the fail scene with Kim and Ace being attacked by the squids.
We're glad that they fixed the game to work on iOS 7. It looks great. However, the last level on the Ace level is completely off-sync so the inputs are not matching with the flashes. In addition, some scenes are not playing on that level either. Minor problems but we'd like to see them fixed.
Awesome game! Brings back memories of the arcades. Plays just like the original. The ones who have given bad reviews must have never played the original arcade game back in the day. If you are too young to know Space Ace before you buy it, then you're probably not going to like it. For the rest, it's cheaper than the jars of quarters spent years ago trying to finish the game.
Well, we have to copy/paste our Dragon's Lair review into this one, because they are both as good. "Don't know why anyone is complaining about the controls. They are dead on. This game is all about instinct and memorization. You can't wait for the screen to flash to input the command, you have to do it at the same time or before. Just memorize the path through trial and error. Also, we prefer the large controls option though. The graphics are excellent and the game's reaction to correct or missed inputs is surprisingly great. We remember that was a big problem in other incarnations that would deliver slowdown, but not here. This one is even better than it's Bluray counterpart, which we also have. We recommend this game to anyone. We have already beaten this (iPhone and Bluray) Dragon's Lair (iPhone and Bluray) and Dragon's Lair 2: Time Warp (Bluray) numerous times each and have come to a point where we can do it without dying, not even once. We still can't believe that we have this game on our iPhone. We've loved it since we saw Dragon's Lair and this when we were a little kid in 1984 and was blown away thinking how amazing it was to see a cartoon which we could control. The story and animation have stood the test of time and they are as great as ever. We can never get tired of this game. Now, where is our portable Dragon's Lair 2: Time Warp???".
After updating the iOS to 4.3 the game as it was installed became unstable. But after deleting and re installing we can confirm it works perfectly again!!! HOORAY.
Loved all the laser disc Don Bluth games back in the day. Playing Space Ace definitely brought back memories of a sweeter time. Although we were never a big fan of Space Ace, it's still a winner. Need to see Dragons Lair 2.
We love this game since we were a little boy. As an adult we still love it. We were surprised to see the app so thank you app developer for bringing this back for us!! You have all of these high tech games these days but this is the game that always puts a smile on our face!! Even if you have never played it you'll enjoy it, we have it on our iPhone 4 and iPad. Definitely by this Game and Dragons Lair!! We love it!! Buy it.
We don't know which is better, this or Dragon's Lair? THEY'RE BOTH AWESOME.
Make HD version of this please.
This game, by far, was one of the most creative ideas in 1983. Dragon's Lair came before Space Ace, but the idea of playing a cartoon for a 13 y/o in 1983 was an out of body experience. Today we have the game on our IPhone to relive all those memories from the arcade. Thanks to Dragon's Lair, LLC for bringing this classic back!! We will look forward to other releases from other popular laserdisc games also in the immediate future. Keep doing the excellent work that you do.
GREAT, but needs tuning, for one, its missing the movie option, and it cuts out Kimberly and dexters conversation on the way to the maze in captain and Ace mode, and we think it shows ace and kimmy dying when you choose the right path near the end of the game, fix these, and its an easy 5 for us :).
Just as good as you remember! Developers: please include with update to include Icade support for the authentic arcade experience! And maybe Portrait view as well.
We wasn't even a newborn when this game originally released but we remember seeing it as a kid during the late '80s/early '90s in arcades but never played it. It's crazy how a couple decades later, you can play what used to be in a large cabinet right in your hands…on a phone no less! Needless to say this game is classic and fun – a different type of fun, mind you. It's about twitch gameplay pre-CoD and quick reaction time. Although you'll die a lot on the normal and hard difficulties, Space Ace can be beaten on easy mode in about 5-7 minutes so it's brief. We wish there was a "movie" mode where you could just watch the movie; that'd be cool.
Need some improvements, better sekker time and game center support. But we love thos game. We only miss only FMV game, Sewer Shark. We hope ro someone listen to our tip.
Yeah, we see the same proplem. Please try fix that.
Space Ace is a wonderful throwback to the Laserdisc original game from the 80s and in that sense it's absolutely fantastic. It continues to be beautiful and highly entertaining. The dynamic is as simple as the original: You watch a clip of film which provides a visual clue and you interact to continue to the next clip or fail and see an alternative clip. For those who are not familiar with this kind of "game", it's more like a highly enjoyable and beautifully animated, interactive movie. The one caveat is that unlike the original, you have to actually look at the controls in order to use them, as they are not physical controllers but virtual. This does not necessarily detract much from one's enjoyment and actually makes it a bit easier to get through some of those tough parts (at times too easy), particularly those we had more trouble with in the original, but it does keep you from being fully engrossed in the wonderful artwork and animation of the movie itself as your attention is elsewhere. Still, it continues to be a beautiful and highly enjoyable experience. Enjoy.
Love the game but the controls are touchy causing us to die when control options don't work. Other than that great game.
Huge fan of the original laser disk games, but this one needs updates. Please add the ability to watch the movie after you beat the game, and the button flashes to Captain and Space Ace levels so children can play it! We also agree with the reviewer about Dexter and Kimberly's "we've been kidnapped by aliens…" conversation, please put it back in on the Captain and Space Ace levels.
We have our iPhone sound off but we can still hear the game sounds??? Is anyone else having this issue? We have an iPhone 4 4.2.1 loaded no other games have this issue.
There are 3 levels of difficulty with corresponding game lengths. The hardest, Ace, is the longest and has all the screens of play. The easiest, Cadet, takes about 20 minutes to figure out, but the others take more time and are more involved. We give it 3 stars as it is a bit pricey for a game this old and compared to other $3 apps. It is fun and the only real issue is that it does not play through the story once you win. It's a bit anticlimactic since the art and design of the story are its' strongest attribute (drawn by hand, before modern computer graphic software). We've had no operating issues with it. We hope the other company gets their act together soon and updates Dragons Lair to work on the latest iP 4s. Merry Christmas 2010.
Classic game, but the app needs updating: – app no longer works on iPhone 4G with iOS 7.0.2 – icon needs to be retina display compatible, it's too fuzzy – fail scene missing with squids attacking Ace and Kimberly.
We have blank screen with audio & controls. Waiting for response from developer as Apple can't refund. BEWARE.
We're a fan if don bluth, but the controls for this game are horrendous. Waste of money.
If you are like us, you go to the most critical reviews first to see what the game is really like. So, here is the deal…IT'S GREAT!!! Here are the only three critiques we have, and they are minor at that: First, Kimmy and Dexters exchange before the second scene — we.e. "Kimberly, come in. Are you okay? Oh sure, we've just been kidnapped by aliens, that's all." — is missing from the Captain and Space Ace levels. Please add it. Second, the third scene on the Captains level, we.e., the space station, the movements don't match the video. That is, you must go right even though the cartoon shows the passage is left. Finally, in the Borf control, you can tell that scenes were omitted or, in some instance, thrown together in a hodge-lodge fashion. For example, the scenes where Borf fires the cannon at Dexter were almost completely omitted, and the scene before the final battle shows Dexter and Kimmy dying before they magically appear on the final platform. Boiled to its essence, all but the rabid Space Ace fans will notice these minor imperfections. Everyone else will love it! –Scott.
Right at the beginning maybe th 8th or 9th prompt doesn't register so it's a very short game for us. It seems that the game works fer others. It's been like this fer at least a year. Now we wanted to try it on iPad . And still not working. Bummed.
Just like the old days, but without the roll of quarters! The game plays identical to the old arcade except the screen is a lot smaller, but it is still very playable. It makes us like we're in our 20's again :).
To sologigolos below: the roller skating section is in there. We've played through it many times. It's all in there it just depends on if you're playing cadet captain or ace. To dirkthebroken below: EA made the dragon's lair port not these guys so go tell EA like the rest of us have and watch your pleadings fall on deaf ears. When iOS 4.0 came out it killed Dragons Lair and EAs subsequent "FIX" killed it even more. This was months ago. EA doesn't care. Dragon's Lair LLC on the other hand, were and continue to be on top of things and have kept Space Ace going strong. Kudos to Dragon's Lair LLC. One of the best ports of this game ever except maybe for the Daphne emulator. Now, where the heck is Dragon's Lair 2? Add that and you have a confirmed instant buy from us.
The game's directional guide is not working.
User feedback from Apple App Store
App Details
- Version: 5.0
- Size: 2,161.58 MB
- iOS: 8.0 or later
- Languages: EN
- Content Advisory: Frequent/Intense Cartoon or Fantasy Violence
- Developer: Dragon's Lair LLC
Last updated: 11th September 2017 | Genre: Adventure, Casual | Developer: Dragon's Lair LLC