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Starting with the original you’ll play as Dirk the Daring, on a quest to save the lovely (and a bit inappropriately sexy perhaps) Princess Daphne from an evil dragon. Played out in a randomly-ordered series of scenarios it is the most scattered of the three, never knowing which sequence will be next. Since there are a few quick reaction scenes that can give it an added challenge. Probably the most iconic of the bunch it can be tough but has many fans. The sequel, Timewarp, is more linear and rather than skipping to another scene when you die you’ll need to keep trying until you execute the series of moves correctly. That makes it a bit easier and harder at the same time, trading predictability for the fact that in the original you could be awful at a specific sequence but still continue forward. For whatever reason this is a unit that I didn’t see nearly as much of compared to the other two and when I did see it for whatever reason it didn’t seem to be as popular. It certainly has a wide variety of crazy locales and challenges though so it always looked like fun. Then there’s Space Ace, the one of the three I absolutely loved the most. It’s also sequential for the most part, forcing you to memorize a series of moves that you’d need to pull of to proceed, but aside from the initial skill setting (I always went with Cadet, it was tough enough as it was) there’s also essentially branching paths to choose from as well. The majority of the time when your watch begins to flash, giving you the option to power up and turn into Super Dexter, you can take that option (which tends to be both tougher and a bit more fun) or remain as the more wimpy Dexter and make your way through that way. Between Kimmy’s much more forceful personality and Super Dexter’s ego I always loved this game and I can essentially play a significant portion of it back in my head from all of the time I gave it. For anyone who remembers playing these games in the arcade this is absolutely a worthwhile title to pick up. Not only can you toggle some things like on-screen move prompts (and the iconic beep) on and off but there’s also the option to essentially just let the “movie” play out as well if you’d like. The best feature is no doubt that the video quality is impeccable and the action plays out continuously, though perhaps you may for some reason miss the authenticity of the slight pause between every clip. Throw in some added extras like an interview with Don Bluth and the others behind the original title and this is a terrific celebration of 3 of the most unique games in arcade history.
Justin Nation, Score:Nindie Choice! [8.0]