The Scoreboard #12

Aces of the Galaxy

Best Achievement: Survivor (20 pts.) Complete 5 Levels without losing a life — This little guy right here is one of the more satisfying Achievements, next to netting your first five-star rating. It won’t hit you until you’ve done it, but when you realize that the enemies have failed to turn you into space-dust across five straight levels, you'll get pumped up. For extra self-praise, try going the extra mile to complete the four remaining levels without dying. Bring a friend to ease the struggle.

Worst Achievement: Hero of Vanguardia-7 (35 pts.) Earn 5 Stars on all 25 Levels on Hard — This is brutal enough as it is on the lower difficulties, and as you’ll soon find out, this game is unforgiving. You’re already on a set track, so you’re vulnerable at all times, and dying doesn’t exactly help your cause, nevermind keeping your eyes open for the magical purple planet-changer/level-select items in each level. It’s a hefty bag-o'-points, but this is some campaign-restarting lameness.

Easiest Achievement: Beat Mission 2 of any area on any mode to obtain this achievement. (5 pts.) Difficulty & rating does not matter. — Why are the easiest Achievements always so almost-worthless? Heck, this one’s so easy that the game will let you scale the difficulty. If you’ve got some homework or Internet surfing to do, switch the game to easy mode and cruise ‘til you get to Mission 2, paying half-attention so you don’t get blown up as quickly. Let it ride, and let the Achievement unlock itself.

Hardest Achievement: Invincible (30 pts.) Finish game without losing a life — If you’ve got someone who can cover your back and take damage for you (spaceships can “Tank,” too!), this isn’t as bad as you might think. But the evil enemy space-monsters want nothing more than to obliterate your innocent little space cruiser, and they will. There’s a lot to focus on, so don’t forget to look for the lethal invisi-aliens and avoid murderous asteroids. It’s harder than it sounds.

Time Investment vs. Payoff: 6 (out of 10) — You’ll need to memorize a set few stages to get the hang of attack patterns so you don’t bite it early on. Completing the campaign won’t get you very far, but true space-aces will manage to suck a decent number of points from Aces of the Galaxy, though some of the more ludicrously tough Achievements will elude the pros for a while.

Overall: 5 (out of 10) — It’s not quite “Bullet Hell” tough, but the difficulty does ramp up, particularly when you select the harder modes. Aces of the Galaxy is a fun space shooter, but the Achievements are plain and boring. There’s little variety from “beat the game” and “beat the game with a friend,” but it’s fully profitable for those who plan on sticking with it. Unfortunately, most won’t.

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