ACE IN THE BLACK HOLE

The charming BATTLE SUIT ACES is a big-hearted war to save the universe

- By Abbie Stone

This has to be the most cheerful game about aliens causing devastation and death that I've ever played. Often making Lego Star Wars look like Andor, Battle Suit Aces is a hugely heartfelt sci-fi visual novel. The fact it's a great deckbuilder too is just showing off.

You're Captain Heathcliff, travelling the galaxy in his fight against the Frenzied, a pretty dull enemy. Fortunately, that faceless threat is one of the few dud narrative notes. The rest of the cast are great fun, often joyously queer, and... well, slightly too chipper at times.

A fairly rote save-the-universe-from-aliens plot is livened up considerably by constant silly digressions. Like the side mission where one of my crew accidentally ingested hallucinogenic strawberries and convinced himself he was a bear. Early missions send you across the galaxy, recruiting new crew members and their battle suits.

Turn-based combat plays out on two 5v5 rows, each guarding a ship. Initially you want to deploy attack drones and units as quickly as possible to guard your ship. Each turn you can deploy a unit, move a unit, and fire some attacks if you've banked enough power. Whoever destroys the opposing ship first, wins.