Reviews

If Risk seems like a pretty ok game to you, then I'd wager money you haven't played this before. Think of risk, but with differentiation between the units that can form the basis of your strategy. Also, controlling Australia doesn't win you the game here.
This game is accessible enough for anyone, and deep enough for veterans to enjoy. WWII buffs will also enjoy playing this as a "what-if" game set around 1941. The Axis players (Germany and Japan) start with a pretty big military edge, as in history, they were the ones preparing for war. If they want to win, they need to take advantage of their early strength and blitz as much territory as possible. The Allies (U.S., U.K. & U.S.S.R.) start with the most territory and resource production, but are caught kind of flat-footed in the military department. Their goal is to hold onto as much of their starting territory as they can (or perhaps make some strikes where the Axis are weak) in order to use that production edge to slowly turn the game in their favor, if the Axis aren't able to capture enough quickly.
There are two major knocks against the game. First is its long setup time. If everyone knows the game, this probably won't be as much of an issue, but if only one or two people know the game going in, it's going to take them a while to setup the board. The other is the fact it only plays with 5. If there aren't 5 people present, than some people just end up playing more than one faction. The play time could also be a negative, but it seems like that's something everyone would be aware of going in. It's probably actually shorter than most Risk games (the ones that actually go to the end, not the ones where everyone gives up once Australia is conquered).

Ostensibly, Space Cadets is a bridge crew simulator, and the game is about 'trekking' between the 'stars', and the obstacles you encounter along the way. You have all the stations you'd expect: helm, weapons, shields, engineering, etc. But what the game really boils down to is a collection of lots of wildly different mini-games.

Each station has a different puzzle-type game its crew member needs to complete in 30 secs. for the ship to work at its best. Some examples include a memory game, a disc-flicking game, completing mini-puzzles with tetris-like pieces, and trying to blindly feel for a correctly shaped piece in a draw bag. The game seems simple on its surface, but the short timer can cause people to miss their goals, and can quickly escalate into chaotic fun.

This game will take a while to learn the first time, not due to any complexity, but just due to learning every simple mini-game (you'll need to pay attention to them all, since part of the game will force everyone to switch seats, and quickly adjust to a new set of puzzles). People who like carefully planning everything in their games and can't stand when the best laid plans devolve into giddy chaos should steer away from this one. The mini-games would be perfect for younger children to participate in, under the supervision of a more experienced captain, but you should probably forgo the timer then, or at least not expect to do well.