Product Description
Meet Ulala (pronounced ooh-la-la), a rookie reporter assigned to cover a breaking dance news story. Pudgy dancing aliens (resembling futuristic gummy bears) have beamed down and are zapping human inhabitants into an offbeat dance step. More than just watch from the sidelines, Ulala must free fellow earthlings from the spell by matching the aliens' dance moves step for step. Unlike when playing previous move-memorization games such as Simon and Concentration, players of Space Channel 5 will need to feel the rhythm--the tempo, pauses, and idiosyncrasies of the beat--as well as the sequence of steps to get it right.
Space Channel 5 is nearly as fun to watch as it is to play, thanks to an ever changing array of special effects and settings. Ulala's adventures take her from the invaded spaceport to the interior of an asteroid--and to alien locales too bizarre to describe. The gorgeous animated settings are made all the more impressive by the smoothly animated characters whose moves react instantly to the player's manipulations. With easy-to-master controls, onscreen characters soon become natural extensions of the player, creating a powerful interactive experience. Surprises abound throughout the game, including hidden levels and miniquests. And alert players just might run into a special guest celebrity who needs Ulala's help. Enjoy the groove!
Read more about Space Channel 5.
Take a closer look at Space Channel 5's opening levels.
Read an interview with Space Channel 5 designer Tetsuya Mizuguchi.
Review
How many gamers know the name Tetsuya Mizuguchi? Probably not too many, but more than a few know the names of his games, namely, Sega Rally and Sega Rally 2. Now that his hallowed AM3 is nothing more than legend, Mizuguchi has gone on to spearhead Sega Soft R&D Dept. 9, and the fruits of the group's first labor is the future retro-techno dancing game Space Channel 5. A dancing game? Yes, and what a dancing game it is. Designed by former members of Team Andromeda (Panzer Dragoon) and Sonic Team (Sonic Adventure, natch), Space Channel 5 is a fresh experience for all programmers involved, and it shows. Energetic and up-tempo, SC5 evokes comparisons to Parappa the Rapper and Bust-A-Groove, the progenitors of the dancing-game genre. Despite the clones that these games have spawned, it takes more than some polygonal puppets and a beat to make a keeper. Um Jammer Lammy followed and failed to fully ignite the masses, and Dance Dance Revolution is a Twister-like aerobic excursion that goes off on its own unique path. So where does that leave Space Channel 5? Somewhere deep in space is a funky race of aliens called Morolians, who have watched the planet Earth from afar and have decided to take control of the masses with their hypnotic disco dancing. Ulala, the sprightly orange-clad heroine of the game, is covering the situation as an on-scene reporter for the television network Space Channel 5. As she encounters each band of Morolians whisking away more and more humans, Ulala finds herself attempting to outdance the Morolians and recapture the bewildered natives The game's controls consist of the digital directional pad, plus the A and B buttons for shooting. Combat entails mimicking the Morolians' moves (for example, up, down, up, down, shoot, shoot, shoot). You must duplicate their moves, a la Simon Says, to defeat the current band of Morolians and liberate whatever humans they might have under their sway. In addition to replicating the Morolians' moves, you must also hit the right "shoot" button, with the A button set to whack aliens and the B button set to liberate humans. This can tax even the most nimble of fingers when the going gets rough. However, the better you do, the more people you add to your posse. While Ulala starts off solo, by the end of a level she may have a dozen people following her, all choreographed to her every move like a Janet Jackson video. Accordingly, as you progress through the game, the rhythmic challenges increase in difficulty. It will be awhile before you meet the special guest found toward the end of Space Channel 5. When you encounter the bosses in the game, you have a limited number of mistakes you can make before your game is over. Survive the encounter and you get to move on to the next stage. The greater your success, the higher the number of people watching Space Channel 5 will be, making your ratings percentage higher. This is the key to victory in the game. Graphically, the game is an astounding blend of animated CG backgrounds and beautifully rendered polygonal characters. A bad comparison would be to imagine Resident Evil's backgrounds, but moving constantly, like a movie, with the 3D characters doing their duty while superimposed on the backgrounds. The effect, considering the Dreamcast's power, is awesome. Even with more than a dozen onscreen characters all dancing together, the game still runs at 60 frames per second, although slowdown occurs during the most crowded moments. What really separates the already gorgeous graphics of Space Channel 5 from those of other games is the overall top-notch graphic design. Taking cues from '60s future-rama, the game boasts some of the most stellar graphic design seen since Designer's Republic worked on Wipeout XL. Designer's Republic has since slacked off, but Space Channel 5 is there to pick up the design torch. The in-game graphics are a blend of '60s psychedelia mixed with a retro view of a futuristic world, which is most obviously exhibited in the space-station design and Ulala's own ever-changing wardrobe. More woman than Lara Croft will ever be, Ulala mixes a consistently orange ensemble of miniskirts, hot pants, halter tops, and flares with the occasional blue garter belt thrown in for good measure. Her clothes all feature the most effective use of specular highlighting this side of Gran Turismo and never display any polygon seaming or breakup. Space Channel 5's characters all feature a responsive mix of motion-captured movements combined with hand-animated routines for a less robotic, more organic experience. The game does have a couple of downsides, however. The hardest part about the game can be how the tempo can fluctuate wildly, with little to no warning. While some patterns may be based on a 4/4 tempo, the game will often switch to a 2/4 beat that you will have to learn by trial and error, much as you would in an R-Types shooter. There are definitely patterns here that will not be beaten without repeated attempts. Secondly, there are timing issues that only the swiftest will conquer first time up. While the D-pad entries are usually pretty forgiving, the moments when you must enter a shoot command are when the game's timing can be tough. If you try to press the shoot button when you think you should, you'll probably blow the attempt. Most of the time you'll need to press the button just before you normally would. The other main gaffe in the game is the lack of a two-player (or even four-player) mode. While Ulala is a sexy little vixen, it would be nice to assume the role of one of the other personalities in the game and take each other on in some sort of competition. The gaming interface is so easy to grasp and so intuitive that Sega could have done a Point Blank or Chu-Chu Rocket with the game and included some kind of challenge mode or minigame selection. Even a head-to-head mode in which you and another player could try to score the highest by following some predetermined beat would have been cool. As it is, at least the main character is alluring enough to watch through repeated plays as you try to unlock every other character to view in the character-profile mode. Unfortunately, the game is short, clocking in at four meager levels. Although the replay factor is not that bad - with higher scores rewarding you with secret characters to view and whatnot - four levels is still pretty short, and an American version would benefit from more stages. The sound is obviously one of the most strongly scrutinized features, since this game centers on dancing. Mizuguchi is notorious for his love of techno, and there's plenty of fast-paced techno-house music here. Sometimes this almost borders on drum 'n' bass and jazz when the tempo goes crazy. Interestingly, an old Mexican musician composed the theme song back in 1965, and yet it still sounds current, much in the way the James Bond theme always sounds cool. The vocal samples can get fairly annoying at times, and you'll likely either love or hate them. Provided you can bear the aliens' voices, you'll get to experience one of the most refreshing games that has come along in a good while. While not particularly groundbreaking, Space Channel 5 offers a shallow yet high-quality experience, with a glossy production level second to none. --James Mielke
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