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 ( /exec/obidos/tg/feature/-/37859/${0} ) about Space
Channel 5.
Take a closer look ( /exec/obidos/tg/feature/-/38335/${0} ) at
Space Channel 5's opening levels.
Read an interview with Space Channel 5 designer Tetsuya
Mizuguchi ( /exec/obidos/tg/feature/-/37860/${0} ).
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
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
--Copyright ©1998 GameSpot Inc. All rights reserved. Reproduction
in whole or in part in any form or medium without express written
permission of GameSpot is prohibited. -- GameSpot Review