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| Space Channel 5,
Dreamcast |
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| Games,
Richard Young,
20 January 1999 |
Rating: F5
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Following Sega’s trend for the original, the unusual, and the downright doolally is groovy dance adventure Space Channel 5 for Dreamcast. Set in the 25th Century, a race of highly stylised aliens called Morolians are on the attack, forcing innocent humans to dance! Playing sassy interstellar news reporter Ulala (c’est drole, non?) your mission is to outwit a whole bunch of wacky go-go dancing characters, by copying their moves and, more importantly their sense of rhythm, as accurately as possible, saving the humans from their trance like groovathon. Sounds simple? Well, you would be right
.sort of.
Using all of 2 buttons (one gun to zap aliens, another to free humans), plus the D-pad, the gameplay comprises of listening to the moves and then copying them exactly. Things get a little more finger-tangling, however with the introduction of off-beats, increased tempos, and decreased time signatures (giving less time to react). The music itself is actually so much better than you would imagine. Sure there are one or two cheesy dance tunes, but everything is flavoured with a wonderfully brassy 60’s sound. Think John Barry meets the Thunderbirds at an Austin Powers party
..in Japan.
Unlike similar games such as the pioneering Parappa the Rapper, repeating the moves in Space Channel 5 is a truly joyous experience. This is mainly due to the fact that its more instinctive to hit "left, right, left, right, shoot, shoot, shoot," than to try and work out which button is kick, which is chop, and then miss all the cute animation that follows. Ulala herself, in her dayglo orange miniskirt, pink hair and platforms, looks like a cross between the lead singer from Dee-Lite and trendy Japanese cyber-artist Mariko Mori. The backgrounds, which are streamed in real time from the disc, are wonderfully detailed, with plenty of retro plastic furniture and psychedelic décor. The various humans who end up walking behind you in time to the music range from silver suited spacemen to funky air-hostesses, and even the occasional futuristic guitar or bongo player.
There isn’t one aspect of this game that won’t have you grinning like a loon. Even the dialogue is perfect; "I’m inside the alien mothership; it’s kind of freaky and I’m tripping out!" and the profile descriptions of the wacky characters that you accumulate along the way have much dodgily-translated hilarity. Occasionally the game is unforgiving in its assessment of your timing, but this has more to do with the buttons on the Dreamcast pad having a little too much "travel", and one could say the overall lifespan is a bit short. Minor niggles aside, this has to be an essential purchase for lovers of all things shagadelic. Far out, man.
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