3RRDC Space Channel5

Space Channel 5. Just saying the name brings back so many memories
and key words to describe it. Words like hip, cool, trendy, retro, far out,
funny and groovy. But unfortunately there is also one other key word
that comes to mind when I think space channel 5 and that's short.
However much style this game has it is sadly cut short due to the
incredibly short life span of this game. But shortness doesn't always
mean bad. Read on to find out.

Created by Tetsuya Mizuguchi, Sega had high hopes for this game. It
had commercials and magazine ads, and it even has a cool holofoil
cover! Unfortunately, the game didn't do too well and it quickly found a
home in bargain bins across America. Perhaps the world was just not
ready for Ulala, the intergalactic space reporter with that hot orange
skirt. Throughout the game Ulala is sent on various well ok 4 missions
to save the fellow people from space from the "Morolians", cute little
aliens forcing people to dance. So you gotta outdance them and get to
the bottom of the mystery on why the aliens are doing such a thing. Of
course such a story would be good ratings for channel 5 so Ulala,
aided by director Fuse, try to get the scoop first. Other rival television
stations with rival characters will try to beat you to getting the story
so go out and dance!

So the story is groovy and unique but what about the game play? It's
rather simple actually. You can press either up, down, left, right, a, or
b. When Ulala encounters the aliens she will have to repeat the dance
moves ala simon says. The a button is "chu" which zaps the aliens to
get rid of them. The b button rescues people. But if your thinking you
can just repeat what the aliens do your wrong. You got to have rhythm
and timing. You have to press the buttons to the same time and beat
the aliens do in order to do it right and increase ratings. Miss or get off
beat and ratings drop, and the show can get canceled, which means
game over. At first I found this to be really hard, but after a little bit of
playing it became rather easy. Just took a little practice. Every once
and a while you find boss battles or mini bosses. Here you are given a
set amount of hearts. Don't pump in the controls right, and you lose a
heart. Once all the hearts are lost it's game over.

When you rescue the people with the b button, that's when the game
earns some serious groovy points. All the people you rescue then
dance behind you as you walk, I mean dance on towards the end of the
level. If you don't put in the right controls and your ratings go down,
the people can go away. What's cool though, is when you rescue
certain people they will make Ulala and other group members have a
different dance to keep things varied. There are also certain musicians
you can rescue. They actually affect the music being played by adding
in drums, or a saxophone etc.

Probably one of the more important things to judge in this game is the
sound. For a game that revolves a lot around music, you gotta sound
good and space channel 5 delivers. Funky dance beats is the name of
the game and boy I haven't played a dreamcast game since jet grind
radio that had such a danceable soundtrack. Characters all have very
nice English voices. Some people have funny voices, but it's all in good
fun. Get ready though. Soon enough you'll be saying "up down left right
chu chu chu!"

Graphics wise the game is a winner. The Full motion video
backgrounds look great with the 3d people dancing on it. Lots of
groovy colors and just a lot of style. The main characters all have very
nice character models, as do the Morolians, but the back up dancers
could have used work. They pale in comparison graphics wise to Ulala
and co, but style wise they still rule. In two instances in the game,
there are seizure warnings due to flashing lights and such so be
careful if that pertains to you.

Wow cool sounds and funky backgrounds, so anything wrong with this
game? Well it can be beaten in under an hour. There are only 4 real
levels. This is really the only major gripe with the game. Now I'm not
expecting a game like this to take as long as to finish as skies of
arcadia, not even half of skies, just it needed a little more. The 4 levels
we do have are all varied enough, and funky fresh. Nothing wrong with
them. Just needed a little more.

And that's what the sequel did. But that was available only in Japan on
dreamcast, never made it to our dreamcasts. It had 6 levels, a 2 player
mode and many unlockables. If you liked this game you would probably
like that one too.

What's this one got in terms of replay? More than you'd expect
actually. When you beat the game you get extra mode. It's basically
the same levels but with some new rooms to explore and new people
to save. A welcome addition. Then you can collect and view all 78
character profiles of everyone in the game. You get those by
rescuing/Defeating him/her in the actual game. The profiles are mostly
for laughs and I reread some of them now and then. But I'm still
missing morolian number 72 darnit.

Finally I must say that one thing this game has that no other one does
(besides the sequel) is "Space Michael". Yes that's right, Michael
Jackson is in this game. (Even voiced by the man himself) His
signature dance moves are replicated into the game and it is just
hilarious. (How Michael is living 500 years from now is a good question
though...) So if your looking for a game with style to spare, one that
won't take eons to finish give this one a try. Just don't get too
attached because it plays just like a good dream. It's over right when
you were getting to the best part and it leaves you craving more.

Review by: Orochi Sonic