Short skirts, Short game (Space Channel 5 (DC))

Member Name: shep

Product:	Space Channel 5 (DC)
Date:	05/02/01 (437 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Fun Fun Fun!

Disadvantages: Short

"It's the 25th Century, and Earth is in a state of crisis - an alien race (the Morolians) have launched an invasion against Earth, randomly shooting victims with a mysterious ray gun. The effect of the ray is rather unusual, as it forces people to dance uncontrollably, and enslaves them to alien rhythms..."

Space Channel 5 is a prime example of what makes the dreamcast such a great platform - another original, slightly off-beat, well-presented, and (most importantly of all) downright FUN game. You play as "Ulala", a sassy 23rd Century news reporter for "space channel 5" who is despatched to report on the Morolian invasion. The game mechanics are really simple... Ulala walks into a scene, and faces a bunch of alien bad guys who launch into a dance routine, chanting out instructions like "UP DOWN UP DOWN, SHOOT SHOOT!" - you then have to copy the moves by hitting the appropriate directions on the D-Pad controller in time to the music - if you get it right, you outdance the aliens into submission and move on to the next scene. Get it wrong and your energy is sapped + audience ratings plummet (you need to keep a minimum audience on each level, otherwise the show is cancelled!). It's a *really* simple game to play - just about anybody could grasp the concept in seconds - but incredibly addictive, and really really fun; I've yet to see somebody play this game without a huge grin on their face!

Presentation-wise, the game is nothing short of stunning... the programmers have been really sneaky, and seamlessly mixed pre-rendered video backgrounds with 3d character graphics; it's a really well done effect - the camera pans, swirls, and cuts rapidly from one angle to another, but the "live action" graphics stay perfectly synchronised to the background throughout. The fact that the location graphics are all being streamed in as video means that the full processing power of the dreamcast is put t
o work on the character graphics, which are truly excellent - move over Lara.... there's never been a video game character as curvy as Ulala!!

Character movement is incredibly fluid (obviously motion-captured), and there's a lot of nice flourishes: when you're playing well, Ulala struts from one scene to another in time to the music... if you're playing badly the music goes a little off-colour and she slouches around from one location to the next. Similarly, as you rescue hostages (and defeat bosses), your entourage of Ulala groupies grows... so if you're playing really well, you have a satisfying team of backing dancers + musicians trailing behind you and mirroring your every move!

Game sound is similarly impressive - obviously a game like this could succeed or fail on the strength of it's soundtrack, and the choice of music is spot-on; it's an "Austin Powers"-style sixties-swingathon, which suits the styling of the game down to the ground. The voice acting is *exceptionally* well done - this is all too often an area where SEGA fail in their westernisation of japanese titles; big-budget A-list games like "Shenmue" have been ruined by sloppy "B-movie" dubbing... but, just for a change, they've got it right this time - you don't question the authenticity of the voices for a second... they're convincing and seamless throughout... in fact, if there was an award for "best soundtrack" in a video game, you'd be hard pushed to find a better nomination than Space Channel 5!

Sounds like the perfect game?

Well, there's one slight let-down... Ulala's skirts aren't the only thing that's short about this game! ....there's only 4 (albeit quite long) levels to crack, and then you've finished, so you're not really looking at a long-term challenge here. However, in a way, this aspect of the game quite appeals to me - it's not the so
rt of thing you have to devote great chunks of your life to playing; you can just pull it off the shelf when you fancy a daft half hour, or want to show off your console to people (it makes a fantastic demo game!); no complex plot nuances, gameplay that you can slip into within seconds, and it doesn't matter how many times you've played it through before - it still raises a smile :-)

At the moment, many highstreet games shops have this on sale for £15 - if you've been dithering about buying it, now's the time! ...at this price, it's a must-have!

Summary: