It seems today that all you see is violence in movies and sex on TV, and the news is certainly no exception. Filled with almost nothing but doom, gloom, and reports about explosive dookie inducing lettuce, it’s easy to wonder where those good old-fashioned values went. Luckily, there’s a guy… Tetsuya Mizuguchi!

Mizuguchi obviously saw everything that was wrong with the current news outlets. The bias, misinformation, and blandness had to stop. He knew he had to do something about it (before Fox News did)! Thus, in 1993, the conception of one of the most influential pieces of computerized entertainment this world has ever seen (and one that you’ve likely never even heard of)

Enter: Space Channel 5!

• The concept and development!

As the title states, I believe this game has to be one of, if not THE, funkiest and grooviest games SEGA has ever developed (yeah, the same “SEGA” behind Sonic the Hedgehog). But, funnily enough, the conception of Space Channel 5 goes all the way back to 1993. That’s almost five years after the game’s eventual release in December of 1999. Even then, the ideas were floating around for a brand-new rhythm game, designed to appeal to female audiences. Apparently, Mizuguchi actually struggled a little to conceptualize a video game concept that would appeal to women. So, he went as far as to interview young, female gamers to get their opinions on what makes a video game stand out to them. The overall consensus seemed to be that these women enjoyed sharpening their brains with puzzle games (think of games like Tetris). So, the logical thing to do was to create a rhythm game!

After years of research, full production finally kicked off in 1998, and the game was officially revealed at the September 1999 Tokyo Game Show for SEGA’s shiny new system: The Dreamcast!

• Gameplay and plot

Say what you want about the Dreamcast: From its hideous (yet oddly comfortable) controller to its lack of DVD playback capabilities. One thing that everyone can agree on, though, is that its games truly rocked! Of course todays game is no exception!

In Space Channel 5, outer space is the setting and the year is 2499 AD. You play as the main protagonist, Ulala! Ulala (despite the very icky name) is a diva-licious news reporter recently hired by Channel 5 to report on (and pretty much investigate) an alien invasion. These silly little Among Us-looking alien creatures are called “Morolians”. They’ve been assigned by someone, somewhere, to create a disturbance throughout the galaxy by forcing everyone… To DANCE! As if this game and concept couldn’t get any weirder, Ulala’s job is not only the investigator and reporter, but she also has to be Supergirl and try to rescue all of the people affected by this terrible crisis… Keyword being “try”. The game plays almost like a game of Simon Says, where players have to mimic the inputs that the Morolians shout out. These inputs are as follows:

• “Up”

• “Right”

• “Left”

• “Down”

• “Chu!”

Chu was chosen as the input for “shoot”, as Ulala has to shoot the Morolians with her “tension blaster”, and Chu is much easier and shorter to say in Japanese. The gameplay is pretty simple, but the controls sort of… suck. When a Morolian says something like: “Up, Down, Chu!”, it is then your job to mimic these controls by pressing the directions on the Dreamcast controller’s D-pad. While it sounds nice and easy, the timing in which you press these buttons is very strict compared to other rhythm games of their genre. Personally, I kept messing up on the first board/report as the timing wants you to get input absolutely PERFECT (and has no problem shaming you when you don’t)!

• The music

Being a rhythm game, Space Channel 5 would obviously need music. Fortunately, this game was produced by SEGA. That’s all you need to know! 😉 The games groovey tracks were mainly composed by Naofumi Hataya and Kenichi Tokoi. Across the four stages, or four “reports”, each of them have their unique tracks with some consistent motifs sprinkled around here and there. Why don’t you take a listen to the game’s first track for yourself?:

But, believe it or not, this track is actually a remix of an existing song. Along with Space Channel 5’s retro-futuristic aesthetic, its main theme, Mexican Flyer, was originally composed in the 1960s by Ken Woodman & his Piccadilly Brass (whatever that means).

Watch this longplay of the game from IPLAYSEGA to see what I’m yapping about:

This game just happens to be one of my favorites of all time. Despite the acid trip-like concept and difficult controls, the game is actually a blast once you get the hang of it! If I were you, I’d definitely give it a shot yourself. While watching longplays on YouTube is great and all, you have to experience these controls for yourself. Just try not to throw your Dreamcast controller out of the window, as it could be considered a projectile weapon.

– This Aaron, once again writing from the living room couch, over and out (HEY, don’t forget to comment something, anything)!