Space Channel 5 comes out swingging!
Space Channel 5 is essentially a dance party game at heart. The game is divided into four different levels with several sub-sections that branch off into other areas depending on how well you perform. Channel 5¿s game play is basically a glorified version of Simon-Says. The game is split into two different types of actions, dancing and shooting. When dancing, the Morolians will move and shout out a direction you should press when it is your turn. To counter their dancing you mimic their moves to the music. This is actually a little more difficult then it sounds as the GBA version is less lenient then the Dreamcast version and requires spot-on button pressing. To mix up the dancing you must shoot the aliens when they say "CHU!" by pressing the A button. In the straight out shooting sections the player must shoot the Morolians with the A button beam and use the B button to rescue the dancing hostages. This would be simple enough but the Morolians and the human sprites in the GBA tend to be tiny and hard to differentiate causing you to shoot just as many humans as aliens. The cool part is when you rescue a hostage they become one of Ulala¿s growing number of backup dancer(s) and travel with you throughout a sub-level. A large number of hostages are in the game, some requiring you to have a certain viewership rating (more on that later) to find them. Whenever you save one their biography and mug-shot is unlocked in the main menu. There is a unique level of satisfaction that is hard to describe when you have your own dancers behind you, moving to the beat.
The game is unique in the way Ulala¿s health is measured. You are given a standard "heart" health bar in the upper right and the Channels viewership percent rating in the lower right. The heart bar is actually how many tries you have to save a given hostage. Mess up to many times and they are lost to you. The viewership rating measures how well you are performing overall in the game. To pass a level you must have met or exceeded a rating score your boss has given you at the start of a stage. To increase the viewership you must rescue hostages and out-dance a large percentage of the aliens. Every time you screw up a move or lose a hostage your points go down. Got it? Good, on to graphics and sound.
The game took a hit in the graphics department when it was ported over from the Dreamcast. The sprites as I mentioned earlier make it sometimes hard to distinguish friend from foe. Thankfully, Ulala herself is animated well and is easy on the eyes (which is good because you will be looking at her quite a lot.) The backgrounds are static screenshots of the Dreamcast version and can look quite, um... ugly. The art style itself is unique and has a 60s retro feel throughout the adventure.
The sound is probably the best part of the game. You can tell it was the pretty much the only thing taken seriously in the port. The music is upbeat and VERY catchy. You will be humming the tunes to yourself long after the game is finished. Guaranteed. Ulala is easily understood as she shouts out her dance moves but the Morolians can be a little tricky to understand at first.
Overall Space Channel 5 is pretty quick. It can be beaten in a few hours (and sooner for those knowing how to play) but you will find yourself playing it again and again regardless. The fact that there are so many hostages there are to unlock in the main menu you may have to play through a couple of times to get them all. Space Channel 5 could have been something really special if the people who ported it over had been more caring but instead it feels a little rushed. The game has plenty of charm and can be picked up and played by anyone with some rhythm. Now if only the sequel would be ported over.