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by
THQ
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Ever wonder how fun
it would be to parade in an orange miniskirt with hot pink pigtails,
defeating hypnotic aliens by having a dancing face-off? Sounds like a
Michael Jackson video, doesnt it? (Considering he cameos in the game,
it doesnt sounds as farfetched as it might seem.) Nevertheless, if
youve missed out on the Dreamcast original, here is the opportunity to
cash in on the groovy experience that is Segas Space Channel 5: Ulalas
Cosmic Attack on the Gameboy Advance.
Although given a
longer title, Space Channel 5: Ulalas Cosmic Attack is practically the
same exact game as the Dreamcasts Space Channel 5. SC5 debuted in the
year 2000, at the expanding variety of the music genre games. There were
games such as the Dance Dance Revolution series, Parappa the Rapper, and
Bust-A-Groove already on the market that got players grooving with the
game. Created by Tetsuya Mizuguchi, Space Channel 5 is one of the first
music games that revolved around a story instead of simply competition.
While SC5 was an instant hit in Japan, Americans were highly skeptical
of such a title, and it became one of the many Dreamcast sleeper hits.
With the partnership of Sega and THQ that recently formed for Gameboy
Advance titles, it was time to dust off the cobwebs and bring Ulala back
into action.
In SC5, the human
race is once again on the brink of peril. The alien race of
Intel-mascot-looking Morolians has started to hypnotize poor helpless
humans aboard a space station. Who better to rescue the human race than
a space-news reporter? Enter Ulala, a pink-haired, pony-tailed vixen,
donning an orange outfit complete with microphone, phaser gun, and
space's sexiest miniskirt. If this storyline interests you, good luck
following it. In the Dreamcast version, the story was unraveled by
spoken dialogue. The GBA version couldnt handle that much data
information, and therefore differentiates dialogue via various colors to
represent each character line. Ultimately, the story becomes so
confusing its hard to tell whos saying what. Dont worry though. Since
SC5's story is extremely generic, youre not missing much.
The goal of each
stage is to reach a certain percentage of satisfied viewers of Ulala's
Swingin' Report Show, or else the show gets canned. In order to do this,
Ulala must compete against the Morolians to save as many captured humans
as possible. These competitions come in the form of dance-offs, which
would make the likes of West Side Story proud. Along the way, Ulala will
also encounter other dance offs with rival space reporters, and even
space pirates.
Space Channel 5 utilizes an interesting format of integrating the
gameplay. Those who suck at Memory Match will quickly get aggravated
with this title. SC5 requires the player to not only memorize a string
of commands, but also to press each command at a certain beat. An
example of a string command would be, "Up, Down, Up, Down, Right, Chu,
Chu." The player will have to match the rhythm by pressing the given
direction buttons, and then the A button for the "chu" command. If the
player misses one button in the string of commands, that entire string
is considered wrong.
The difficulty arises as the player continues further in the story.
There are moments when the player needs to rescue humans that appear
onscreen. This is accomplished by pressing the B button instead of the A
button on "chu" commands. Therefore, in addition to listening carefully,
and mimicking correctly, the player must pay attention visually as well.
This becomes increasingly complex when towards the end the enemies will
toss more chu commands than youll ever find in a game of Chu Chu
Rocket. (Okay, that was the cheesiest plug-in, but it had to be said.)
The commands begin to come at eighths of a beat, and it is hard to keep
up. I wasnt sure if it was a lag on behalf of the GBA with such rapid
button pushing, or if it was because I was having difficulty moving as
efficiently on a cramped button layout compared to a controller.
Inconsequentially, the GBA version of this title is not lenient on
missing the press of the button by a fraction of a second, and this will
surely frustrate many players.
A problem that still holds through during the port from Dreamcast is
that once the game over, the game is over. While the gameplay is fun
once you get used to it, the game ends fairly soon thereafter. That
means when the short-lived four levels are completed, SC5 provides no
incentive to play through the game again. An average player can complete
this title and toss it aside in a matter of hours. A suggestion this
poor reviewer would give is to have different results to each
confrontation, what is commonly known as the branching effect. If a
player does horribly during a dance-off, perhaps this will take the
player down a visually and audibly different path. This helps alleviate
the tired linearity that is inescapable in SC5.
Visually, it is definitely apparent how Art Co. attempted to cram in as
much as they could. No matter how hard it tries, the Gameboy Advance
system is not as advanced as the Dreamcast, and therefore the visual
environments have transformed from three-dimensional to a flat
two-dimensional field, shot-for-shot. While the conversion seems
satisfactory, the static atmospheres are barely feasible. The characters
might as well have been slapped onto a stagnant stationary background
like an antique Colorforms playset, with the gratuitous butt-shaking of
course.
As problematic as the aforementioned short-comings may be, the main flaw
that hindered the enjoyment of this port was the integral element that
this game is based on: music. While the music is directly from its
Dreamcast brother, the volume output on the Gameboy Advance was
undoubtedly out of par. The sound was not nearly adequately high enough
to hear without effort. Since there are no onscreen commands, it is
highly essential that the player catches every command spoken. Given
that any moment a loud sound can overcome the speaker volume, the player
will miss a command, and thereby ruining the entire string of commands.
This only adds to the frustration.
I ran a test to compare the gameplay during different conditions. As a
note, this test was examined with the GBA volume dial set to the highest
output possible. The sound came out at a decent level when I was at the
privacy of my own home. While it certainly wasn as high as the highest
volume should be, at least I didn find myself having to strain to hear
any of the commands. The alternative was when I took it with me aboard a
NYC subway train. The surrounding noise, even at a murmur, flooded over
my GBA speakers. Frankly, I personally want my speaker to be loud enough
that the guy sitting across from me stares awkwardly as all he hears is
incessant hu ng. Besides, whats the point of having a portable system
if you cant comfortably take it with you everywhere (*cough* PSP
*cough*)? Well much to my dismay, the game was unplayable in busy
environments.
An issue that certainly needs to be addressed is figuring out what
demographics would this game apply to? Children will be generally
attracted to the neon colors, but the gameplay system of memorizing
commands and beats is far too complex for them. With no option to adjust
to a simpler difficulty, children are bound to loose interest at that
rate. Is the game suited for the older generation of teenagers and
adults? While this demographic will have an easier ability to memorize
and repeat commands, they will quickly discover the boredom as well.
Since SC5 is extremely linear with only four stages, the game ends far
too soon and there is absolutely no reason to replay it. All videogame
players, young and old, have come to expect more bang for their buck,
and a title with no variations or replayability will certainly feel
out-dated.
I had the privilege of reviewing two Gameboy Advance ports recently. One
was the Playstation classic, Super Puzzle Fighter, and the Dreamcast
original, Space Channel 5. While these ports were near-perfect
reproductions, SC5 proved that some games should stay solely on console
systems. In this instance, Art Co. needed to add more replayability to
give prospective customers a reason to want to take this title with them
on the road. In addition, being that this title is one of the few titles
where it necessary to have the GBA sound on (I won even consider
Britneys Dance Beat a real game), Art Co. must ensure that the sound
can be hear at a decent level, even with surrounding distractions. For
those who have played Space Channel 5 on Dreamcast, and long to play it
again, I would suggest waiting for Space Channel 5, Part 2 to be release
this winter on the Playstation 2 (come on, who doesn have one by now?).
If the portability issue is what truly reels you in, I would highly
suggest packing a decent set of headphones with you on your trip. Just
remember to bring along another title in case you get aggravated
quickly. Otherwise, Space Channel 5: Ulala Cosmic Attack deserves to
stay on the rental shelves. Let's just hope that in the meanwhile, we
won't need Tom Brokaw in an orange miniskirt to save us anytime in the
near future.
Colin Yu (11/05/2003) |
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Snapshot
Ups:
Ulala back in action on a portable system; unique gameplay
Downs:
Ulala should stay on the console system, due to
GBA low volume output and its extremely short linear game life
Platform:
GBA
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