Space Channel 5 VR: Kinda Funky News Flash! presents an opportunity to inhabit 1999's idyllic vision of 1960's culture through 2020’s virtual reality. Delivering this extremely specific hallucinatory novelty required an alarming price tag and the notice of a brisk runtime. Space Channel 5 remains a lustrous expression of the Dreamcast's ethos, and a chance to actively embrace it merits attention and applause. Space Channel 5 VR is a brief, beautiful celebration of a bygone era.
It is impossible to look back at the Dreamcast and not think about Space Channel 5. Sega’s final console was a momentary blip on gaming’s timeline, but Sega’s wild last-ditch creativity connected the Dreamcast to color-soaked games like Jet Set Radio, Crazy Taxi, Samba de Amigo, Rez, and Space Channel 5. There weren’t blockbusters, but rather idiosyncratic oddities beloved by different pockets of the gaming community. 1998 to 2001 was the last time a console manufacturer and its first-party studios went all-in, and, despite technically losing the bet, paid out with a collection of eccentric classics.
There will always be room for debating which was the weirdest and most esoteric (which, it’s Seaman or Segagaga), but Space Channel 5 was one of the most deceptively ambitious. Mechanically, Space Channel 5 owes a lot to PaRappa the Rapper and other rhythm-oriented games of the late 90’s. You simply observe what is happening on screen and respond with commands that pantomime on-screen actions to a delicious beat. Space Channel 5 stood out because it framed the action in the aesthetic of 60’s science fiction, adapted Mexican Flyer as a guideline for its soundtrack, and buoyed the entire project through Ulala, a groovy pink-haired reporter blasting aliens while competing with rival news networks through the power of dance. Then and now, Space Channel 5 was a singular creation.
And now it’s back. With Space Channel 5 VR: Kinda Funky News Flash!, Grounding has created a devoted ode to United Game Artists’ rhythm classic. The player, inhabiting the body of a rookie reporter, can dance and jam with Ulala through four new levels that are highly inspired (if not deliberate copies, in some areas) by Space Channel 5’s aesthetic. What began as a neat little Space Channel 5 exhibition in 2016, as Ukiuki Viewing Show, is now a lateral sequel. Space Channel 5 VR presents a fleeting return to a beloved world.
Space Channel 5 VR’s style is enthusiastically faithful to its namesake. It opens with the alien Morolians invading a familiar pristine white space station and taking the pastel populace hostage. Ulala emerges from behind the player and leads them in copying the alien’s dance moves. This, based on facts and logic, defeats the aliens and gets monster ratings on live television. Three more levels boast bigger aliens, surprise cameos, and kitsch 60’s space age set dressing. These are all conservative moves—Space Channel 5 VR would rather remind the player of a world they loved than create new worlds to enjoy—but I can forgive Grounding for not wanting to risk too much on a niche product on a niche platform accessory for a niche audience.
Control is Space Channel 5 VR’s most prominent shift in direction. Rather than input D-Pad commands and bash two face buttons, the player uses two Move controllers to gesture toward different directions. The alien threat will perform up to six consecutive dance moves up, down, diagonally, or toward the screen and the player will have to respond during the next instance of the same beat. Sometimes, like when large bosses are taking a swing at the player or to avoid laser fire, a mechanic to dodge left or right is also required. The end product is closer to an actual performance, with the player essentially dancing and shadowboxing in their living room. After Ring Fit Adventure, calling Space Channel 5 VR a true workout would be a stretch, but it contains a crude approximation of burned calories, and my arms (after about two total hours of playing) are sore while I’m typing this one day later.
There is more to Space Channel 5 VR than just copying movement. Trying to grok exactly what in the hell is going on can be its own challenge. Adapting similar rules to Space Channel 5, Space Channel 5 VR forgives the player by not failing them out of a level until they miss three consecutive sequences. It can feel slightly unfair when new moves are introduced at a fast pace or when you’re not exactly sure when a rapid-fire sequence ends and you start trying to copy the dance too quickly. It’s discouraging to be on a roll and then fail out of an entire level because of cascading, disorienting mistakes. I got over it, but being sent back to the start (there are no mid-level checkpoints) was a little demoralizing.
Space Channel 5 VR’s lack of checkpoints feels connected to its brevity. Its four levels and credits took me about an hour to complete, including having to redo two of them after I had failed near the end. The other two installments of Space Channel 5 weren’t known for their length either, and there’s really only so much that can be done with a game in this style, especially with the worst-in-class fidelity of Sony’s Move controllers. A one-hundred level endurance mode remixes aspects of the core game, an arcade mode seems to offer a no-failure option, and it’s also loaded with info bubbles for Space Channel 5’s extended cast. Space Channel 5 VR, if nothing else, is surrounded by adorable ephemera.
Space Channel 5 VR’s presence in virtual reality is an interesting topic of necessity. There is a certain pleasure to simply existing inside of its sleek swinging 60’s sci-fi space. Dodging laser fire and massive punching arms are familiar, but good-enough VR gimmicks. It was a smart decision to cast the player in a brand new role, otherwise Ulala would almost never be on screen. Moving your body around, rather than performing exacting timing on a D-Pad, also serves as an appealing method of engaging with a classic game. Space Channel 5 VR’s novelty has little to do with virtual reality. It survives by letting players live in a world they’ve always wanted to visit.
The make or break point for Space Channel 5 VR’s is its price point; $40. That’s kind of a lot! It’s the harsh reality of a product created over a long period of time for an extremely small group of people. $40 seems to be the asking price required to justify Space Channel 5 VR’s development. I think it’s worth it, but only if Space Channel 5, or the Dreamcast, was ever worth something to you. If there are 100 other parallel universes, Space Channel 5 VR never would have made it out the door in 95 of them.
In the middle of Space Channel 5 VR’s final battle, its villain soliloquies, delicious indeed, but there’s so little of it, perhaps I was wrong to expect more. This serves as an appropriate response to Space Channel 5 VR’s experience. I wanted there to be more because I will always want more Space Channel 5, even if I know in my heart that it will never be 1999 again and it would never feel exactly the same. The sentence that boss delivers next frames my response more accurately, …but there’s just one of you. They’re referring to the player’s weakened state, but they’re speaking to Space Channel 5 as a whole. There’s so little to go around, even a tiny piece feels precious to me.
Space Channel 5 VR: Kinda Funky News Flash! presents an opportunity to inhabit 1999’s idyllic vision of 1960’s culture through 2020’s virtual reality. Delivering this extremely specific hallucinatory novelty required an alarming price tag and the notice of a brisk runtime. Space Channel 5 remains a lustrous expression of the Dreamcast’s ethos, and a chance to actively embrace it merits attention and applause. Space Channel 5 VR is a brief, beautiful celebration of a bygone era.
