Space Channel 5 is a 1999 music video game developed and published by Sega for the Dreamcast. It was later ported to the PlayStation 2 and Game Boy Advance. Following space-faring reporter Ulala as she investigates an alien invasion, players engage in rhythm-based combat where Ulala mimics the actions of rivals in time to musical tracks.
The game was conceived by Tetsuya Mizuguchi, who was told to create something aimed at a female audience. Production lasted two years, with a staff of around 20 that included company veterans and newcomers to game development. The music, composed by Naofumi Hataya and Kenichi Tokoi, drew inspiration from big band music, including Ken Woodman's song "Mexican Flyer", which served as the game's theme song. The visual style was influenced by culture from the 1950s and 1960s and the later music videos of Peter Gabriel and Michael Jackson, the latter having a cameo appearance in the game.
While the game was released to low sales, it received generally positive reviews; praise focused on its music-based gameplay and art direction, but it was also faulted for its short length and syncing issues with the graphics. The PlayStation 2 version met with similar praise, with many recommending it due to the low selling price. The Game Boy Advance version, subtitled Ulala's Cosmic Attack, saw lower scores due to technical shortcomings. The game has since spawned a series of related games and media, beginning with the sequel Space Channel 5: Part 2, released in 2002 in Japan and 2003 worldwide.
Premise and gameplay
Space Channel 5 is a music video game in which players take on the role of Ulala, a reporter working for the titular news channel in a 1960s-styled science fiction future filled with competing news channels. When an alien race called the Morolians begin attacking, Ulala simultaneously reports on the events, fights off the threat, and clashes with rival reporters. The invasion is revealed to have been staged by Space Channel 5 boss Chief Blank to drive up ratings for the channel. With help from fellow reporters and support from her fans, Ulala defeats Blank.
Players control Ulala through four stages; real-time polygonal character models and visual effects move in sync to pre-rendered MPEG movies which form the level backgrounds. Gameplay primarily has Ulala mimicking the movements and vocalisations of her opponents (compared by journalists to the game Simon Says). Actions are performed in time to music tracks playing in each section of a stage. There are six buttons that match actions on-screen; the directional pad buttons, and two action buttons (A and B on Dreamcast and Game Boy Advance (GBA), Cross and Circle on PlayStation 2) which are presented with the vocalization "chu".
Levels are split between "dance" areas and shooting areas. During dance sections, Ulala mimics actions and shouts of "chu" from enemies, with successful actions boosting a "Ratings" meter in the lower right corner of the screen. In combat, Ulala must shoot at and defeat enemies, and also rescue hostages with the other action button. After either a dance or combat section, Ulala is joined in her progress by the people she rescued. During boss battles, Ulala has a health meter represented on-screen as hearts; a heart is lost for each mistake. If Ulala makes too many mistakes and loses all hearts during boss battles, fails to meet the minimum rating requirements, or causes ratings to drop to zero by missing or failing actions, the player reaches a game over and must restart. The game features a new game plus option, where players can begin a new game using a completed save file. Depending on the current rating, alternate routes are unlocked and new enemy patterns appear.
Development
The concept for Space Channel 5 originated when Tetsuya Mizuguchi—then known for his work on racing games—was contacted by Sega to develop a game for the Dreamcast aimed at a female casual gaming demographic. Mizuguchi had no knowledge of such a demographic, so he personally interviewed several young girls to find their tastes in gaming. He discovered that, while male gamers trended towards games that allowed for ranking and high scores, women preferred straight puzzle games. Mizuguchi decided to create a game which would bring together both video game and music fans, using his personal experience with nightclub disco and music events such as Street Parade. He also drew inspiration from the art of Wassily Kandinsky, wanting to encourage a form of synesthesia within players. Other sources of inspiration were the music of the 1950s and 60s, and the music videos of Peter Gabriel and Michael Jackson that were showing on MTV during the 80s. This concept originated in 1993, with full production beginning in 1998 following extensive internal planning and approval by Sega senior staff.
Production was handled by Sega AM9, later known as United Game Artists. The team included many staff from Team Andromeda (makers of Panzer Dragoon) and the Sonic the Hedgehog series, and others who were complete newcomers to game development. Development for the game lasted almost two years. Beginning with a small team of ten, it eventually expanded to 27 members as development progressed. Mizuguchi acted as the game's producer, with Takashi Yuda both directing and providing the voice for supporting character Fuze. The game was Mizuguchi's first time working on a game aimed exclusively at the home console market, as his earlier work had first been developed for arcades. Speaking about the Dreamcast, Mizuguchi said that it allowed higher-quality music compared to graphics-focused racing games. He wanted to use the new technology to incorporate interactivity into the score. Production was challenging at times due to the balance of gameplay and scenario.
Design The earliest versions of the game were described by Mizuguchi as "very cool, but not so fun", as players simply pressed buttons in time to the music while a non-interactive video changed. To make the game more interesting, Mizuguchi drew inspiration from the rhythm troope Stomp; a particular piece which inspired him was a segment where a performer would have the audience copy their clapping, with the rhythm becoming more complex over time. Mizuguchi wanted to incorporate this into the game, combining it with a narrative and distinctive music. The rest of the team found it difficult to understand Mizuguchi's vision as they were confused by his wish for comedy to be a part of the game's style, so he hired a pantomime artist to school the team in physical comedy. The production team also went to a comedy workshop to practise miming and physical comedy routines to further inform their understanding of the game. The name of the game's aliens "Morolians" was a derivation of the surname of artist Mayumi Moro; it came about as the team often used her last name around the office. Moro found its use in the game funny.
A key aspect of the game was that while the gameplay involved shooting, Ulala never actually killed anyone, allowing the game to be approachable to a wider range of players. When pitching the gameplay in his design document, Mizuguchi distilled the basic cycle of effort and reward, then came up with a means of realising them in the game. To ensure the team fully understood the gameplay concept of matching button presses to music and character actions, all extraneous effects were stripped away, leaving a basic version the team could focus on. While some animations were created using motion capture, the rest were animated by hand. The vocalization "Chu" emerged during voice recording. The original word was "Shoot", but the actors had difficulty pronouncing it using the necessary single syllable, resulting in the word being contracted and altered into its current form.
Ulala's motion capture actions were performed by Japanese dancer Nazu Nahoko. The Morolians' movements were scripted by the mime artist Mizuguchi hired to help the team during early production. The idea of streaming polygonal models over CGI movies was suggested by Yuta. They made use of ADX technology to synch the movement of models over the movies. The game content filled just over 99% of the Dreamcast GD-ROM disc. The space usage was attributed by Mizuguchi to the large amount of video and audio streaming used in the game. In hindsight, Mizuguchi cited the use of pre-rendered movies as a challenge to the team. Due to the amount of space used, some planned comedy segments had to be cut. An early tech demo was put together for the game; in this prototype version, the player character was a man, and only the most basic elements of its gameplay and theme were in place. A later version featured a prototype design for Ulala. The game's visual aesthetic of a "retro future" was present in that demo, and stayed throughout production. Influences on the characters and art design came from across the production team, with tastes ranging from Star Wars to Doraemon to Monty Python. Mizuguchi was inspired by the contrasting styles of orchestral music and science fiction setting used in Star Wars.
The character of Ulala was a collaborative creation, though much of her design was attributed to the game's art director Yumiko Miyabe. Ulala's early actions were deemed too "cool and stylish", and her overall movement too stiff. Her design was also adjusted several times so she would appeal to male gamers (who favored looks) and female gamers (who preferred personality). Another notable artist on the project was Jake Kazdal, who worked as a concept and model artist. Kazdal said that one of Ulala's key design inspirations was the titular lead of the science fiction film Barbarella (1968). The art style continued to evolve from there, with the staff often laughing at the "sheer ridiculousness" of some later characters. Her costume's orange colour was a reference to the Dreamcast logo and signified Sega's new direction.
Audio Music The music for Space Channel 5 was composed by Naofumi Hataya and Kenichi Tokoi of Sega's music label WaveMaster. Hataya also acted as sound director. The musical style, inspired by big band jazz of the 1950s and 60s, was one of the earliest elements to be decided upon. Hataya attributed the game's musical direction to Mizuguchi's guidance throughout production. The musical style changed with each stage, with later sections incorporating techno and trance. The in-game soundtrack mixed CD-quality music with midi sound samples. According to Hataya, one of the hardest aspects of music development was the variety of genres and fitting all the score onto the game disc. Music production ran simultaneously with the game's production, with the sound team at first using concept art and in-production gameplay. Late in development, the story caused a lot of additional work for the team. The final total of in-game music was estimated at 70 minutes.
The game's main theme was "Mexican Flyer", composed by Ken Woodman in 1966. Mizuguchi approached Woodman about using the theme. Woodman was surprised that someone wanted to use the theme for a video game. The use of "Mexican Flyer" in the game's early presentation video informed the direction of the music. Getting the rights to the track proved difficult, as the track was extremely obscure and had not been used in any media since its release. The ending theme "Pala Paya" used vocals performed by WaveMaster staff. A soundtrack album for the game was published by Marvelous Entertainment and distributed by VAP on February 21, 2000. The album featured 22 tracks, including a remix of "Mexican Flyer". Tracks from Space Channel 5 were included in the compilation album Space Channel 5 20th Anniversary: Gyungyun Selection by UMA on December 18, 2019.
Voice cast