I love the Dreamcast. I'm a big fan of other Tetsuya Mizuguchi games like Rez and Lumines. And I've long admired this game's character designs and art direction, which manage to be fun and sexy without descending into tawdry exploitation.
But try as I might, I just don't like this game.
On its surface, Space Channel 5 is a rhythm game series similar to Parappa the Rapper. An enemy or scenario plays out commands, and you must repeat those commands accurately.
But Space Channel 5 is much more forgiving when it comes to the exact timing of button presses... thankfully so, given the challenges modern displays present for this genre. That's because it's really less a game about rhythm than it is two key things.
The first is memorization. Unlike Parappa, DDR, Amplitude, Elite Beat Agents, or most other rhythm games, Space Channel 5 offers no literal on-screen indicators of which commands to input or when. The enemy will present the sequence, and it's up to you to recreate it accurately. At its core, Space Channel 5 is basically a stylish version of Simon Says.
As a game of Simon Says, it is mostly fine. It gets pretty tough in one or two areas in the game's second half where spans of silence are introduced, but the idea isn't inherently flawed.
Or it wouldn't have been, if not for the second key component: To identify when the game is purposely giving you incorrect or partial information.
At the beginning, characters express commands visually and with an audio cue... so they might say "left" while also pointing left. But that changes without warning. Some characters will present a command only visually, others only with audio. Some will switch between within the same sequence. Some will present one command visually and a different command with audio, requiring trial and error to tell which you're supposed to follow. Sometimes sequences will be preceded by an incomplete or partial prompt, like "all commands are reversed" when only directional commands are reversed.
I just don't find the challenge of having to replay levels to figure out when I should or shouldn't follow the game's instruction particularly compelling. These moments don't feel clever to me: They feel like padding of the game's length at best, unfinished design at worst.
Perhaps I'd be more compelled to endure those moments if the tunes were more varied. Unlike Mizuguchi's other games, each level feels pretty indistinct from the rest, and the commands you input don't contribute to the soundscape in a meaningful way. This is especially regrettable when you consider the involvement of Michael Jackson: His contributions sound like they were hastily recorded in a bathroom stall, doing nothing to justify the (understandable) discomfort one might feel while trying their best to separate art from artist.
I would love to see a new Space Channel 5 game with a lot more care given to usability and a more varied and dynamic soundtrack. Ulala deserves better!
