Space Channel 5: Ulala’s Cosmic Attack
Sega’s stylish exercise in choreographed lunacy returns in a GBA port that skips a few beats.
Tags: Space Channel 5: Ulala's Cosmic Attack Categories: GBA Reviews, Reviews
Posted by Ludwig on Sep 3rd, 2003
| Title | Players | ||
|---|---|---|---|
| Space Channel 5: Ulala's Cosmic Attack (title page) | |||
| Developer | Publisher | Genre | Online |
| Action | No | ||
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When it was initially released on the Dreamcast a few years ago, Space Channel 5 perfectly characterized Sega’s creative lineup of titles for the system. Of course, as we’ve all come to discover (particularly owners of the console), being inventive is no guarantee of commercial success. As a bizarre amalgamation of an arcade shooter and a frenzied aerobics class, the game positively cleaved gamers into those that loved it and those that couldn’t imagine a more horrible waste of life. Planted firmly in the platform shoes of curvaceous reporter, Ulala, gamers were faced with the task of saving the world from adorable aliens – all whilst keeping in rhythm to the music and pulling off some zany dance moves. Apart from the obvious technical disparities, Ulala’s Cosmic Attack aims to be a diminutive duplicate of the original Dreamcast game and hopes draw in an audience that likes to groove on the go.
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The gameplay basically amounts to a tuneful rendition of Simon Says, since the extraterrestrial invaders conveniently shout out their sequence of moves and wait for you to rhythmically repeat them. It’s easier said than done, as they’ll attempt to confuse you by suddenly speeding up or throwing out directions that are offbeat. Situations also arise where you’ll need to blast the multicolored menaces with Ulala’s trusty laser gun or rescue hostages…by, err, shooting at them with a different gun. Assigning the weapons to the A / B buttons and dance moves to the D-pad results in a simple control scheme that’s nicely suited to the GBA. The slight and annoying delay in response that featured in the Dreamcast version has been entirely eradicated, though this removes the margin of error that was allowed during tricky sections. It’s generally very easy, but a wrong direction or a badly timed beam during certain battles usually causes you to screw the whole sequence up. Paying close attention to the music and tempo is integral to the gameplay, but the perfectly precise input that’s required may frustrate some people to no end.
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With the auditory aspect being so prominent in this type of game, the port would have been a miserable failure had the music not been treated with care. Despite the platform’s woefully weak capabilities in this regard, Space Channel 5’s incredible soundtrack has been effectively recreated on the GBA. Also the original’s finest feature, the hip and multi-faceted music will have you and your handheld gyrating in all manners of public places. Hmm…that needs some rephrasing. The instrumentations may lack some intensity and the theme song (Mexican Flyer) sounds a little off, but the overall quality can easily be compared to that of Castlevania: Aria of Sorrow. Whether these standards are applicable to a music-based game, however, is a question left for later in the review. The various sound effects have made it over too – consider this a bad thing if you have an aversion to squeaky-voiced enemies. Due to the teeny tiny capacity of a GBA cartridge, most of the original’s voice acting has been reduced to text. Unfortunately, the ham-fisted, color coordinated text blocks used throughout the game make it rather difficult to tell who’s saying what. If you didn’t follow the original’s storyline, you won’t be much better off here.
Rather than creating graphics that would look good on the GBA’s screen, the developers have tried to implement a watered down version of Space Channel 5’s graphics system. Replacing lively polygonal characters overlaid on striking CG video, we get serrated sprites dancing about on muddy bitmaps. The colorful and unique sci-fi meets retro look of the game is tarnished by these flat backgrounds and stiffly animated dancing troupes, which is a right shame. Things become really messy when the rescued hostages march behind Ulala and consequently fill your screen with a low-resolution mass of ugly pixels. Scaling has also gone awry, with some characters appearing to tower over the others as they parade into the background. These graphical gripes may not seem all that important but they contribute significantly to the main downfall of this port.
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Space Channel 5 is hardly the deepest or most challenging of games. It can be completed in less than an hour and the extra stages and oddly amusing character profiles that are unlocked afterwards do little to improve replay value. Describing it as less substance than style is completely accurate, though not in the case of Ulala’s Cosmic Attack. What made the Dreamcast version such a winner was its rampant and wacky presentation of an inherently silly game concept, a presentation that does not translate well to Nintendo’s handheld platform. Gameplay, music and, to a lesser extent, graphics get respectable approximations here, but it’s not enough. The end product is a decent but hollow port of a game that completely relied on style and pizzazz. Alas, the GBA simply isn’t capable of doing something like Space Channel 5 justice. If any other music/rhythm games show up on the system, they’ll undoubtedly suffer from the same problems.
| What Works | Score |
|---|---|
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- Great music - Accurate and easy controls |
6.5 |
| What Doesn't | |
|
- Poor visuals - Too easy, too short - Has none of the original’s charm |
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| Under the Shrink-wrap | |
| An adequate conversion from a genre that really doesn’t belong on the GBA. | |
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Tags: Space Channel 5: Ulala's Cosmic Attack
Posted by Ludwig on Sep 3rd, 2003 and is filed under GBA Reviews, Reviews. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can post a comment, or trackback from your own site.
