Ooh-la-la [Space Channel 5]

Space Channel 5 is one of those games that I didn't put £40 towards when I was 16 because... well, it was £40 basically. I didn't have much money as a 16 year old, then I got a job. Blew money on booze and Dreamcast games - it was fun!

Looking back, I was probably playing Power Stone or SEGA Rally 2 or something like that. I can't really remember what I played a lot back then. I remember Shenmue and HeadHunter took up a lot of time, so did Soul Calibur. Not sure what I did actually... I know I have about 80 PAL games, so I must have played some thing. Anyway, Space Channel 5. Meet Ulala (ウララ) - said as in "Ooh la la", the news reporter from Space Channel 5. A load of weird little alien dudes come down to Earth and force people to dance, taking them over. One of the cutest if not mental ways to take over the Universe... Anyway, Ulala is sent down to report on this and actually ends up helping out the planet by dancing and shooting the aliens. In that order, or not - depends...

Ulala reports and approaches the aliens, who then say "up, down, left,left shoot" [although shoot is pronounced "chu" 「kana: チュウ」in the Japanese version] and then you have to reply to that in the music, in the same way. Timing is all by ear - there's no computer arrow to say when to press what, but it's damn good fun. The music is fantastic and the camera angles are a pervert's dream (why didn't I get this when I was 16??). Ulala moves in a fantastic way and if you make a mistake, the key of the music changes accordingly. You have a certain number of hearts and essentially you can just keep going and going. It's worth noting that it's not an easy game; you'll make mistakes, though progress is guaranteed if you aren't a retard.

Though the graphics above are through the VGA box on the Dreamcast, it's aged very well and it's as cute and sassy as anything I have played. A game you can play with your girlfriend sitting next to you, questioning your obsessions with Japan as the Japanese woman in an orange miniskirt with pink panties shimmies along the screen in a groovy 60s manner.

This game gets a SEGA collection score of 96% (based purely on how good I think it is).