* This is the first game where [[Ulala]], [[88MAN]] and [[Shinichiro Tachibana]] are kidnapped and rescued during gameplay after not being captured in neither of the first two Space Channel 5 games.
* This is the first game where [[Ulala]], [[88MAN]] and [[Shinichiro Tachibana]] are kidnapped and rescued during gameplay after not being captured in neither of the first two Space Channel 5 games.
** This is the second game where [[Pudding]] is kidnapped, the first time she was kidnapped was during the third report of the [[Space Channel 5|first game]].
** This is the second game where [[Pudding]] is kidnapped, the first time she was kidnapped was during the third report of the [[Space Channel 5|first game]].
−
** [[Jaguar]] was the only mainhero to not be captured, ironically, he was one of the twoheroes to be captured in the previous game, the other was [[Space Michael]], who didn't return to this game, Jaguar was not only captured, but was also brainwashed and turned into [[Shadow]] by [[Purge]].
+
** [[Jaguar]] was the only major character to not be captured, ironically, he was one of the major characters to be captured in the previous game, the other was [[Space Michael]], who didn't return to this game, Jaguar was not only captured, but was also brainwashed and turned into [[Shadow]] by [[Purge]].
** With Ulala being kidnapped in this game, [[Pine]] and [[Noize]] from [[Space Channel 5 Part 2]] become the only major protagonists/characters to have never ever being kidnapped nor brainwashed.
** With Ulala being kidnapped in this game, [[Pine]] and [[Noize]] from [[Space Channel 5 Part 2]] become the only major protagonists/characters to have never ever being kidnapped nor brainwashed.
−
** With Ulala, Tachibana and 88MAN being captured in this game, [[Morolian Eight]], who was absent from this game, becomes the only reporter to have never ever being kidnapped or brainwashed.
+
** With Ulala, Tachibana and 88MAN being captured in this game, [[Morolian Eight]], who was absent from this game, becomes the only reporter to have never ever being kidnapped nor brainwashed.
* Some characters in this game have actually aged, specifically the space children from Space Channel 5 Part 1 and 2. [[Ambrosia DiFlibula]], who was a kid in the previous games is now an adult in this one. [[Chloe Cachooka]], who was absent from this game, has now a younger sister who dresses up just like her, making it safe to assume that Chloe is also an adult now.
* Some characters in this game have actually aged, specifically the space children from Space Channel 5 Part 1 and 2. [[Ambrosia DiFlibula]], who was a kid in the previous games is now an adult in this one. [[Chloe Cachooka]], who was absent from this game, has now a younger sister who dresses up just like her, making it safe to assume that Chloe is also an adult now.
* [[Pudding]] only has one line in the game, which is "Thank you!", despite that, her english voice actress was not credited and is unknown.
* [[Pudding]] only has one line in the game, which is "Thank you!", despite that, her english voice actress was not credited and is unknown.
Revision as of 15:58, 26 June 2020
WARNING: THIS ARTICLE CONTAINS MAJOR SPOILERS!
Space Channel 5 VR: Kinda Funky News Flash! (スペースチャンネル5VR あらかた★ダンシングショー Space Channel 5 VR Arakata Dancing Show) is a virtual reality rhythm game made in Unity, developed and released by Grounding Inc. only digitally, for the Playstation 4 in February 25th, 2020.
The game follows the story of the space reporter Ulala, who is investigating the origin of white aliens called the Othermoros and the twins Lou and Kee, two new reporters hired by Channel 5 who are being trained by Ulala and helping her investigate.
The game's events happen three years after Space Channel 5 Part 2, as some in-game profiles of normal folks characters reveal that the Rhythm Rouges have attacked three years ago, [1] for some reason though, Ulala appears to not know who the Morolians are.
Space Channel 5 VR: Kinda Funky News Flash! is a virtual reality game where instead of controlling Ulala, the player takes controls of one of the two newcomers, Lou and Kee, twin sisters who are new reporters for Channel 5 being trained by Ulala, the player sees the world in perspective of one of the twins and they stay behind Ulala assisting her in the battles, the player must copy the exact same pose of Ulala or the enemies on screen to get more views, to get 100% views in a level, the player must beat the level without missing a single move, if the player miss, they will not only lose views, but they will also lose a heart, missing three moves in a row will result into a game over, the level's segments vary from coping the enemies moves, avoiding getting hit by obstacles and enemies attacks and shooting, additionatly, the secret moves from the second game return to this game, this time there will be blue circles which will appear during gameplay and the player will need to place their hands inside of it, if the player wants to get 100%, it's necessary to get all of the secret moves too.
Development
According to an interview made by Kotaku, the development team said that the idea for a third instalment of the Space Channel 5 series was always imagined, but they though it wasn't worth making it if the game played just like the first two, they wanted to add more gameplay variety, the game's narrative designer, Takumi Yoshinaga, said he though about making a game for either the Nintendo Wii and/or Xbox Kinect, but a project for neither was ever started, because he though the game would eventually get repetitive fast and wouldn't have much replay value, it was then, with the Virtual Reality, that the team though they had finally found a way to make a new game which would be freshier and bring more gameplay variety to the series, [2] additionatly, the game has a feature called that measures calories burned during gameplay, which according to Grounding Inc.'s CEO and Ulala's japanese voice actress, Mineko Okamura, makes the players maintain their health while saving the universe they are sent to, [3] giving the game more replay value.
Ulala's new neon yellow outfit.
The game's art director, Noburo Hotta, was responsable for giving Ulala a brand new neon yellow outfit, according to himself in the Kotaku interview, neon yellow was the best color to express the world of Virtual Reality, he also revealed that the reason why her outfit was orange in the first game was to symbolize something new and exciting for Sega and because it was the color of the Dreamcast, [2] it's also possible to notice that the new Morolians, the Othermoros, are wearing virtual reality glasses, for voice actors, only four returned to reprise their roles, they are Mineko Okamura (Ulala's japanese voice actress), Kae Lida (Pudding's Japanese voice actress), Shō Hayami (Jaguar's japanese voice actor) and Tom Clarke Hill (Jaguar's english voice actor in the second instalment), during the game's development, the Team Grounding tweeted on November 14, 2018, that they had lost contact with Ulala's original english voice actress, the pop singer and media personality, Apollo Smile, and asked for help to track the voice actress down for the game, eventually, in an interview made by Siliconera, Mineko Okamura revealed that they were actually able to contact her thanks to the Space Channel 5's dedicated community, but unfortunately, Apollo Smile herself didn't want to reprise her role has the lead character, still Okamura showed great gratitute for such dedicated and helpful community, with Smile rejecting to return, Cherami Leigh took the role of the space reporter, according to Okamura, Leigh has a catchy and positive voice which fitted Ulala's personality very well. [3] The game also features new voice actors such as Greg Chun as Glitter and Noize, Cassandra Lee Morris as Kell, Ratana as Bello, Mari Suffiad as Soon-Soon and Patrick Seitz as Fuse.
Reports
Report 00/Tutorial
Before the first level, there's a cutscene showing Jaguar worried about something involving a type of dancing energy called Groove Moxie from all across the Galaxy.
As the level begins, Mr. Gentle greetings the player controlling one of the twins, Lou or Kee, new recently recruited reporters for Channel 5 and says they must learn the basic gameplay since they are newcomers, they are transported to a room where Ulala appears and introduces herself, she teaches the players how they are supposed to copy the moves and avoid getting hit by attacks, after some instructions, the tutorial is interrupted because Ulala received a message saying that aliens have invaded a Spaceport and are forcing people to dance, Ulala tells the player to go with her and both are transfered, ending the tutorial.
Morolians Strike Back!
The aliens called Morolians have started an invasion in the Spaceport 9 and are making people hostages and forcing them to dance, Ulala and the twins Lou and Kee are sent to investigate the case, as the level begins, there's a group of Morolians making people hostages, to save them, the main trio must beat Morolians at dancing by copying their moves, after saving the hostages, more Morolians will appear, this time to shoot at Ulala and the twins, this time, they'll need to avoid attacks and shoot back at them by copying the Morolians moves, after this segment, the level's boss, a giant robot called Groovebot Prime Coco★Tapioca will appear, to defeat it, the player will need to copy the yellow Morolians moves who are in front of the robot to avoid getting hit by it's laser and physical attacks and shooting at it at the right time, after knocking Coco★Tapioca down, all of the rescued hostages will celebrate and Ulala will congratulate the player for the nice reporting.
Before the level, there'll be a cutscene revealing a mysterious being who is revelead to be absorbing Groove Moxie from all across the Galaxy called Glitter thanking the Morolians for the Groove Moxie they gathered during the invasion of the first report, saying it was delicious, and as a form of "gratitute", Glitter injects X space cells into them, turning the Morolians into his minions, a new type of Morolian with a white color pallet.
Ulala is starting a new report in a space elevator going up which is taking them to space, when she is interrupted by an invasion of a group of white Morolians, that are able to talk and order Ulala to give all of her Groove Moxie, rising the later's curiosity, meanwhile in the background, a spaceship that belongs to the mysterious Glitter can be seen abducting people, a dancing battle begins against the white Morolians, where again, the player must copy their poses to beat them, during the battle, they introduce themselves and reveal that they are a new kind of Morolian called the Othermoros, after beating them, it's revealed that Glitter has also injected X space cells into Coco★Tapiocas, turning them into Other★Tapiocas, they drop off of Glitter's spaceship and assist the Othermoros in the battle against the main trio, again, the player must copy the Othermoros moves to avoid the attacks and shoot at the right time, this time however, they will also need to use the move "barrier" to protect themselves from Other★Tapioca's wicked beam, after knocking the robots down, the Othermoros will flee and the main trio will see Glitter's spaceship flying away into space, the curious white aliens make Ulala decides to start a investigation.
First, a cutscene plays, showing Jaguar asking for a trio called "The Jaguars" (formed by Kell, Bello and Soon-Soon) if they are ready to make their move, they answer "ready when you are!".
The level begins with Ulala and the twins above their spaceship chasing Glitter's spaceship through space, in an area full of meteors called Meteorite Area, Pudding, Shinichiro Tachibana and 88MAN, who are also after the ship investigating the case, make a cameo and fly away, when suddently, the Space Pirates Broadcasting ship appears, the Jaguars taunt Ulala, saying she won't get far away with her new "Newbie" then fly away, a gameplay segment begins where the player must copy Ulala's move to shoot and avoid meteors, after that, the Jaguars and some Space Pirates will attack, by copying their moves, the player will be able to avoid their attacks and counter, after that, all of the Space Pirates but the Jaguars will flee, Kell, Bello and Soon-Soon will present themselves and challenge the main trio for a dancing battle, after defeating them, Kell will congratulate the player when suddently, they all get surprised by Glitter's ship which will attack the Space Pirate's ship and abduct the Jaguars, then Ulala, before getting abducted though, Ulala throws her microphone to the player, eventually, the spaceship also abducts the player and the report ends.
Before the reports a cutscene showing computers damaged plays.
The report begins with Mr. Gentle telling the players they are inside Glitter's ship, by looking up, it's possible to see Ulala and the Jaguars being made hostages with Ulala fainted, it's also revelead that Pudding, 88MAN and Tachibana were captured as well and are being made hostages too, then, the hungry Glitter finally appears to the player, Glitter has absorbed a lot of Groove Moxie from all of the hostages including Ulala, and now he is very full, expecting non less from Ulala, however he still wants more and starts a battle against the player with Othermoros assisting him.
The first battle consists of Glitter singing and attacking the player while the Othermoros do the dancing moves, to win this fight, the player obvious needs to copy the aliens moves and use the move "barrier" to protect themselves, Mr. Gentle assists the player by singing and saying the moves the player is doing, after a while the Jaguars advice the player to start shooting and they replace Mr. Gentle at assisting the player during the singing parts, Glitter stops the battle to taunt the player saying they are alone when Jaguar invades his ship and joins the player, with Jaguar's help, they start saving the reporters, starting with 88MAN and Tachibana, then Pudding, Kell and lastly, Bello and Soon-Soon, together, the player, Jaguar and all of the rescued reporter will join forces to wake up and save Ulala, after that, one last battle where the characters sing by copying the Othermoros poses will happen, after defeating Glitter, the Othermoros will turn back into Morolians and the hostages who were abducted during report 2 will be rescued and will also join forces with the heroes, together, they will all unite their Groove Moxie to make one fantastic force capable of defeating Glitter, it's later revealed that Glitter was actually possesing a Space Diva with the same name, once she is freed, Glitter flees from the scene and the heroes celebrate by dancing, the credits start rolling, though the player should be aware, as the credits will sometimes cut to a cutscene which will contain a secret move.
A mode to introduce the game where there's no limits on how many moves the player can miss, recommended for newcomers.
Trial Dance
A mini game where the player must fight Jaguar in a 100 stage dance battle, this mini game was inspired by The 100 Stage Dance Battle (Ulala Dance mode) from Space Channel 5 Part 2, the mini game consist of Jaguar and a few other characters making dancing moves which the player must copy, as the levels go, the characters assisting Jaguar will turn to the player's side and assist them, the mini game contains unique moves such as "Woof", "Meow", "Honda" and "Toyota", which were also in the mode from the previous game, as well as new commands such as "Macho", "Jaguar" and "Gorilla", unlike the previous minigame though, the player can miss moves, they just can't miss them three times in a row.
Hatsune Miku wearing her Space Channel 5 modules/outfits.
Grounding Inc. has confirmed that Hatsune Miku, the star of the Vocaloid series will be making an appearance as a DLC in the game and the player will be able to dance alongside her and Ulala for the first time, [4][5]
Miku is the protagonist of another rhythm game series which has made tributes to Space Channel 5 a few times through two of Miku's modules (outfits), one of them has Miku dressing up as Ulala, with her hair color even changing to pink, the other is a black outfit of a made up channel called "Space Channel 39".
This DLC makes Kinda Funky News Flash! the first Space Channel 5 game to have a crossover, this is also the first time the series makes a reference to Hatsune Miku, after the later being referenced in many of her games.
On Ulala's birthday aka May 30th Groundling Inc confirmed that she will be available to play her July 27th, 2020. [6] It is called Space39 Miku Pack[7] and from the official website it says
“Space 39 miku Pack” designed exclusively for Space Channel 5 VR will not only take players (YOU) to a stage where you can dance with Ulala and HatsuneMiku, but also allow you to change the looks and outfit to the Hatsune Miku version of Ulala.
A Fan Art Contest to celebrate the DLC pack’s release will start on June 1st, 2020.[8]
Hatsune Miku(Official Screenshots form Space Channel 5 VR: Kinda Funky News Flash website)
Ulala with Hatsune Miku
Hatsune Miku
Hatsune Miku with Ulala (Right) and Roo(Left)
Hatsune Miku version of Ulala.
Twins name and gender debate
The Twins being called "Roo & Kie" in the site (above) and "Lou & Kee" in the game (down).
The game left rather unclear if the twins are called "Roo & Kie" or "Lou & Kee", as they are referred by both names in the game, being called "Roo & Kie" in their profile and in the official website, but at the same time, they are also called "Lou & Kee" in the game's menu and in a Grounding Inc. tweet, [9] not only that, they are also called "Rookie Reporters" at the game's credits.
Kee's gender is also left unclear in the game as Kee is referred by male pronouns in both the site and in a in game profile, but at the same time, Kee along with Lou are referred as twin sisters in a Grounding Inc. tweet.[9]
You can help the Space Channel 5 Wiki by updating and bringing information about these two subjects, but remember to add citation.
Reception
Since it's release, the game has received mixed reviews, with it's biggest criticism from both the critics and the community being the fact the game is very short and expensive, according to Noisypixel, which gave the game a 7.5/10, the controls are very responsive and the game never makes the player feels being cheated, but being simply "More Space Channel 5" may make it difficult for newcomers to understand and get interested in the series, [10] Gamegrin gave the game a 7/10, claiming the game is less difficult than the previous installments, but at the same time, thanks to the lack of challenge, the game can be beaten very fast and the price tag makes it really hard to sell [11], Metro GameCentral gave the game a 3/10, praising the game for it's tunes, visuals and good use of the PlayStation Move controllers, but criticising it for it's motion sensing and for being too short, [12] UploadVR gave the game two starts out of five, claiming the series could have made a glorious return but this game can't keep up with it's competitors and criticed the game for having very little content, overall, Metacritic gave the game a 51 metascore and it's users a 4.8.[13]
In an interview about the series 20th anniversary talking about the whole series since it's origin, which is only available in japanese, Takumi Yoshinaga revealed that the series started as something much different than what it is now, originally, they were planning to make a game which was known as project "Eye", much like Space Channel 5, the game would be set in the future, but the main character would be a boy and the gameplay would involve hacking. [14][15]
The logos after Tetsuya's name.
Additionally, it was revealed that the logos from the project were actually included in the original Dreamcast game, they appear at the credits as an easter egg.
This is the first Space Channel 5 game after a hiatus of 18 years not counting HD remakes.
Also, Ulala got a new English voice actress in this game (Cherami Leigh) for the first time after been voiced by Apollo Smile for 20 years.
Unlike the English voice actress, the Japanese one, Mineko Okamura, who has voiced Ulala since the first game, returned to reprise her role, besides her, Pudding's Japanese voice actress and both the English and the Japanese voice actor of Jaguar were the only ones to also return to this game.
The development team said in an interview that they didn't want to make a third game if it's gameplay didn't have enough differences from the first two, hence why the long hiatus and why the game is in Virtual Reality. [2]
This is the first game to not have a physical release.
The game's final report has the PS4Share function blocked, making players unable to record or live stream Report 4. Due to a bug at launch, players were able to stream Report 4. This was patched in Version 1.01.
This is the first game where Morolians speak in human language besides dancing commands, though only the Othermoros speaked.
The Othermoros share their voice actress, Cherami Leigh, with Ulala, continuing the tradition of Ulala's voice actress voicing the Morolians as well, which happens since the first game.
However, this is the first time that they are voiced by the English one.
This is the first game where Space Michael, Hoorg, Blank and Evila are completely absent after appearing in every game.
This is the first game where Ulala, 88MAN and Shinichiro Tachibana are kidnapped and rescued during gameplay after not being captured in neither of the first two Space Channel 5 games.
This is the second game where Pudding is kidnapped, the first time she was kidnapped was during the third report of the first game.
Jaguar was the only major character to not be captured, ironically, he was one of the major characters to be captured in the previous game, the other was Space Michael, who didn't return to this game, Jaguar was not only captured, but was also brainwashed and turned into Shadow by Purge.
With Ulala being kidnapped in this game, Pine and Noize from Space Channel 5 Part 2 become the only major protagonists/characters to have never ever being kidnapped nor brainwashed.
With Ulala, Tachibana and 88MAN being captured in this game, Morolian Eight, who was absent from this game, becomes the only reporter to have never ever being kidnapped nor brainwashed.
Some characters in this game have actually aged, specifically the space children from Space Channel 5 Part 1 and 2. Ambrosia DiFlibula, who was a kid in the previous games is now an adult in this one. Chloe Cachooka, who was absent from this game, has now a younger sister who dresses up just like her, making it safe to assume that Chloe is also an adult now.
Pudding only has one line in the game, which is "Thank you!", despite that, her english voice actress was not credited and is unknown.
Her voice actress might be Megan Taylor Harvey, who also voiced Space Diva Glitter, considering Megan is the only female voice actor to be credited in the additional voices, though it should be noted that this is not confirmed.
While her english voice actress wasn't credited, her japanese one was, it's Kae Lida.
In this game, it's revealed that there are multiple Coco★Tapiocas.
