Sega’s ill-fated Dreamcast console played host to a lot of classic games now lost to time, but one of its most-beloved titles is being revived for VR… sort of.
Space Channel 5, a fondly-remembered rhythm game developed by United Game Artists and published by Sega itself, is getting a brand new VR demo. It’s named Space Channel 5 VR: Ukuki Viewing Show and it will be on display at the 2016 Tokyo Game in Japan, which runs from September 15th – 18th.
There isn’t much information on the demo itself right now, though we do know it will be running on the HTC Vive. A teaser site displays footage from the classic music game through a pair of VR lenses, so we can assume you’ll probably be doing a bit of dancing using the kit’s position tracking, though you’ll have to book a slot for yourself to find out. The experience is being developed by a company named Grounding, in cooperation with Sega itself.
The original Space Channel 5 cast players as an interstellar reporter named Ulala. Set some 500 years in the future, she battled with aliens in dance-offs. This was done by repeating input commands issued by the enemy to a beat, eventually getting the chance to shoot them. It was brilliantly weird and it’s not hard to see that concept translating to VR, getting you to throw your arms up, down, left and right.
Sadly, this demo is just an experience for TGS right now; no official release plans have been announced. Sega does already have one VR dancing game coming up in Hatsune Miku: VR Future Live for PlayStation VR, though, so it’s not a stranger to the field.
The demo will be featured at the KDDI booth, which is inside the HTC booth on the show floor. If you want to see it featured in the west any time soon then we’d suggest you let Grounding and Sega know.
