Up, Down, Up, Down, Chu, Chu Chu!

Many have games that are near and dear to their hearts. For some, a game may have gotten him through a difficult time or allowed him to discover his future wife. For me, there is one game in particular that is significant to my life. If I was never exposed to this game, I may have never grown into the person I am today.

Rewind eleven years ago-- the iPod has yet to exist, Friends and Frasier were still on the air, and Simon Cowell never stepped foot on primetime American television. But most important to our story, the Dreamcast was still in style.

The Sega-produced box was a monster at the stores selling like hotcakes. With games like Power Stone, Soul Calibur, and Sonic Adventure on the initial lineup, the Dreamcast was expected to have a fantastic career.

I was only a tiny child starting in kindergarten or grade school back then. I remember perusing through the games section at my local Blockbuster when an odd title caught my eye. It featured these strange aliens in the background and a pink-haired chick in an orange and metallic costume. I still can’t remember why, but there was something about the box that made me go out and rent it.

When I got home, I popped the game into my console and I was utterly confused. Apparently the strange aliens on the cover were invading Earth and it was up to the woman in the metallic costume, Ulala, a report show host, to save the day. Although I didn’t know it then, I soon learned that the game was called Space Channel 5.

The game is an intricate masking of a simple mechanic: Simon Says. When I first played the game, I had no idea what I was doing and when I heard the aliens (called Morolians) shout out “Up, down, up, down,” I had to repeat their commands on my controller. After having my sister teach me how the game actually worked, I was still horrible at it. I had no sense of timing or rhythm and I still did not realize the game was something along the lines of Dance Dance Revolution for the hands or Parappa the Rappa without the rapping. But when I did realize how important music played into the game, I absolutely fell in love with it.

The game is incredibly charming. The choreography felt cool, the music was full of retro and funkified groove, and the whole package was full of spunk. As the whole game premise centered around dancing, it didn’t take long for my petite childhood self to start dancing to the game and mimicking their moves.

Along with being one of my personal favorite games ever made, it has established the greatest passion I have ever carried apart from gaming: dancing. Ever since playing that game, I have always enjoyed dancing. Although I was never trained in dancing for many years, it is something I have loved every second of. Although I originally wanted to take up pop and hip-hop dancing in the same, groovy style of Space Channel 5, I have morphed into a beginner ballroom dancer who hopes to compete competitively in the future.

If there is one characteristic all of my cohorts and friends know me by, it is with my passion for dance. They know it is something I love doing regardless of whether I actually do it right or not. And without Space Channel 5, dance would have never penetrated into my life and shaped up who I am. It is impossible for me to think of who I would be without Space Channel 5, and honestly, I don’t think I want to.