Space Channel 5 VR: Kinda Funky News Flash coming out this Autumn


Sony just had their PlayStation State of Play where they showed some of their upcoming PlayStation 4 titles. One of the games shown in their VR highlight reel was Space Channel 5 VR: Kinda Funky News Flash which they finally revealed is coming out in the upcoming months!

Space Channel 5 VR: Kinda Funky News Flash will not only come out on PlayStation VR, but also on PC for the HTC Vive in Japanese and English this fall. Are you gonna plug back in?

Space Channel 5 VR coming to America as ‘Kinda Funky News Flash’

Lots of SEGA Dreamcast fanatics will tell you lots of positive things about Space Channel 5 and Part 2, the games had a cult following of hardcore fans. Sadly SEGA has been quiet on the IP, until they showed off a Space Channel 5 VR demo in 2016 (then dubbed Ukiuki Viewing Show).  In February we talked about how the game was getting a downloadable demo and being renamed Arakata Dancing Show. It seems that the game is getting yet another rename for the West, this time being titled Space Channel 5 VR: Kinda Funky News Flash.

The game will debut at the Los Angeles VR event VRLA, which will have a 15 minute demo on May 5 and 6. Like we covered before, this game is being developed by Grounding Inc, who did Crimson Dragon for Microsoft and headed by a few long time SEGA veterans.

As of right now Space Channel VR Kinda Funky News Flash! has only been confirmed for HTC Vive, we also haven’t gotten a release date and/or pricing on the game. The US site for the game does mention that they will do a VR Arcade Version… whatever that means.

Space Channel 5 VR to get downloadable demo later this year

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Space Channel 5 VR Arakata Dancing Show  isn’t a new game, it was actually shown at the Tokyo Game Show back in 2016. It is interesting is that SEGA has changed the name of the VR experince, before they called it ‘Ukiuki Viewing Show’, now its ‘Arakata Dancing Show’. The VR ‘experience’ was up for people to try out and then SEGA stopped talking about it. According to a recent tweet, gamers will be able to give the demo another go at Game Party Japan 2018, which happens to be the first official tournament held by JeSU (Japan e-Sports Union) on February 10th and 11th.

While Japanese site Panora got the official scoop that Space Channel 5 VR Arakata Dancing Show will get demos in VR stores this spring and get a download version later this year. For what I gather, the download version will be the ‘demo experience’ shown at events and not a full game. Bummer. The demo experience will still be shown off using HTC VIVE headsets and SEGA still hasn’t mentioned if they have plans on showing it off on PlayStation VR. I think this is SEGA testing the market, see if the general public still has interest in Space Channel 5 with a demo release. Hit the jump to see screenshots of the game.

First footage of Space Channel 5 VR: Ukiuki Viewing Show surfaces

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Fans anticipating an engaging and entertaining game from the recent exhibition of Space Channel 5 VR: Ukiuki Viewing Show at Tokyo Game Show 2016 might want to throttle their expectations of the experience. At least for now.

This footage (from twitter user @mutedpsyborg) of a woman interacting with the VR game reveals that players simply flail their arms about while Ulala and the morolians do their thing on-screen. It’s a bit disappointing, as the HTC Vive’s controllers definitely offer the opportunity to emulate the classic Space Channel 5 experience by mimicking the game’s commands.

Perhaps this apparent marketing stunt was simply to gauge interest in the franchise currently or the possibility of a truly interactive Space Channel 5 VR game. Fan attention on social media since it’s announcement has shown there’s definitely some level of excitement about the possibility, but Sega and company need to actually deliver a compelling experience if they pursue it.

As of this time, no formal announcement has been made about the future of Space Channel 5 VR: Ukiuki Viewing Show.

SEGA News Bits: Space Channel 5 VR: Ukiuki Viewing Show Announced Reaction

SEGA announced Space Channel 5 VR: Ukiuki Viewing Show, which will be shown at this year’s Tokyo Game Show. What is Space Channel 5 VR: Ukiuki Viewing Show? Should you be excited? That’s the type of topics we discuss on this episode of the SEGA News Bits. So sit back space cats and lets talk Space Channel 5 VR: Ukiuki Viewing Show and let us know if you think this franchise should make a full blown comeback in the comments below.

If you like our SEGA News Bits segments, make sure to subscribe to us on YouTube and never miss an episode.

Support for HTC’s Virtual Reality kit could be coming to Alien: Isolation & Company of Heroes 2

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If you didn’t already need new pants after playing Alien Isolation, you might want to order a new pair in advance.

Reddit user “linknewtab” has discovered various titlecards for games coming to Valve and HTC’s collaborative virtual reality project within the Steam installation directory. There’s a pretty vast array of titles there, none more relevant to this article than the SEGA published Alien Isolation and Company of Heroes 2. This is pretty exciting stuff; it’ll be especially entertaining to see more of the reactions to Isolation in VR. The game was demoed with Oculus Rift back at E3 last year, but as of now it has no official VR support. Considering how long the Oculus Rift’s consumer release is taking, it’s likely it’ll be on the Vive before the Rift.

What do you think of CoH2 and Alien Isolation being realised in virtual reality? Let us know in the comments!