It's 200
years in the future, and a dictator has taken over (and with
all the weird little laws against living popping up beneath
our very noses lately, this comes as no great surprise). He's
decided to control everyone through the media and public
entertainment (sound familiar?). Dancing has become prohibited
(OK, so they're Baptists). So what do you do? Take over a
broadcast by means of pirate TV, of course; and that is
exactly what Unison, a group of four freedom fighters (Trill,
Cela, Chilly, Sensei and their robot mascot, Friday) decide to
do. By means of their desperate gamble, the members of Unison
hope to free the average citizenry by demonstrating the
mystical and liberating power of dance and rhythm. This is the
story behind Tecmo's new dance game, Unison: Rebels of
Rhythm and Dance for the Playstation 2.
The
graphics in Unison adopt a style somewhat reminiscent of
Japanese Anime (or Spice World done right). The game designers
added a bit of a cinematic feel by utilizing blurring in the
backgrounds while simultaneously sharpening and refining
images in the foreground. Bright colors give the game an
appropriately vibrant look. The characters appear to be well
crafted, with each character having its own unique style and
feel. How can you not love Sensei's giant afro? Of course,
beautiful graphics are just a small part of Unison. Like any
dance game worth its salt, Unison is a forum where you can
show off your best push-button virtual dance moves.
Gameplay
in Unison takes advantage of both the left and right
Dual Shock analog sticks, for a change. Gee, after four years
of Dual Shock enabled games, Sony's finally come up with a use
for the right analog stick. Congratulations, guys. By using a
multi-tap, you and two friends can each control a member of
Unison (the exception being Sensei, who is there solely to
teach you the moves). Like the Dreamcast's popular Space
Channel 5, Unison relies on memorization. Sensei will present
you with the moves you need to learn, giving you a portion of
each dance routine at a time. The story unfolds gradually,
after each portion of the routine is mastered. Upon successful
completion of all of the segments, you are set to perform your
Pirate Broadcast. If you fail, the game ends (and you must go
through the entire training sequence from the beginning). Each
song has it's own set of accompanying moves to learn, and your
grade will increase or decrease as you dance based on your
performance. The higher the grade you earn, the greater the
rewards, i.e., a better stage show (including such extra perks
as fireworks).
In Unison,
you have your choice of playing in the standard
"Story" mode (the "regular" one player
version) or the "Special" mode, which allows up to
three players, and is where you can earn some extra features
for the game. Replay mode allows the player to view completed
dances from both the Story and Special modes.
The music
in the game is a strange mixture of Japanese pop (J-Pop),
1970's disco, and more recent, if equally dated,
embarrassingly once-popular music by losers like Aqua and
Naughty by Nature. I imagine obtaining the rights to such
oldies-if-not-goodies was a significantly more reasonable
expense than those to anything reasonably current (or even
reasonably good, barring one track from slick disco funk
maestros Chic). For the morbidly curious, this is the complete
list of songs Tecmo thoughtfully replaced any actual J-pop
with for the U.S. release: "Stop the Rock" - Apollo
440; "Barbie Girl" - Aqua; "Country
Grammar" - Nelly; "We Are Family" (remixed by
Marley Marl); "That's the Way I Like It" - KC &
the Sunshine Band; "OPP" - Naughty by Nature;
"Everybody Dance" - Chic; "Nowhere" -
FAZE4.
There are
three supposed J-pop hits that remain untouched by the
transfer: "Yosaku" and "Night of Fire",
both remixed by Tecmo Japan, and "Synchronized Love"
by Joe Rinoue. Being an avid J-pop fan and Hey! Hey! Hey!
Music Champ viewer for several years now, I strongly doubt
that these songs are quite the chart toppers Tecmo would seem
to represent they are, but in light of the usual complete wipe
of the audio track in Japan-U.S. game importation, almost
anything would be an improvement. Now if someone would stock a
game with music from my favorite J-Pop bands, Pizzicato Five
and The Brilliant Green, I'd be set; in the meantime, such
half-measures as this (and the 2 Ayumi Hamasaki cuts on
Thousand Arms) will have to suffice.
Unfortunately
for the future of U.S.-Japan relations, both countries
get stuck with that campy paean to older men who like seeing
young boys traipse about in their underwear, the Village
People's "YMCA" (as remixed by Tecmo Japan). Visions
of dorky yuppie types who think they're partying hard by
spelling out the letters in complete naiveté of the song's
subtext haunt my mind too much at the moment to continue.
<< SHUDDER >>
Look for
Unison, and a lot of dancing fun, coming your way in March
courtesy of the folks at Tecmo.
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