Some games will always be destined to die. At the end of the universe, nobody will look back and remember these games. Why? Because they are nothing more than cultural trash. A flash in the pan of a cultural moment that is not transcendent but merely exists as a rung on the ladder getting us to where we need to go. When you begin to envision the world in this sort of historicist paradigm, you might begin to ask yourself where everything is heading, and this is an excellent question.
One thinks such thoughts when we turn and think about games like Space Channel 5. Is it merely part of the endless churn of our cultural world or is it something more? One more piece of trash, which is trash, of course, but perhaps necessary trash to move forward–that is, a curdle in the churning? Well, it seems no one can answer this question unless they are standing at the terminus of time. But we’ll do our best to figure it out anyway.
Here is the thing about this game. It is on VR. They brought back this wild idea of a game, which was first presented on the PlayStation 2 for laughs and giggles. (No substance.) And then, they slapped into the porthole of one of the most revolutionary systems we have ever seen.
That is just absolutely wild. But one wonders why they would even need to resurrect this game in the first place. Is it the profit motive? Perhaps. But one of the gaming titans simply knows that there must be constant grist for the evolution of the gaming industry to feed off of. This is also a very likely answer.
One thing we do know is this: Space Channel 5 is trash. And it is pure, elegant, lovely trash. It’s the kind of trash you want to replay over and over again, which is why it was selected for Virtual Reality-based gameplay. This baby is the real deal, in a certain sense, and that is why you want to get up and dance along.
There is always going to be a true disjunction between art and the place of art in the minds and hearts of the people. This is, perhaps, what we mean to say when we talk about high-brow vs. low-brow. But will this dichotomy always exist or is it merely transitory?
Asking these questions with respect to Space Channel 5 will, unfortunately, get us nowhere. But go out and buy a copy and play it anyway. You’ll enjoy it.
