Spice World (video game)
A music video game featuring the Spice Girls.
Spice World is a 1998 music video game developed and published by Sony Computer Entertainment for the PlayStation. It was released by Sony subsidiary Psygnosis in North America.
Quick Facts
- Developer
- Sony Computer Entertainment Europe
- Publisher
- Sony Computer Entertainment (EU); Psygnosis (NA)
- Producer
- Martin Alltimes
- Richard Milner
- Mick Sawyer
- Programmer
- Derek Whiteman
- Phong Ly
- Chris Emsen
- Jason Page
- Michael Braithwaite
- Artist
- Jason Millson
- Antonia Blackler
- Colin Wren
- Composer
- Jason Page
- Platforms
- PlayStation
- Released
- 19 June 1998 (EU); 4 August 1998 (NA)
Facts from the source article.
Content
The game includes tracks such as Wannabe, Who Do You Think You Are, Move Over, Spice Up Your Life and Say You'll Be There. Each animated Spice Girl offers comments as the player tours stages, encountering a DJ and dance instructor who speak in stereotypical fashions. There are eleven dance moves: six basic ones (sway, shoulder shimmy, point and sway, knee wiggle, twirl, and shuffle) and five special moves (freestyle point, freestyle wave, hip wiggle, and side-jump). One button combination triggers a backflip for Mel C and a walk and wave for the other Spice Girls. The game also contains a dozen interviews and moments such as Geri Halliwell groping the buttocks of the then-Prince Charles, and the girls causing havoc on a Japanese talk-show. Players go through stages to prepare the animated Spice Girls for a live television performance. The Mixing Room lets the player choose the song and the order of its nine sections. Dance Practice allows choreographing routines by hitting button combinations as they appear. The player records routines by programming each Spice Girl's steps one by one, and routines can be copied between members. At the TV Studio, the player acts as camera-person, choosing from eight camera shots that can be moved in four directions, then watches the group sing and dance as directed. This is followed by 20 minutes of video footage of the actual Spice Girls being interviewed in the South of France. A disco king instructs the player throughout. Up to 15 mixes, dance routines, and TV studio recordings can be saved on a single memory card.
Development
After seeing PaRappa the Rapper attract new users to the PlayStation market in Japan, Sony Computer Entertainment Europe thought they could do the same in Europe by creating a music video game. This inspired them to convince 19 Entertainment to produce a game featuring the Spice Girls, a brand endorsed by Walker's Crisps, Pepsi and Asda. Because the demographic was Spice Girls fans who usually did not play video games, Sony planned from the start to make it an interactive magazine where the player could be part of the girl group's lifestyle. Production began in June 1997. The game was developed by Sony Computer Entertainment Europe's internal team at Soho, using the same lighting engine as their previous game Porsche Challenge. The developers originally planned a realistic art style with motion capture, but lead artist Jason Millson changed it to a more caricatured style with manual animation, reasoning it enhanced the personalities. Millson viewed Spice World as the Spice Girls' version of the Beatles vanity project Yellow Submarine. Project manager Peter Eley admitted some staff did not take the project seriously, viewing it as a ludicrous prospect. The game was exhibited at the September 1997 European Computer Trade Show. Shortly before the June 1998 release, Geri Halliwell left the Spice Girls, leading to concerns the game would have to be pulled or revised. Sony was later given permission by Halliwell's lawyer to proceed, two weeks before the scheduled release.
Reception
Despite selling out in the UK within months of its launch, Spice World was widely panned by critics. The game moved 75,000 copies and was unusual for a PlayStation title at the time because its primary buyers were mothers and daughters, not men. Though it cracked the UK top ten and a few reviewers thought it might please young Spice Girls fans, most saw it as a poor imitation of PaRappa the Rapper. Critics slammed its shallow content, calling it a non-game that only required pressing buttons for a few minutes. GameSpot noted that the mixing feature had too few samples, with bridges missing and vocals cut off mid-line, resulting in choppy, amateurish tracks. J.C. Herz of The New York Times disliked it for the same reason he disliked other celebrity music games: they mixed recycled content with the illusion of choice. Reviewers also felt it failed to capture the Spice Girls’ charm. Herz pointed out that players couldn’t even change the group’s outfits, while GameSpot said the characters were reduced to personality-less cartoons with only a few trademark quirks. GameSpot also criticized the video segments, citing heavy compression and poorly synced dubbing that made the footage nearly unwatchable. GamePro called the 3D Spice Girls horrifying, the controls clunky and confusing, and the dances unclear and unexciting.
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