The Yellow Monkey: Trancemission VJ Remix

Platforms: PlayStation
Released: 04/14/2000 (Japan)
Developer: Hands-On Entertainment
Publisher: Hands-On Entertainment

This is less of a game, and more of a multimedia promotion tool for the movie Trancemission and the rock band The Yellow Monkey. For an overview on The Yellow Monkey, look no further than my article about Perfect Performer (the previous PS1 game they were featured in), or my ongoing look into their career if you’re interested in more details.

Trancemission was the first film by director Eiki Takahashi, and was a science fiction drama released in 1999. Takahashi was the director of “Spark” music video, The Yellow Monkey’s 10th single that released in 1996. The band even appeared in this movie as futuristic policeman, and their 18th single “So Young” was used as the theme song for the movie. It also starred Jun Murakami, Natsuo Ishidou, and Chiharu Kawai. Matsudo (played by Murakami) is a regular salary man working in the stock market in forward trading. One day he gets a promotion, but something seems off. He’s kidnapped by a mysterious organization, brain washed, and is now under their control.

Trancemission VJ Remix - Yoshii
Vocalist Kazuya Yoshii as he appears in Trancemission

Here you just choose from 16 different effects to place over the top of 4 different video feeds, which are a combination of footage of the So Young music video and scenes from Trancemission. You edit together your own video, which you can then play back afterward. This sort of multimedia app was pretty outdated by this point. It was done as far back as 1992 on the Sega CD, with games like Marky Mark and the Funky Bunch: Make My Video and INXS: Make My Video. The difference being this game is missing the funny FMV scenes in between.

Trancemission VJ Remix - Game Play
This is really all the game play this title has to offer!

Apart from this, you can view a much more in depth summary of the movie’s story, various clips from The Yellow Monkey’s music videos of the time (Spark, Rakuen, Love Love Show, Kyuukon, My Winding Road, Sugar Fix, Hanareru na, and Burn), as well as their discography up to that point.