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 Jet
Set Radio Future
Smilebit
Sega
Action/Adventure/Sports
XBox
When Jet Grind Radio came out for the DreamCast, I really didn't
know what I was playing. All I knew was I skated around and that
was cool and then I sprayed stuff, which was cool also. But I put
the game down without much thought and moved on to something a
little stimulating.
When I heard that they were making a sequel to Jet Grind Radio
exclusively for the XBox, my ears perked up a little bit. However,
I was still fairly clueless as to what this franchise was. So I
played the DreamCast version again. This time I found it a bit
more enjoyable.
 But
it wasn't until I purchased it for XBox that I truly found a
unique gem. It wasn't an extreme sports game. It wasn't really an
action game. It really didn't really fit any genre in particular.
It was a deathly creative game with beautiful cel-shaded graphics,
a killer soundtrack and solid gameplay with plenty of replay
value.
In a futuristic Neo-Tokyo, you take part as a member of the
rollerblading gang, the GGs. Armed with spray paint and your pair
of rocket powered blades, the GGs are out on a quest to liberate
Neo-Tokyo from the conglomerate Rokkaku Gouji from his corporate
grasp. By spreading street art across the city, it will certainly
rub salt into Gouji's wounds.
Not only does this game focus on spray painting the surroundings,
but there's a wide selections of grinds and aerial tricks to pull
off. As well as combat against the Rokkaku police and some
interesting contraptions. Each character differs a bit from the
next and it all depends on your style of play. My favorite was
Gum, with her significant advantage in speed and handling, despite
her obvious lack of health. Statistics range in health, speed and
even spray paint accuracy. Which makes the game a bit challenging
from whatever angle you attack it with.
 Unlike
Tony Hawk, where one needs to constantly fight for a level of
balance, in Jet Set Radio Future...there is no balance. You simply
fly along on the skates and soar through the air, only, don't fall
too far or that'll leave a dent. The control scheme is fairly
simple with the left analog moving the skater, the right angle
controlling the camera (when the skater is stopped), X & Y for
tricks, B for boosting, A for jumping, R trigger for spraying and
L to adjust the camera to a workable angle.
The graphics are absolutely beautiful. The cel-shading style has
always been intriguing and nobody has really done it better than
Smilebit and Sega with this franchise. It creates a comic book
feel, but upon closer inspection, the game is incredibly detail
oriented.
Rounding off the game is a very good soundtrack complete with
dance tracks by The Latch Brothers. While some tracks are
incredibly irritating and silly at first, even The Birthday Cake
song will grow on one. Unless you absolutely loathe MSG.
 The
extra modes in JSRF are numerous and create hours beyond the long
single player game. The multiplayer is solid, with many different
modes to choose from. There's a typical race mode, a turf-war
esque graffiti mode and a RollerBall type of race where two teams
fight over possession of a ball as they race around a track. After
the single player game is completed, a new mode is opened up for
certain levels. This mode is Test Run, where you can test your
skills in timed tasks that include flag capturing, graffiti
tagging, racing and trick competitions. However, in order to
unlock the Test Run for a given level, you need to get all of the
bonus goals that are created when you find the hidden tape in each
level and collect all of the Graffiti Souls in a level.
What's a Graffiti Soul? Well, its a tool that you collect to
expand your massive collection of Graffiti that a user can
customize at any moment. An incredible selection of graffiti is available
to you that range from typical illegible tags to obscure tags that
are beautiful and strange. Even thrown in is a mode that allows a
user to create their own tags with paint and text tools. The one
spray I've made is rather silly looking but I like it nonetheless.
This game is fun as hell, even though it may not be for everybody.
But once a true gamer gives this game a fair chance, there's
enough diversity to satisfy the intense, and its simple enough
that even a novice can enjoy this game for what it is. A beautiful
gem with great originality in story, gameplay, design, sound and a
fun ride no matter how you attack it.
Final Verdict: 9/10
Jet
Set Radio Future
Smilebit
Sega |
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