I’m sure many-a-gamer remembers the magic of Jet Set Radio. However, for those of you who don’t, you are part of a rollerskating gang called the GG’s and you’re battling for control of the city. You do this by rollerskating around, performing tricks, collecting spray paint, and dodging police to graffiti up sections of the city. The actual graffiti is done with quick arrow prompts that you have to mimic with your analog stick. Once you tag all locations that the enemy gang has tagged in that section of the city, you beat the level. As you can tell, its a pretty simple concept.
The graffiti looks as awesome as ever. Along with the great graffiti that you love from the game, there is also graffiti that was designed by fans of the game. Sega has even thrown in a graffiti creator. However, the graffiti creator is primarily there for those who actually know how to paint graffiti. The creator has a steep difficulty curve, and the best I was able to produce was colorful scribbles.
Sega did a very good job at transferring the game over to the current gen consoles. The controls don’t feel awkward at all and feel a bit smoother than the original Dreamcast controls. The graphics still hold up and while they, of course, look dated, if there were any major changes graphically the game wouldn’t feel the same. Audio wise, the game is still stellar. The music tracks are catchy and never become a drag.
For those of you who love Jet Set Radio, you will not be disappointed. The title is just as fun as it ever was and just as addicting. For those who never played the original, its very easy to jump into the series with this game and learn why it was such a huge craze. My only true problem with the game, which was present in the original as well, is that some levels have very hard to find tagging locations. If you are even contemplating getting the game or never played the series, do yourself a favor and pick up this classic.
- Great, addictive gameplay
- Controls transferred over very well
- Amazing music
- Graffiti creator is hard to make anything decent
- Some very hard to find tagging locations
Score: 4/5
