JSRF: Jet Set Radio Future

"An Action/Platformer/Adventure game...on skates. Sounds crazy now, doesn't it?"

Cel-shaded games are usually loved by a few, hated by many. This trend started on the Dreamcast in 2000 with Jet Grind Radio, a good but flawed game that first used this style (some say that Fear Effect 2: Retro Helix did it first; LIARS!) Though the Dreamcast was beginning to sink when this game came out, it sold modestly enough for a sequel, Jet Set Radio Future, do be developed. Once the Dreamcast was scuttled and games began to be ported to the newer consoles, JSRF was made to Xbox. With the Xbox controller being the most similar to the Dreamcast controller, it seemed like a good choice. However, Smilebit decided to almost completely change how the series is played. If you go and play Jet Grind Radio on Dreamcast, then play JSRF; they play nothing alike. Many fans of the first JGR were a little upset by this, however, since I did not play JGR until after I played JSRF, I was wondering why they thought it was somehow worse. JSRF plays faster, looks better and I would say the music and effects are a tad better, but overall, plays better than the first.

Jet Set Radio Future takes the exact same story from Jet Grind Radio, and that is a good and bad thing. Good if you have never played JGR, bad if you have. Your gang is named the GGs, and you fight (not really fighting, imagine fighting…but in West Side Story) and you can claim your turf by spraying graffiti. There is one radio station that is documenting everything that happens to your group, Jet Set Radio, DJed by DJ Professor K (much like The Warriors. Most of the gangs from the original are still here (like Poison Jam) but a few are new. The main bad guys are the Rokkaku Group, who controls the entire city of Neo-Tokyo. The GGs must try and take the city bad from the Rokkaku Group, or Neo-Tokyo will never be the same for skating gangs ever again.

Like This, Like That
Cel-shaded can really help a few games find a niche audience that they may or may not of wanted. JSRF looks amazing, but after a year, a few titles, like Zelda and XIII, outshine it. Most of the time, it is at sixty frames per second, but it does it end slowing down (usually when you enter your garage, or when you go into a heated battle with the Rokkaku Group controlled police.) The characters look like they move around with ease, fluidly, like they were real inline paint spraying gang members. Smilebit got cel-shading down, and it shows. In the first JGR, the characters and environments looked like they were not polished or fine-tuned. In JSRF, everything is made with style and polish. Other than when you look across the levels, pop-up is not where to be found, and in some levels, with people moving around, cops trying to get you, guys in bear suits shooting at you, it is a marvel.

The Concept of Love
This is where the game shines. JSRF does not really have one kind of gameplay; it’s a mixture of action/platformer/adventure game. In JGR, there were less adventure elements, and more about action. Now, with the levels being so much bigger (they are at least four times bigger than the first levels, but they are the same places, now they look more like the real Tokyo.
If you played the first Jet Grind Radio, then you may think that you know how to play, but think again. They way to spray graffiti has been changed. Before, for a medium and large graffiti, you needed to avoid cops while turning the analog stick in directions for 3 or more turns. Now, you hold on to the R trigger on the Xbox controller, and move around the graffiti, simplifying the process, and making it faster too. The reason JGR seemed to fast yet to move around so slow was because you had a timer for each level. Now, that timer is gone with, and you can move around each level for as long as you want. Now, the last thing is that instead of moving as slow as molasses like in the first JGR, instead of having a button that makes you move slightly faster, you have a Boost button which takes up 10 graffiti cans. Even though moving around normally for even the slowest characters is faster than the fastest in JGR. A New combo system has been implemented, which the X button making you does a new move while on a rail. You can also do the same with the y button, but while not grinding, you can turn around with the same button. Sure as heck makes it easier than in JGR.
The platforming parts of this game are you as a GG member, trying to find other gang’s graffiti and spray over it. Though that is the most basic thing to do while clearing on of the many levels in the game. You also have many other challenges to do, like try and do thirty moves in a row, or 3 jumping moves in the same combo. If you do this, a Graffiti Soul becomes unlockable in the level, and if you collect it, you can unlock an extra small, small, medium, large, or extra large graffiti that you can spray with.
The action parts of JSRF happen in smaller, enclosed arenas. You fight parts of the Rokkaku Group, either the police, their leader, or even more heavily armored forces to try and stop you. You can take them down with spraying them with graffiti, and heal yourself by finding the red spray cans. While these actions parts are exhilarating, they either happen not frequently enough, or happen in the same places, making them the same battles over and over again. Everything about this game is full of style, and it shows while playing it. Remember, this isn’t to be played like Tony Hawk. This is not about points, it about protecting Tokyo.

Oldies but Happies
The Music is hat draws people to the game, of it could make them hate it forever. JGR had many techno songs, but also had a fair share of rock. Now, JSRF stays with large amounts of techno, and really not hard rock like in JGR. However, I personally LOVE every single song that Smilebit decided to put in. Each chapter has their own set of songs, and you can get any one of them to your garage theme. However, There are about 6 songs to a chapter, and a few of them are used over and over again. But, when you have some of the best songs outside of DDR in music, I think you will like them. Though if you don’t, you may have a big problem, as custom soundtrack is not supported in the game. No matter, as over, I would say, an hour and a half of music is made so you will not be bored any time soon.
Though each character only says a few things besides DJ professor K, they are all right. The DJ does sound a little less ‘hip’ than in the first, but I enjoy his more serious tone. While skating, everything sounds like you are moving around on roller blades, and it just makes things that much better.

Teknopathetic
The reason I enjoy this game so much is because of how FUN it is. Nothing is better to me then to just blade around listening to the music. If you get nothing from this review, remember, this game it unique in it’s design, play style, and sheer polish that I still wonder with all the advertising I saw (yes, this game did actually have advertising before the bundle) it did not sell many copies. You can pick up this game new for 10, or pre-owned in the Xbox bundle pack disk for only seven bucks, you really must get it.

Reviewer’s Score: 10/10

Reviewer's Score: 10/10, Originally Posted: 09/22/03