The Source
07-17-2002, 03:02 AM
Strap on the skates and prepare to stretch your imagination as Sega unleashes its out of this world sequel to the hit Jet Set series. Smilebit, the remote developing studio working under Sega responsible for Jet Set Radio Future, has out done themselves yet again. Outfitted with an uncanny craving for unique style and originality, this developing appendage offers what few can. Get ready to bob your head to the funky fresh beats and absorb the hip new flavor that isn’t available on any other Xbox game. One of a kind game play, exceptional cell shaded graphics, and exclusive soundtracks topped off with a colossal replay value are only a handful of things that make this game a prodigy in its own time. If you were a fan of the original Jet Set Grind on Dreamcast then welcome home. For those of you who haven’t had the privilege of hopping on to the bandwagon with the current heap of Jet Set’s ghetto fabulous cronies—The Source suggests you pay your way. Warning: this game is not for those who suffer from motion sickness, are faint of heart or prone to seizures. Jet Set Radio Future travels in the one way fast lane towards gaming greatness and shall be the catalysts for all games to come that bear new and original ideas.
Story
JSRF takes place in an extremely modern futuristic adaptation of Tokyo. The city government has been corrupted by the major money bags, a multi enterprise company called the Rokkaku Group. By the hand of Rokkaku Gouji, the infiltration has mainstreamed straight into the heart of Tokyo where even civil laws are changing and the police department is being bought off. There seems to be little hope of resistance under the crooked juggernaut except for a few small groups of youth skating factions. These gangs, known as the Rudies, are all connected in one way or another through the underground pirate radio broadcasting station called Jet Set Radio. Headed by the notorious DJ Professor K., JSR is determined to undermine the Rokkaku Group’s desire to control industry, society, and culture as we know it.
There have been many troubling incidences occurring throughout the city putting everything in a downward spiral. The attack on the record store on Chuo Street, the Rokkaku police prowling around Dogenzaka Hill, the nasty rumors spreading like wildfire and a blackout on 99th street have left question marks on the faces of many. In an attempt to fight back the Rudies are burying Tokyo in graffiti for the purpose of maintaining self expression and to fatally handicap the Rokkaku Group before they stomp out our culture without leaving a single a trace if individuality.
Shadowed by the out of site beats originating from the JSR studio, can the Rudies look beyond their territorial tug of wars and join together to fight oppression? Or will they bury themselves with the same malice that they strive to resist? Playing the game is the only way to find out and you’ll get to see first hand what its like to pave your own way.
Gameplay
Jet Set Radio Future does not fall into any of your basic video game categories. It encompasses so many varying objectives and has such a massive setting and immersive story line that it would be a crime to try and classify it. The most common title that you hear of when comparing JSRF to other Xbox games is Tony Hawk, which is for only the most obvious reasons. The entirety of the game is spent on roller skates and you need to grind and do arial tricks to progress through the levels. Simply calling it a sports game would not do it justice. The tricks you can do are much more limited than those of Tony Hawk and vastly less time is spent on learning how to do them. Many could argue that the game plays more like an action adventure such as Resident Evil or Genma Onimusha because it incorporates such huge interactive environments and the elimination of enemies and rivals to the tune of a narrated fairy tale. Though closer to the mark, The Source still feels that even that doesn’t cover it. Regardless of what you become familiar to know the game as, you will find that it meshes together this diverse assortment of ingredients into a well thought out and thoroughly greased gaming engine.
Guided by the motivating storyline, you will find that the main objective of the game is to spray paint tags in different locations throughout Tokyo. You are playing as a new member of a Ruddie gang called the GG’s. You start the game out in the GG home base called the “Garage” where you will learn new skills and be provided access to the other key areas of Tokyo city. The Garage is very important because this is one of the locations where you can save your game file and gain new info about current objectives. You will also be able to hang out here with other GG members between missions like an intermission at a Broadway performance. Basically, all action that happens within the game starts and ends with the Garage.
The most noteworthy element of the Garage is the presence of a robot character named Roboy. Aside from DJ Professor K, he will be your mentor throughout the game. When you talk to him, an in game menu will be displayed. You will be able to use Royboy to save your game, change your character, practice new tricks, choose graffiti, create graffiti, and change the background music in the Garage. Other selections will be available to you once you have completed certain tasks. These options allow for a lot of individual preferences and give the player tons of leeway—a strong benefit of the game.
As a new member, you are sent out to test your skating skills by spray painting GG tags in designated areas marked by circular icons. To be able to tag, you need to collect spray cans that are scattered conveniently throughout the city. You can collect up to 30 different color spray cans that give you assorted benefits. Yellow cans account for simply 1 can in your stash. Each blue can you collect will account for 5 cans. Red cans are the most uncommon and by collecting them you will simply regain your health. When you collect at least 10 cans, you will have a new skill available at your disposal called the “Boost Dash” which makes your character go into warp speed overdrive. Similar to the different varieties of spray paint, there are diverse types of graffiti you can spray ranging from very small to very large. There are 5 graffiti sizes: SS, S, M, L, and XL. The SS and S graffiti have 1 icon each, M graffiti has 3, L graffiti has 6, and XL has 10. As you have probably guessed, the more icon marks that there are for each tag the bigger it will be.
The graffiti locations are spread all throughout the different levels. Some are in very arduous and hard to reach areas. This is where Jet Set’s unique skating game play comes into use. As you will discover, the level of interaction between you and your environment is nearly infinite. Almost anything within your reach is fare game to grind on. The most difficult thing for new players to grasp about the game is its physics. For one, gravity holds almost no relevance what so ever. You mustn’t forget that you are skating on rockets. You will be required to grind up telephone poles, skate sideways on billboards, fly across telephone wires and shoot up completely vertical rock solid walls. When you jump from one location to another, you might as well be on the moon because depending on how fast you are going it could be a while before you touch ground again. You won’t help but to notice how dynamic each of the levels are. The design allows the gamer to be completely free in his environment to roam and explore. Finding the correct path to skate adds to the draw of the game. Nothing is as it seems. A dead end may very well have more to it than you know.
Despite the space-like atmosphere and complicated maneuvers your characters will be performing, the controls themselves are simplistic. Although undemanding controls are native to Jet Set, The Source finds that this is one area where The Source gripes about the game. If there was any area they could have used a little more Tony Hawk influence, it would be here. Doing tricks and grinds seems just too easy. You have little control over the tricks you can do because they are basically done automatically. The ones that you can alter (i.e.: during grinds) can get repetitive. To make your player walk or run forward, you just use the left thumb stick. To jump you just hit A. To grind on an object such as a guard rail, you simply jump towards it. While you are grinding, you have the options to switch up your grinds and change your orientation. To switch your grind, you hit X. To face forwards or backwards, you hit Y. Hitting X and Y repeatedly will be the only influence that you have over your grinds. Balancing is a non issue. You will basically slide for as long as there is enough room to grind on any object. As far as tricking goes, hitting the same two buttons over and over again can get a little mind numbing but it is a tribute to the other areas of the game play because the game is still interesting despite this fact.
Story
JSRF takes place in an extremely modern futuristic adaptation of Tokyo. The city government has been corrupted by the major money bags, a multi enterprise company called the Rokkaku Group. By the hand of Rokkaku Gouji, the infiltration has mainstreamed straight into the heart of Tokyo where even civil laws are changing and the police department is being bought off. There seems to be little hope of resistance under the crooked juggernaut except for a few small groups of youth skating factions. These gangs, known as the Rudies, are all connected in one way or another through the underground pirate radio broadcasting station called Jet Set Radio. Headed by the notorious DJ Professor K., JSR is determined to undermine the Rokkaku Group’s desire to control industry, society, and culture as we know it.
There have been many troubling incidences occurring throughout the city putting everything in a downward spiral. The attack on the record store on Chuo Street, the Rokkaku police prowling around Dogenzaka Hill, the nasty rumors spreading like wildfire and a blackout on 99th street have left question marks on the faces of many. In an attempt to fight back the Rudies are burying Tokyo in graffiti for the purpose of maintaining self expression and to fatally handicap the Rokkaku Group before they stomp out our culture without leaving a single a trace if individuality.
Shadowed by the out of site beats originating from the JSR studio, can the Rudies look beyond their territorial tug of wars and join together to fight oppression? Or will they bury themselves with the same malice that they strive to resist? Playing the game is the only way to find out and you’ll get to see first hand what its like to pave your own way.
Gameplay
Jet Set Radio Future does not fall into any of your basic video game categories. It encompasses so many varying objectives and has such a massive setting and immersive story line that it would be a crime to try and classify it. The most common title that you hear of when comparing JSRF to other Xbox games is Tony Hawk, which is for only the most obvious reasons. The entirety of the game is spent on roller skates and you need to grind and do arial tricks to progress through the levels. Simply calling it a sports game would not do it justice. The tricks you can do are much more limited than those of Tony Hawk and vastly less time is spent on learning how to do them. Many could argue that the game plays more like an action adventure such as Resident Evil or Genma Onimusha because it incorporates such huge interactive environments and the elimination of enemies and rivals to the tune of a narrated fairy tale. Though closer to the mark, The Source still feels that even that doesn’t cover it. Regardless of what you become familiar to know the game as, you will find that it meshes together this diverse assortment of ingredients into a well thought out and thoroughly greased gaming engine.
Guided by the motivating storyline, you will find that the main objective of the game is to spray paint tags in different locations throughout Tokyo. You are playing as a new member of a Ruddie gang called the GG’s. You start the game out in the GG home base called the “Garage” where you will learn new skills and be provided access to the other key areas of Tokyo city. The Garage is very important because this is one of the locations where you can save your game file and gain new info about current objectives. You will also be able to hang out here with other GG members between missions like an intermission at a Broadway performance. Basically, all action that happens within the game starts and ends with the Garage.
The most noteworthy element of the Garage is the presence of a robot character named Roboy. Aside from DJ Professor K, he will be your mentor throughout the game. When you talk to him, an in game menu will be displayed. You will be able to use Royboy to save your game, change your character, practice new tricks, choose graffiti, create graffiti, and change the background music in the Garage. Other selections will be available to you once you have completed certain tasks. These options allow for a lot of individual preferences and give the player tons of leeway—a strong benefit of the game.
As a new member, you are sent out to test your skating skills by spray painting GG tags in designated areas marked by circular icons. To be able to tag, you need to collect spray cans that are scattered conveniently throughout the city. You can collect up to 30 different color spray cans that give you assorted benefits. Yellow cans account for simply 1 can in your stash. Each blue can you collect will account for 5 cans. Red cans are the most uncommon and by collecting them you will simply regain your health. When you collect at least 10 cans, you will have a new skill available at your disposal called the “Boost Dash” which makes your character go into warp speed overdrive. Similar to the different varieties of spray paint, there are diverse types of graffiti you can spray ranging from very small to very large. There are 5 graffiti sizes: SS, S, M, L, and XL. The SS and S graffiti have 1 icon each, M graffiti has 3, L graffiti has 6, and XL has 10. As you have probably guessed, the more icon marks that there are for each tag the bigger it will be.
The graffiti locations are spread all throughout the different levels. Some are in very arduous and hard to reach areas. This is where Jet Set’s unique skating game play comes into use. As you will discover, the level of interaction between you and your environment is nearly infinite. Almost anything within your reach is fare game to grind on. The most difficult thing for new players to grasp about the game is its physics. For one, gravity holds almost no relevance what so ever. You mustn’t forget that you are skating on rockets. You will be required to grind up telephone poles, skate sideways on billboards, fly across telephone wires and shoot up completely vertical rock solid walls. When you jump from one location to another, you might as well be on the moon because depending on how fast you are going it could be a while before you touch ground again. You won’t help but to notice how dynamic each of the levels are. The design allows the gamer to be completely free in his environment to roam and explore. Finding the correct path to skate adds to the draw of the game. Nothing is as it seems. A dead end may very well have more to it than you know.
Despite the space-like atmosphere and complicated maneuvers your characters will be performing, the controls themselves are simplistic. Although undemanding controls are native to Jet Set, The Source finds that this is one area where The Source gripes about the game. If there was any area they could have used a little more Tony Hawk influence, it would be here. Doing tricks and grinds seems just too easy. You have little control over the tricks you can do because they are basically done automatically. The ones that you can alter (i.e.: during grinds) can get repetitive. To make your player walk or run forward, you just use the left thumb stick. To jump you just hit A. To grind on an object such as a guard rail, you simply jump towards it. While you are grinding, you have the options to switch up your grinds and change your orientation. To switch your grind, you hit X. To face forwards or backwards, you hit Y. Hitting X and Y repeatedly will be the only influence that you have over your grinds. Balancing is a non issue. You will basically slide for as long as there is enough room to grind on any object. As far as tricking goes, hitting the same two buttons over and over again can get a little mind numbing but it is a tribute to the other areas of the game play because the game is still interesting despite this fact.