Xbox Addict

Segas Plans for Xbox

Smilebit’s Director, Takayuki Kawagoe, spoke about both Jet Set Radio Future and Gun Valkyrie in regards to Online play for both titles, their respective launch schedules, why they chose the Xbox over PS2, and a teaser for the upcoming Panzer Dragoon.

IGNDC: Jet Set Radio Future looks fantastic on the Xbox. With Microsoft’s new announcement of the Broadband gaming, does Smilebit have plans to incorporate an online mode for JSRF?

TK: For now, we’re still finding out what’s possible for an online feature. We’re going to try online play for Jet Set Radio Future, but I can’t talk about the details of the online play. We also have an online plan for GUNVALKRYIE, but again, it’s too early to talk about it.

IGNDC: We’re also big fans of the Crazy Taxi series though we were a little sad to hear that the multiplayer mode (both online and offline) wouldn’t make it into Crazy Taxi 2. Will there be an online multiplayer mode Crazy Taxi Next for the Xbox?

HO: With the Xbox, it give us [Hitmaker] a whole lot of options to play with. The problem with doing online play for a game like Crazy Taxi, the cities are so large, the chances of players meeting at any given time are very rare. Within the game’s parameters, it’s pretty hard to make it fun with online play in the first place.

With Crazy Taxi Next, what I would like to do is to add new features that aren’t in Crazy Taxi and Crazy Taxi 2... essentially make a totally new Crazy Taxi game. Of course, Crazy Taxi Next will have huge graphical improvements, but the biggest changes would be in the gameplay. For example, stages that change with time so you would have night-time driving sequences. With this in mind, there would be different customers that you would pick up at night compared to those you would pick up during the day. Using this example, you could pick up a couple at night and drive them to a hotel (laughs).