Chances are, if you played Jet Set Radio when it first appeared in 640 pixels across and 480 pixels high on the Dreamcast, you probably had the same reaction as me. You thought: "This is it. Games don't need to get any better because, ladies and gentlemen, we are playing cartoons."
Jet Set Radio didn't just look good - it had the most infectious dance soundtrack. When Sweet Soul Brother belts out as you skate across the primary-coloured roofs of residential Kogane, you'd need a charcoal heart to not slobber happily with a huge wash of endorphins. Jet Set Radio has that rare essence of pure pleasure. Annoyingly, it also has an equally powerful essence of face-bending rage.
Levels aren't designed in a way that you can react to. Rail-grinds are angular and erratic, launching unprepared skaters in unexpected directions. Momentum is hard to maintain, stumbling is frequent, and your rollerblades make smaller movements fist-bunchingly clumsy. Your first play of any level will be a huge meal of swallowed curses. It's good, then, that when you revisit levels, you're given a chance to remember what you've learnt.
You learn the paths, the shortcuts, and which graffiti to do first. Your progress summons harsher enemies, so you're best to get the big ones out of the way first. It never gets easy, and that frequently stunted momentum will always irritate. But as you get better, the pleasure of the cartoon looks and music slowly begin to complement your enjoyment of the game.
Jet Set Radio may have lost the graphical novelty that made it the jaw-dropper it was back in 2000, but it still has the warm attitude, inexplicable storyline, and outstanding soundtrack that make it such a lovable bastard. It's not massive, so 800 Microsoft Points is the perfect price - generous for nostalgia-sodden boobs, and cheap enough to bait in the unwary newcomers. Give it a go, it'll win you over. Just very, very slowly.
4 comments so far...
Bezza89 on 12 Sep '12 said:
I'd like JSRF, what's the difference?
Thos. on 12 Sep '12 said:
I loved the original and played the hell out of it. You have to learn skills to play it, and it feels amazing when everything comes together, and you're completely in the zone making a perfect run.
I bought Assassins Creed II only recently. To do all sorts of leaps and stunts you have to hold down two buttons and move forward. Seriously. That's all you do. It is unbelievably tedious. My adrenalin levels never increased above "Watching a cow eat grass". Apparently some people like this game.
EDIT: OK - turns out I was talking not about JSR, but JSRF, which apparently smoothed out the gameplay, so there's a chance I could completely hate the original. Only one way to find out...
msbhvn on 12 Sep '12 said:
Out next week! Totally agree with this review, it was revolutionary at the time but doesn't really stand up now. I'm getting it for nostalgia purposes, but the difficulty level is definitely rage-inducing.
Bezza, JSR is harder than JSRF because in JSR it's very easy to lose your momentum. Since you have to chase rival taggers and spray them with paint, this makes for a lot of frustration. Also you have to do analogue stick gestures to tag, rather than just pressing a button. It's still worth a punt for £6-odd, IMO.
msbhvn on 19 Sep '12 said:
I've played this for a couple of hours now, after finally being able to buy it, stupid Wednesday unlock.
The game holds up better than I thought it would. Being able to control the camera in this version is a big plus compared to the original DC version. The loss of momentum problem is handled rather counter-intuitively by jumping repeatedly to speed up. The tutorial isn't very helpful, just telling you to do 30 or 50 tricks without telling you how it's done. YouTube fixed that though.