Playing JSRF right after playing the OG, one of my favorite games I've discovered this year, and hearing nothing but praise for the sequel, I was disappointed to feel that JSRF took one step forward and two steps back.

Let me start by saying the original JSR's strength was not the gameplay. While fun if you mastered it, there was still a lot of room for improvement.
JSRF absolutely remedies this by fine-tuning everything that was needed with tighter controls, better physics, more tricks and options. Just objectively and absolutely devours the original game in the gameplay department. That is the one step forward and the best thing about JSRF.

The original JSR's biggest strength was it's style and soundtrack. Probably my favorite artstyle in videogames, and one of the best OSTs of all time. JSRF retains having a strong artstlyle and a good soundtrack... it's just not as good in my opinion. While the original POPPED, colors here are bleaker and have more of a depressing green tint to it. And this isn't some sort of "The future is bleak" commentary either, JSRF establishes that it's future is more advanced and hopeful than ever before. At first it is an interesting style choice, but over time you start to become bored of the game's visuals due to most areas looking very same-y in terms of color diversity.

The soundtrack is the more subjective take, but I definitely did not bop my head like I did when playing the original the entire time. There are some good tracks here and there but a lot of them become really grating as you hear them over and over again. Part of the reason the soundtrack suffers is how the game is structured, which I will get to.

The way the game is structured is another step back in my opinion. I loved the original for it's arcadey feel. You go into a level, complete the objective with the highest score possible, and you move on, kinda like a Tony Hawk game or Star Fox 64.
How JSRF is structed is basically a segmented open world, and it's LARGE. For many this is a popular structre. To me, it was a major flaw. You see, when it comes to arcadey fun games like JSR, I like to be put straight into the action. The problem with the open world is that it can take a while to get to your objective. There are many instances where you have to run through a section of the world that you have already ran through 5 times in order to get to a single objective. As an example, there are lots of times where you're at point A, and you need to get to point D. This requires you do run through point B and C to get to D. And then you need to get back to point A, so you need to run through point C and B again. I don't mind replaying a level with a different objective, the problem is the travel to the objective. It just becomes tedious. I will say, if traversal wasn't as fun as it was, this would be a major problem in the game and pretty much ruin it for me.

Having said that, with this structure in place, each chapter in the game will pretty much have 3 of it's own same songs in rotation, which you will be forced to hear over and over again while running through the padding this game likes to do. It really drives you mad.

I still did enjoy my time with JSRF and the first 2 hours gave me the impression this was gonna be an objectivley better game than the original. But the further you get through the more the tedium kicks in. And perhaps my expectations were too high after loving the OG and hearing all the praise this one was getting. Despite the flaws, JSRF is still a great game and I still recommend it if you loved the orignal. I even recommend it if you didn't like the original as for some people this is the only playable one (which I heavily disagree with).

O melhor: Difícil escolher entre o visual, a trilha sonora ou o level design
O pior: Faz falta um controle de câmera total
O pior de verdade: Nenhum remaster ou esforço de retrocompatibilidade trouxe esse jogo para plataformas modernas...

O Jet Set Radio original é um jogo que eu queria ter gostado mais. Se inegavelmente seu estilo visual e sua trilha sonora seguem excelentes, o gameplay nunca "clicou" comigo. Os movimentos são lerdos, a câmera não é muito boa (mesmo nas versões HD) e o desafio por várias vezes é só frustrante. Ainda assim, sempre tive muito interesse em jogar a muito elogiada sequência, talvez também pela "mística" que aqueles jogos de difícil acesso possuem. Depois da frustração de Jet Set Radio Future não ter feito parte da retrocompatibilidade do Xbox One, o jeito foi recorrer a emulação. E, de fato, esse jogo merecia mais do que estar a mais de duas décadas preso no Xbox original.

JSRF é tratado como uma sequência, mas na verdade está mais para um reboot do jogo de Dreamcast. A própria história traz vários personagens do jogo original em situações diferentes, mas a narrativa é a mesma: numa Tokyo futurista, controlada por megacorporações, gangues de jovens equipados com patins magnéticos e muita tinta spray deixam suas marcas pela cidade ao som da rádio pirata comandada pelo DJ Professor K. Como um membro dos GG's, você entra em diversos conflitos com outras gangues, a polícia e o conglomerado opressor Rokkaku. É uma história contada de um jeito simples e repleta de exageros, mas que consegue passar sua mensagem.

Nos demais aspectos, Future faz o que toda boa sequência deve fazer: Melhorar o que deu certo e corrigir o que deu errado. Em termos visuais, ele expande de várias formas as ambições do jogo original. Os cenários são bem maiores e cheios de vida, com trânsito, multidões e objetos destrutíveis. Ao invés de ser dividido em fases, as áreas da Tokyo de JSRF são interconectadas e podem ser exploradas livremente quando acessadas pela primeira vez durante a campanha, o que torna o jogo um "semi mundo aberto" muito impressionante tecnicamente. Considerando o aumento de resolução possível via emulação, posso dizer que em vários momentos é um dos jogos mais bonitos que já vi. Aliado a isso está mais um trabalho excelente na trilha sonora feita na maior parte por Hideki Naganuma. A seleção de músicas e remixes é ótima e realmente traz a sensação de estar ouvindo uma rádio daquele mundo.

Mas é no gameplay que as diferenças são mais drásticas. Future deixa de lado a estrutura puramente Arcade do jogo original, apesar de ter vários dos mesmos objetivos. O design do jogo é mais focado em exploração e descoberta do que em otimização de tempo. A missão principal ainda é grafitar todos os lugares apontados em cada cenário, mas sem tempo limite e sem perseguição policial. Os grafites que precisavam de inputs do analógico também foram removidos em prol de algo mais simples e ágil, e o desafio principal do jogo é simplesmente entender como navegar em cada área e alcançar todos os pontos necessários. Resolvido esse "puzzle", uma nova leva de desafios é apresentada ao coletar uma fita cassete disponível em cada região, exigindo combos, pontuações e sequências específicas de manobras, justamente para tirar proveito do conhecimento do cenário adquirido durante a exploração inicial. Uma novidade em mecânica são os combates, geralmente contra forças policiais. É o aspecto do jogo onde um controle de câmera livre mais faz falta, talvez. Mas de modo geral é bem simples e até bem fácil, considerando que mesmo as boss battles podem ser resolvidas rapidamente segurando o gatilho direito para usar o spray no momento certo. Há desafios extras ao terminar a história principal, além de um modo multiplayer (que infelizmente não consegui testar).

Além de um game design mais refinado, os controles também estão bem melhores. Os personagens são mais ágeis, possuem mais movimentos e um melhor controle de velocidade. Em Future é possível executar várias manobras somente apertando o botão X ou Y, mas apesar da simplicidade do comando, para executar combos é necessário manter um certo ritmo entre as manobras. Mais importante é o fato de que manobras num grind aumentam sua velocidade, o que é essencial para a navegação pelo cenário. Há várias nuances no controle e, mesmo com seus vários tutoriais, o jogo deixa de explicar alguns comandos úteis ao jogador, como por exemplo a possibilidade de sair de um grind num half-pipe apertando o analógico. Esse último comando é particularmente muito útil nas duas fases que se passam num esgoto, justamente o ponto baixo do jogo pra mim. Enquanto quase todas as outras áreas são divertidas e interessantes de explorar, o design mais "labiríntico" dessas duas fases em específico só é um tanto quanto cansativo.

No mais, Jet Set Radio Future é um jogo excelente, mesmo considerando a barreira inicial de ser feito em uma época onde ainda estavam decidindo o que exatamente fazer com dois analógicos num controle. Nos momentos em que você entra no ritmo do jogo e entende o que cada cenário pede de você, ele é simplesmente muito satisfatório. Também tem uma boa duração e muito conteúdo extra para quem quer fazer 100%. É realmente uma pena que provavelmente ele nunca será relançado de alguma forma, apesar dos rumores de uma possível volta da série. Mas mesmo se for o caso (e também considerando lançamentos como Bomb Rush Cyberfunk) acho que vale o esforço de tentar jogar essa pérola.

Put it down for a few months and came back to realize I had left it off at the skyscraper district and lost interest incredibly hard ngl
JSRF is a bit of step forward step back sequel for me tbh, it doesn't really iterate on the first game as much as just kinda do something different with a similar idea that's better in some ways but also somehow clunkier in others.
It's been long enough since I put it down I feel like I'd need to start over to get back into the swing of it so it's going on the shelf for now. Maybe one day Sega will remaster it with a decent camera and give me the motivation to go back

Similar to the first game this is a hard one for me to review. The positive is this game is a huge step forward from the first. On balance it controls a lot better, the game structure is more open and free with the interconnecting levels, and you aren't being hounded by police every two seconds. Things are shaken up pretty often, you are spraying graffiti, racing, tag racing, fighting, and more. The game also has a wonderful charming style that holds up today, great art, cool designs for the different playable characters and rival gangs, and of course an awesome soundtrack (Aisle 10 was my favorite).

However this game really needs a modern remake (I am glad we are getting a reboot!) to fix some issues. The jumps are so floaty yet they have so many areas where you need to be super precise that it just leads to frustration, honestly without save states I am not sure I would have pressed onward in certain sections. The map also might be the worst one I have ever seen, it is almost indecipherable in some sections where the text is just on top of the map entirely and you have no idea what you are looking at. There are other issues but they are pretty of the time, such as a rough checkpointing system and a lack of clarity at times on what you should be doing, but I can accept a lot of that since this is a 2002 game.

Ultimately I think the back half of the game will make me think of this game a lot more fondly than I was working through the horrible sewer level earlier on, and that helps me look past a lot of the issues. Great style and I look forward to a modern take on this, I think it could be special

While it has a banging soundtrack, a unique visual style, and a slightly expanded trick system over its predecessor, I can't say I'm the biggest fan of this game.

I'm not huge on the map design in some of the alter areas, the simplified graffiti mechanics, and getting stopped frequently to deal with a police encounter which just halts progress immediately. Far more focus on bigger spaces means travel takes so much longer to do and getting from point A to point B to handle a story mission is a slog a lot of the time with very few shortcuts.

While I feel it's only a marginal improvement over its predecessor in terms of control, feel, and to a point its visuals, when the game is in its groove, it's a total blast to play. However I think my interest lies more with the original in terms of style and with Bomb Rush Cyberfunk, it trounces this game in feel as a whole.

One of the most overrated games I've played. I'm sorry.

This has one of the BEST soundtracks I've ever heard and a style that is still rarely outmatched. However, it has some of THE MOST BAFFLING game design I've seen. In regards of the overall structure, there's barely a sense of direction in-between stages or even IN stages, making it extremely easy to get lost and confused during your playthrough.

However, the thing that easily puts this thing down for me is the combat, where you have to dash towards enemies to knock them down in which allows you to spray them, taking them out. While this was also in the original JSR, a game I consider to be among my favourites, it was never something you had to do, with the final boss being designed in a way that took advantage of the games strengths. In JSRF, you HAVE to engage in forced combat sections constantly in order to progress the game. Not only is this forcing you into a system that is generally not fun to play, it also halts the pacing to a crawl, and makes me much more likely to go and play something else.

Maybe this will hold up better on a replay, like the original, but for now, I don't think it's anywhere near as perfect as I see people label it as. Sorry.

I think this is the most mixed I've felt on a game in my entire life. On one hand the aesthetic of this game is absolutely marvelous, one of a kind. The cel-shaded polygons are timeless, the music is catchy, the characters are full of life and adorable little quirks (I love when they do their little stock Fortnite dance as after any kind of victory). The story is nonsensical in the perfect way, you'll be attacked by Apache attack helicopters, Doc Ock, an evil train, and a lovable cast of rival vandals who like to play dressup. The art design for the graffiti and general vibe is on point. The UI is like a perfect time capsule of the early 2000's. Point is, it's damn near flawless.

But then you actually play the game.

Dear god, this may well be the jankiest game I've played in years. During my playthrough I experienced the following an EXTENSIVE amount of times:
- Camera clipping through walls when trying to surf on billboards
- Falling through rails instead of clinging onto them
- Randomly coming to a complete stop
- Extremely imprecise jumps that made platforming a nightmare
- Slipping off of a tall building and falling to my death because I pushed the left stick 1mm too far forward
- Pressing the left trigger to center my camera but oh no! an enemy is within view, so it locks onto them and I either slam into a wall or fall to my death
- Jumping into a rail perfectly straight and going in the opposite direction for no reason
- Trying to jump off a rail only to be glued to another rail that's barely near me (yes, this somehow happens while I also deal with falling through random rails)

I could go on and on with complaints but in the sake of fairness, the general gameplay is a big improvement over the original Jet Set Radio. For one, they added a boost mechanic, which makes any kind of chase section feel a lot more fair. It also just feels good to go fast. Second, they did away with the timers and restrictions. This is my favorite change since JSR pissed me the fuck off with it's oddly brutal demand for perfectionism. Now, in Future, you can take things at your own pace. I also love the ever-expanding map, it makes Tokyo-To feel big and fun to explore. The Graffiti Souls are fun collectibles and make for an interesting challenge to grab, I was a little annoyed to have to fetch a couple near the late game, but it's no big deal.

That's about all the compliments I can give to the gameplay, though. Just in general the whole vibe feels clunky. Turning and moving feels like you're constantly on ice, and the camera doesn't do any favors. Jump height and speed felt bizarrely random at times. Some of the platforming sections in this game, like the Underground Facility and Pharaoh Park, were so god damn tedious and annoying. Tedious. That's a good word to describe a lot of the obstacles the game throws at you. Lot's of trial and error with no good balance of challenge, the platform challenges and bosses are either way too easy or way too god damn boring to have to repeat over and over and over again until you get it right.

I hate writing this review because I was really excited to play this game, I went through the trouble of setting an Xbox emulator up just to play it. Everyone has gave amazing reviews and said it's miles better than the original. But I left feeling the same as when I played it's older brother: it sure is charming, energetic, and fun, but it frustrates me to no end and feels like some of the most wasted potential in gaming

É O GOAT

Finalmente joguei esse pela primeira vez.

O jogo tá MUITO mais estiloso, tanto nos visuais quanto na trilha sonora.

O gameplay evoluiu bastante de um para o outro, o mundo aberto dividido em blocos é mais legal, a câmera funciona por mais que ainda não use o segundo analógico, não tem mais as partes canalhas e retiraram o tempo limite para os objetivos.

O "reboot" passa a impressão que essa era pra ser a versão definitiva de JSR se não fosse as limitações do dreamcast. Perfeito.

A platformer with rollerskates never felt any better than this. Sega somehow made the presentation even better with how much more stylized, grungy, funky, and dystopian the city of Tokyo-to looks. The way the levels are structured makes for some really fun and challenging platforming, while also telling a story of the city that you're in through its presentation. Like seriously, levels like the roofs of upper class sky scrapers, an area that's just purely one big roller coaster, the lower class cities that are built very strangely, the big sewers with a cult room says a lot about the world building of this game. Everything just makes sense for a messed up city taken over by a totalitarian business. Just like the game's message, this game in general is just pure funky art that doesn't get old from start to finish.

Also the music is obviously incredible, but I didn't want to put too much space on that since most people only talk about the music but haven't played the game itself.

to say i was excited to play future after completing the original jet set radio would be an understatement. i had the concept of love on loop for days on end, and i even wound up playing the first level of the game early in order to test out the emulator i was using (while i was playing the original jet set radio, no less) and was blown away by the game. rose-colored visions of sick-as-hell rail grinding and awesome music filled my head as i trudged through the final stages of jet set radio. i ultimately ended up having a blast with the original, and recently it has become one of my favorite games to go through. unfortunately, i cannot say the same for future.

jet set radio future is not a sequel to jet set radio. it is, instead, a reimagining of that game, with the overall plot retaining elements of the original alongside the gameplay sticking to the series’s roots. the game is set in the fictional location of tokyo-to, the story follows the GGs and their various misadventures, and the game is centered around a radio station called “jet set radio”. the gameplay focuses on spraying graffiti and rail grinding, with a wide variety of playable characters to choose from. this is where the similarities end, however.

coming off of the original jet set radio, the difference most apparent from the start of the game is how each title approaches mission structure. the original was a tightly paced, arcade-type game that encouraged memorization of map layout and system mechanics for optimal route planning. the game was divided into three chapters, with each having their own missions with varied level design. each mission fell under two categories: the first being a mission where the player must spray over a set amount of graffiti “points” within the set time limit, and the second being a PVE type mission where the player had to spray enemies a set amount of times within the time limit (dubbed “tagger’s tag” in future). there are of course exceptions to this rule, most notably within the final mission (and also the “jet” missions available as of chapter 3). future instead opts for a much more varied and “free” mission structure, with the amount of gamemodes increasing drastically, alongside the interesting choice to remove the timer across all of the missions. a rule is established relatively early on in future, where after the player sprays across all the graffiti points in an area the gamemode shifts to one that would typically challenge the player’s understanding of the area’s layout, such as the returning tagger’s tag and all-new jet flag missions. there are more, of course, but it becomes apparent very early on that this rule is not nearly as structurally sound as the original’s mission layout. the first time future utilizes this structure is on 99th street with rapid 99, where after the player spray paints all of the points in the area they will be challenged to a round of jet flag (a race to collect the most amount of flags within the time limit), theoretically challenging the player’s knowledge of the map’s layout.

on paper, this sounds like a great idea for a mission structure, and in all honesty, it is! however, this sound structure is abandoned almost immediately after shaking down rapid 99. the next mission takes place in perhaps the worst area in the entire game…the infamous jet set radio future sewers. an area that punishes mistakes with obscene levels of backtracking, in a game with no load feature (there are indeed save points sprinkled throughout this area). the stage is an upwards climb to spray over specific points in order to open up a passageway to poison jam’s hideout, and this area is where it becomes immediately apparent that the game truly does not care about fleshing out its areas in any meaningful way. after you do enter poison jam’s lair, you are challenged to a round of tagger’s tag against the members of poison jam…in an entirely new area. it should be noted that after clearing both the round of tagger’s tag the game gives you zero incentive to return to either the sewers or the hideout (which in the case of the former might actually be a good thing) unless the player wishes to collect the entirely optional graffiti souls or recruit cube in the postgame. this is a pattern that repeats itself throughout the entire game, where areas will be unlocked for the player to visit only to be utilized in the story mode once for a mission and never to be visited again. thankfully some of these missions are genuinely pretty entertaining - tagger’s tag takes full advantage of the game’s newly refined control scheme to offer an experience that is so much more fun than the original’s version of this gamemode (i still do enjoy the original tagger’s tag a lot), and figuring out routes and locations of graffiti points in the default gamemode is pretty fun at points. however in the case of the latter it is pretty redundant considering some of the more interesting stages never get utilized again (see: kibogaoka hill) which further reinforces the point that in terms of stage design future is primarily quantity over quality. for reference, future has fifteen areas compared to the original’s 5 (no i am not counting gouji’s tower). three of these five areas are fleshed out to an incredible degree - the remaining two, bantam street and grind square were requested to be added to the game as per sega’s attempt to market the game towards a western audience, and are unfortunately utilized only once in the story mode (these levels do have depth, mind you, but as to not go on a tangent about them i will keep it short and sweet) and do fall victim to future’s issue of being used only once in the main campaign. however, the other three are fleshed out to such an incredible degree that after going over the original’s campaign two times in the past week it is truly tragic to see future fall victim to the problems that it does with its world structure.

it should also be mentioned that some of future’s missions are fucking ass, exhibit a being the noise tank reduction mission in the shibuya bus terminal, a pure time-waster in which the player must run into dozens of noise tank members. that’s it. that’s the mission. zero depth, absolutely nothing but a pure and utter time waster to pad out the game’s already incredibly long runtime (at least when compared to the original’s). yet another would be the player’s first visit to the fortified residential area, a stage that in this reviewer’s humble opinion is almost as ass as the sewer mission. the bar is low, however, but this mission does not surpass it by that much at all. backtracking is the word of the day as once again this mission is a climb upwards towards a boss fight (more on that later) which involves the player spraying over various points to unlock passageways…sound familiar? yes indeed reader, this mission is in fact incredibly similar to the aforementioned sewer level from the start of the game and retains many of the problems that mission faced. error is penalized with extreme backtracking and some of the graffiti points are placed in…questionable locations, to say the least. there is also a timer present throughout the mission, however it is set to thirty fucking minutes for each of the game’s sections and does not pose any risk whatsoever to the player. the stage sucks to get through. i would honestly have preferred it if the game killed me each time i fell because the respawn times are honestly not that long and backtracking my way up to the point that i fell from takes way too much time. thankfully the next few missions are pretty ok (i don’t remember having any significant issues with them, anyways) and since it was towards the end of the game the final mission occurred pretty soon afterwards, which was in all honesty sick as hell. tagger’s tag followed up by a psychedelic boss fight, all while the best track in the game plays for the entirety of the segment? don’t mind if i do…

another change to the game’s structure is the introduction of various combat sequences. in the first game, fighting back wasn’t really an option the player was given. sure, you could blow up helicopters (cool as shit!) and stall onishima and various other enemies, but it was the least of your concerns as evading them and spraying graffiti ultimately took priority over your very limited combative options. now, in future, entire segments of the game are dedicated to fighting your enemies, be it generic enemy formations or boss enemies - the game has changed when it comes to fighting your enemies. at various intervals in the main campaign, you will enter combat with hostiles. you can generally defeat regular enemies by knocking them over by running into them, and then spraying them with your graffiti. some stronger enemies may require a boost to knock over! and of course, the general rule of thumb when it comes to boss enemies is that there will be a point that you must spray with graffiti multiple times that is generally obscured in some way or another. there is truly not that much depth to combat in this game and, depending on who you ask, will probably be considered either a good thing or a bad thing. for me, i would probably stand somewhere in the middle between the two. it’s never complex or annoying enough for me to hate it, but it shows up way too often for me to enjoy it to any degree. some of the boss enemies are pretty cool though, and generally shake up the flow of things. they’re all way too easy to defeat though.

that last statement leads me into another big issue i have with the game: it is far too easy. moments where i would find satisfaction for figuring something out or situations where i had to overcome a significant obstacle are truly few and far between and are generally reserved for the postgame missions. areas are never truly exploited in any meaningful way to deliver challenge to the player, and the game’s combat is never difficult in the slightest. in any other game, this might not have been such an issue, but in future, a game with no difficulty options and a follow up to a game that required skill and a fundamental understanding of the game itself to clear.

normally in my reviews at some point or another i mention the game’s overall “vibe” and soundtrack. and the time…is now. future exploits Y2K aesthetics and vibes to create a genuinely impressive atmosphere and world that is both similar to the original and simultaneously incredibly distinct from it. while the original pioneered cel-shaded graphics and is to this day one of the coolest games to look at and listen to, future is overall a much cleaner experience overall. it still uses cel-shading to depict its cartoonish world and characters, but there is a much clearer focus on realism that wasn’t present in the original. not only that, but the general idea that defines future as “the future” is this concept of what the future should be. character designs have evolved to the point where some seem straight out of a science fiction film, the noise tanks are pure robots, beat’s headphones now have antennae protruding from each side, yoyo has dyed his hair green…and the list goes on. people have described this concept as “spacey” before and in all honesty that is an incredibly apt descriptor for the game’s overall feel. it’s a lot more free and open in a way that the first game wasn’t, and it’s clear that in that regard the gameplay has likewise evolved in the same direction as everything else. another point of discussion is the game’s soundtrack. i will say it now: some of the tracks do not work for me. licensed tracks were something the first game did incredibly well and in future there are only a few i would say i like (too many latch brothers tracks for my liking, but that’s probably just me). as for the naganuma tracks, i would consider almost all of them vastly superior to his work on the original. they’ve all been constructed with a much larger focus on electronic instrumentals, perhaps to reflect the overall design change future takes when compared to the original, and all of them are generally just fantastic pieces to listen to. if not for the licensed tracks i would likely consider this game’s soundtrack superior to the original. that being said just as there is a much wider focus on variety in the game’s missions, there is likewise a ton of variety in the game’s soundtrack, and even if some of the tracks do suck to listen to at points there is a very clear intention with the game’s selection of music and genres.

if i had to choose one element of future that i would consider consistently great it would have to be the game’s overhaul of the original’s general control scheme. turning can now be done on a dime, whereas in the original it took at least one second to accomplish. your character controls much more smoothly overall, their speed has been buffed slightly and boosting now requires resources a la boost-era sonic, but lasts for much longer overall. spraying can now be done while moving, you can theoretically complete entire graffiti-based levels without ever having to stop. another addition to future is the air/rail trick system. this system allows you to perform tricks in the air or on rails by using your x/y buttons. it can be finicky at points (the timing of the tricks, especially the y tricks, are entirely speed dependent) but figuring out how to use them and maintain high momentum was easily one of the highlights of the game, at least in terms of difficulty. as boosting is no longer performed with one of the controller’s triggers, camera control is now the only function used on the left trigger whereas spraying is reserved for the right trigger, a change that is welcome as having the camera control button isolated makes some segments of the game much easier (tagger’s tag) than they were in the original.

at the end of the day i don’t think future is a bad game. it has all the markings of a great follow-up: it refined elements of the original that fans disliked and is more jet set radio, which isn’t a bad thing as far as i am concerned. as for me, however, i do like some elements of the game, but as a package it ultimately fell flat in surpassing the original. jet set radio was a tightly paced, two hour game disguised as a five to seven hour one. future is a bloated, eight to ten hour game that is truly that length no matter which way you cut it. maybe the future isn’t all it’s cracked up to be…

The best game no one can play.

Jet Set Radio Future improves on the original in every single way imaginable. For all the iconic traits of the first game, this game has an even more unforgettable art style, a godlike soundtrack that'll stick to you for the rest of your life, awesome character designs that at times simply top the previous game's, a super-slick presentation very few games have done good on matching, and an even crazier and more in-your-face version of the first game's story and themes (which of course, who can say no to punching cops's teeth in and destroying big business to save art and music as a concept?)

But as you may notice from my JSR review, those are all things JSR already did pretty well. What about the gameplay and level design? The first game kind of flounders on those things. Fortunately, JSRF defies the original and ascends past it as one of the best platformer / extreme sports games out there.

Movement, while still somewhat clunky in that "I'm skating around on rollerblades" way, is far faster, smoother and easier to maneuver than the original (no more "hold RT forever" shit!). RT has been cleared to make room for tagging, which means LT is free to only center your camera (thank god). Tagging itself has been simplified to not be as involved (maybe a downer to some, it was to me at first), but the way the levels are built around the new system is so much smarter and more fluid in execution. Tricks are easier to do and way faster, with a combo system that while simple to execute has a hidden depth worth exploring and learning how to maximize. You can now do a "boost" which rockets you at max speed and smashes through enemies/obstacles if you have 10 spare spray-cans on you; which lets you choose whether to use a boost to clear jumps / attack cops and risk running out of cans, or have enough cans to tag everywhere but risk your safety in more treacherous areas that could use a boost. It's not absolutely perfect or meeting it's fullest potential, but it's absolutely on it's way, and it intertwines it's gameplay elements very well.

But no, despite my praises, that's not the true spectacle of JSRF that I'm talking about... It's the LEVEL DESIGN.

This game's maps are, unlike the original, all interconnected in a sandbox-esque format, with their own sets of missions in each area. While the original game suggested a full world to explore and navigate just around the corners of the maps they provided, it ultimately had a smaller scale and held back it's players with timers. This game actually delivers on JSR's promises and gives you Tokyo-to straight up in all of it's glory. Rails, pathways, ramps and pipes all interweave up, down, around and through each other, creating labyrinthine courses out of multiple linear tracks that loop back around to centerpoints or open stretches. The streets are filled with crowds of people that duck, weave, and topple over as you blast by them. Cops come rushing in, ushering them out as they pull out their guns and battering rams, and your objective is to ram into them with your new boost and then spray em til there's nothing left. Objectives feel much more like they connect to a story, and DJ Professor K plays a bigger part in helping guide you from area to area with new objectives and funny anecdotes. The world feels alive, free, and insane, filled with shit that's either going to make you laugh out loud from the absurdity or jaw-drop from the sheer spectacle. Every bit of the game design is brilliant, and if it ever comes off frustrating, it's less on the level and more on your lack of experience with it. Once you master each area, the world becomes your playground you can just ride through forever.

It's an absolutely fucking excellent title on all accounts. And because it was on the original Xbox, most of the audience that would've played it didn't. And since the game has tons of music held at gunpoint by certain record labels (coughLatchBrothersCOUGH) you will never see it rereleased. So your best bet is to have a computer good enough to play an OG Xbox emulator, and pop this bad boy in.

You have to play it. At least to know what it's like. Even if the gameplay doesn't click for you like it did for me, you'll get SOMETHING good out of it. Promise.

UNDERSTAND- UNDERSTAND, THE CONCEPT OF LOVE

Jet Set Radio Future is a game that just oozes style and attitude that I really don't see many other games pull off. Especially not to the degree of JSRF. It keeps the spirit of the original Dreamcast title intact while expanding on the formula as a whole. It isn't without it's issues, but this is truly a unique experience.

First, like I mentioned is the style of this game. It absolutely wears it's early 2000's atmosphere with pride and I love it for that. The cel-shaded graphics really pop against the lower poly models, giving the game a hugely charming look. Not to mention all the mo-capped dancing that the player and NPC's do, it's awesome. A huge part of the style also comes from the music, mainly composed by the same man as the first game: Hideki Naganuma. This man never misses with his tracks and delivers some truly stellar music, even remixing some of the tracks from the first game. Not to mention there is some licensed music here too, just like the first game and they all generally fit the vibe too.

Now arguably the most important part of any game is the actual gameplay, and for releasing in 2002, I think JSRF delivers pretty well. The main goal of most stages is to roller blade, rail grind, and cover up graffiti as stylishly as possibly; and for 90% of the time, it's awesome. Chaining together tricks and flips while jumping from rail to rail as you blast around the map is incredibly satisfying. Although it isn't without it's shortcoming. There are a good amount of times where it feels like the controls are almost working against you, as they can occasionally show their jank/age. This is especially true when you're doing the tighter platforming that requires split second reactions. But as mentioned this is more of a rarity than a constant.

Story definitely takes more of a backseat in both Jet Set games. But that's not to say that it isn't there. It's a fun story of self expression and the battle against oppression, which it tells in the least subtle way possible and I wouldn't have it any other way. DJ Professor K will every once in awhile pop in to tell you what the Rokkaku Police are up to and how you gotta stop em. It's fun stuff, and a good amount of it is voiced too. The voice acting can be a bit of a mixed bag, although -Minor Spoilers- Gouji Rokkaku has an amazing voice over done by Charles Martinet. He absolutely stole the show towards the end.

If you haven't played Jet Set Radio Future (or the original) yet, do yourself a favor and give them a shot. They offer some of the most unique gaming experiences out there, with some of the best soundtracks in arguably all of gaming. They aren't without a little bit of jank, but honestly it kinda adds to the charm. I loved JSRF, and I'm extremely excited to see what the reboot of the franchise will be like, let's hope Sega is cooking something good.

So uhmm this is like my first time reviewing absolutely anything and i thought what better game to make my debut on then one of my favourite games ever

I am a HUGE fan of the original Jet Set Radio, in my opinion it's one of the best games ever made, and JSRF most definitely does justice to it's predecessor, sporting a very unique and memorable soundtrack that i often listen to while not playing and a beautiful world which is an absolute pleasure to skate around. My only criticism, however, is that the camera controls are rather slow.

All in all, i sincerely hope that even after 21 years, that this game gets a remake, or even a sequel. I love to think of what Tokyo-to would look like with modern graphics, and i would definitely recommend this series to anyone who is interested.

Jet Set Radio as a series really does feel like a capsule of the late 90's early 2000's Counter culture. Loud, in your face, expressive and freedom are what you get from this series. I haven't played other types of skating type games (tony hawk, skate, etc.) but everything here feels like you peering into a small yet bombastic part of culture. I love the aesthetic and the vibe, the soundtrack, the kinda focus you get just jamming out to this game. I've felt this feeling in other games but they seldom come together this well It's super unique and I'm surprised Sega hasn't done anything with this franchise considering its niche but cult status.

Unfortunately I think it's just good. Nothing mind blowing, a bit annoying but fun and I don't regret playing what so ever. It's a straight improvement over the first game in control but I think they want you to do a lot more platforming which I felt was a little cumbersome with vertical levels that often only have one way to get back up. It's a game I feel has the control to be very great but the design I feel like takes away from that control and can be a bit frustrating. Some levels are like really annoying as well. I don't think this series does vertical design super well and it seems to be the same here (skyscraper level was really annoying lol). I also missed the timer levels had to complete task. I get it's removal since levels are bigger but there was a small amount of route planning in the first game that made it fun to tackle a level again and go for a better score. Despite my gripes, I was considering going for 100% for a bit because I was just vibing. The experience is simply unmatched.

I do hope those leaks of a new game are real cause I would love to see what Sega could do with this series now. In the meantime, Bomb Rush Cyberfunk looks to continue the vibe this series cultivated and I'm beyond excited to play.