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.
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.