There's some stuff that I like here, but overall I would describe this game as my least favorite of the three Jet Set Radio games, granted that this is a spiritual successor. I think part of the issue is that it's a little too faithful to the original parts and not faithful enough in others.
The movement felt very true to the originals, but we're 20 years in the future now and I want rails that suck me to them and boosts that go the directions I am expecting. Wall rides are are even more limited than the originals. And overall, there's a clunkiness to the boosts that resulted in all of my deaths in the game. The "dream" maps are my own personal nightmare.
The cops are still very annoying. That's true to the original, I suppose, but there could have been some evolution here to make that more interesting or fun. The turrets are the worst, the bosses are mediocre. Other than their involvement in the story, I don't really see the need for a game with cops. Manifest the graffiti utopia you want.
I also really disliked the gang trick battles. In general I thought the trick system was too under baked and sparse to be a core pillar of the game play. Thematically it was a weird fit too. Why are a bunch of graffiti writers settling the scores with trick combos? There are other kinds of graffiti based competition the gangs could be participating in, as the original games showed.
Maybe I just let the hype over a spiritual successor to one of my favorite series get the better of me? The flavor is overall is good and the story is about on par with the other games (the cut scenes can be skipped if you're not into that). I think the new graffiti writing is great and I wish graffiti had remained the core mechanic rather than the low-rent Tony Hawk stuff. I also wish they'd included some kind of graffiti creator system like the other JSR games had.
Overall the game feels like fan maps for the original games with a trick system bolted on. I think that idea appeals to a lot of people, but personally I'd rather play the two Sega games.
Unrelated to my score, this game had my weirdest video game crash I'd ever experienced. Logged me out of my Windows user account and bugged out my display. Had to hard power down the computer before I could get back in.
The movement felt very true to the originals, but we're 20 years in the future now and I want rails that suck me to them and boosts that go the directions I am expecting. Wall rides are are even more limited than the originals. And overall, there's a clunkiness to the boosts that resulted in all of my deaths in the game. The "dream" maps are my own personal nightmare.
The cops are still very annoying. That's true to the original, I suppose, but there could have been some evolution here to make that more interesting or fun. The turrets are the worst, the bosses are mediocre. Other than their involvement in the story, I don't really see the need for a game with cops. Manifest the graffiti utopia you want.
I also really disliked the gang trick battles. In general I thought the trick system was too under baked and sparse to be a core pillar of the game play. Thematically it was a weird fit too. Why are a bunch of graffiti writers settling the scores with trick combos? There are other kinds of graffiti based competition the gangs could be participating in, as the original games showed.
Maybe I just let the hype over a spiritual successor to one of my favorite series get the better of me? The flavor is overall is good and the story is about on par with the other games (the cut scenes can be skipped if you're not into that). I think the new graffiti writing is great and I wish graffiti had remained the core mechanic rather than the low-rent Tony Hawk stuff. I also wish they'd included some kind of graffiti creator system like the other JSR games had.
Overall the game feels like fan maps for the original games with a trick system bolted on. I think that idea appeals to a lot of people, but personally I'd rather play the two Sega games.
Unrelated to my score, this game had my weirdest video game crash I'd ever experienced. Logged me out of my Windows user account and bugged out my display. Had to hard power down the computer before I could get back in.