Jet Set Radio

Jet Set Radio, (originally released in North America as Jet Grind Radio) is an action game developed by Smilebit and published by Sega. It was released for the Dreamcast on June 29, 2000 in Japan, October 31, 2000 in North America and November 24, 2000 in Europe, with the HD ports arriving initially in October 2012.

Premise
The game begins in 2000, Shibuya-Cho, and is introduced by Professor K, the DJ of a pirate radio station based in Tokyo-to, who explains the basics of life in Tokyo-to for a "rudie", the term he uses to refer to young people who roam the streets spraying and skating. The city is split into three parts—Shibuya-Cho, Benten-Cho, and Kogane-Cho, each of which corresponds to a different time of day. Shibuya is a shopping district full of blue skies and daylight, Benten a nocturnal entertainment spot that represents the night, and Kogane a mostly residential area, built on the water, where it is perpetually sunset. You'll spend most of the game tagging rival gang's graffiti artwork, and re-spraying it as your own artwork, whilst avoiding the police authorities led by Captain Onishima.

Why It Rocks

 * 1) The game as a whole was very unique for the time, and still is today, being a mix of both Tony Hawk's Pro Skater and Crazy Taxi in it's gameplay, whilst utilizing cel-shading for it's graphics. Speaking of which...
 * 2) It popularized the cel-shading technique, and whilst it wasn't the first game to do so (Fear Effect was the first documented game to do so, releasing in February 2000), it's usage inspired other games to apply this technique, leading to games such as The Legend of Zelda: The Wind Waker, Sly Cooper and the Thievius Raccoonus and Viewtiful Joe, whilst also inspiring indie games such as Hover: Revolt of Gamers and the upcoming Bomb Rush Cyberfunk.
 * 3) The soundtrack led by Hideki Naganuma (who went on to do the soundtrack for Sonic Rush), is considered to be one of the finest soundtracks ever made for a video game. Standouts tracks include "Humming The Bassline", "Let Mom Sleep" and "That's Enough".
 * 4) DJ Professor K is an entertaining character, who not only helps with broadcasting the game's plot to the game but also provides some witty phrases that fit this game's personality all too well.
 * 5) As a whole, the writing in this game provides a strong source of comedy. Below is possibly the best lines in the game:
 * 6) * "Let's go to the mailbag. We got a letter from Mr. Osaki. He asks "How do I get rid of these nasty roaches?" Easy, just burn your house down."
 * 7) * "We have another letter from Osaki. He writes: "I burned my house down, now what do I do?" How should I know, fool?"
 * 8) The gameplay is fast-paced and fluid, complimented by the art style and soundtrack. This is helped even further by the added immersion created by the interactivity of the game's levels.
 * 9) The gameplay is split into 3 types of levels:
 * 10) * Street levels are the most common and are split into two categories: one where you tag every graffiti point in a certain area whilst evading the authorities, and another is a boss battle where you must chase rival gang members and spray graffiti on them before the timer runs out.
 * 11) * Rival Showdown levels allow the player to unlock more playable characters for their gang, either by matching the rival's movements in technique sections or by spraying graffiti before the rival in race sections.
 * 12) * Trial levels are unlocked after both the street and rival showdown levels have been completed in an area, and this is where most of the replay value of this game comes in.
 * 13) The game doesn't take itself too seriously, with the over-the-top police authorities led by Captain Onishima, to a plot point revolving around a 'haunted' record called the 'Devil's Contact', which can apparently summon a demon to communicate with.
 * 14) * Speaking of the police authorities, they use a wide variety of ways to stop you from spraying graffiti, from simple reasonable methods like regular officers and police dogs to absurd and insane methods such as calling in attack helicopters, parachute squadrons, SWAT teams, and tanks. Even Captain Onishima himself appears often, willing to use lethal force if it means stopping the player.
 * 15) The three different parts of the city are all unique from each other. Not only that, but the time of day is also different in every single part (Daylight for Shibuya, Night for Benten, and Sunset for Kogane), allowing each part of Tokyo-to to have its own diverse feel to it.
 * 16) 15 Characters to choose from, including members of the rival gangs you defeat, as well as your gang's pet dog, Potts, to add to the variety.
 * 17) Not only that, each character has a different score in each of the 3 categories: Power, Technique and Graffiti, allowing the player to mix and match until they find their preferred character to play as.
 * 18) The HD ports support widescreen, as well as a new and improved camera system and achievements.
 * 19) * Furthermore, the PlayStation Vita version was and still is the first truly accurate handheld port, since the GBA remake used an isometric perspective, similar to the Tony Hawk games on the GBA.

Bad Qualities

 * 1) The camera in the original Dreamcast release is awful and foggy, hindered by a lack of a second analogue stick on the Dreamcast controller. This was rectified in the HD Ports.
 * 2) * Furthermore, in the original Dreamcast version, if you pressed the left trigger (usually reserved for spraying graffiti points) next to an aforementioned graffiti point, you would occasionally have it change the way your character is facing. This is but a slight annoyance though.
 * 3) The controls can be a bit off at times, with sections that require you to jump across platforms being the worst offender.
 * 4) The Game Boy Advance version was an ambitious effort to put the whole game on inferior hardware, but had several cut tracks, poor controls, and level design which was not always optimized to put the new isometric view into account, leading to many frustrating moments that weren't in the original.
 * 5) The game has a number of frustrating missions.
 * 6) * Bantam Street has some hard-to-reach tags that can drain the player's timer and most of the paint requires some tricky wall jumps. The only two available characters the first time through have the highest Graffiti stats in the game (making multi-spray tags harder in return for more points), and multiple tags are guarded by Assassin No. 5, who pursues the player with a whip which can't be dodged by dashing or jumping. Its preceding mission, Love Attack, is one of the easier tag battles, so this one's difficulty tends to catch many by surprise.
 * 7) * Grind Square's suspended grind rails and tricky jumps usually lead to a lot of fall damage. Since the GG's best graffiti artists are frail, it's more dangerous for anyone pursuing a Jet rank.
 * 8) * Yo-Yo's recruit race. Because the only faster character is unlocked late in the game, you'll match his speed at best. The race itself is Benten-cho's Jet Crush route, a level that's tough in of itself. See below.
 * 9) * Combo's recruit race. You're forced to use a character with the second lowest speed in the game against Beat, who has above-average speed. This would be fine if you know how to pass Beat's route, but one section forces you to enter a door placed above a half pipe. Because of Combo's large hitbox, it's easy for him to get stuck trying to fit through the door, which can give Beat an unbeatable lead.
 * 10) * Fight or Flight (Kogane-Cho's Golden Rhino mission) has snipers in hard-to-reach areas that guard most of the graffiti spots. If you tag enough of them, you'll instead have to contend with Assassin #2, a mob of goons with machine guns and jetpacks. These guys move fast, hit hard and are much more mobile than the base enemies, which makes it difficult to weave through the lead even if you planned your route in advance.
 * 11) * The optional Jet Crush levels have tough time limits (if you're going for the highest rank), knockback mechanics that drain momentum and fling the player away, and players needing to mash the dash button. Benten-Cho is generally considered the hardest because of its narrow corridors, lack of shortcuts, and multiple jumps that, if you miss them, cost you the race.
 * 12) Depending on your point of view, the gameplay hasn't necessarily aged the best.
 * 13) The iOS and Android Ports were not well-received, with criticism being shown towards the touchscreen controls and framerate issues. These were delisted in 2015.

Reception
Reviews for the original Dreamcast release were highly positive, with Jet Set Radio being the 4th highest rated Dreamcast game on Metacritic. It has a critic score of 94/100 ("Universal acclaim") and a user score of 8.2/10 ("Generally favorable reviews"). Reviewers gave acclaim to the gameplay, graphics and soundtrack, with some slight criticism directed at the camera system.

The HD Ports received mixed-to-positive reception with the PS3 and Xbox 360 ports having critic scores of 75/100 and 70/100 respectively, and user scores of 7.2/10 and 7.7/10 respectively. Reviewers called the visuals 'timeless', but felt the gameplay was more frustrating now.

Videos
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