Jet Set Radio Future Review

Jet set radio Future Review

Release date: February 25, 2002

Genre: Action, sports

Number of players: Single player/ (4) multiplayer couch co-op

Rating:Teen

Developer (s): Smilebit, Sega sports R&D

Publisher: SEGA

Director: Masayoshi Kikuchi

Artist: Ryuta Ueda

Composer: Hideki Naganuma

Artist: Ryuta Ueda

Composer(s): Hideki Naganuma, Richard Jacques, Toronto B.B., Rights David, Soul

Also known as JSRF, is a sequel or re-imagining of Jet grind radio/Jet set radio on the Dreamcast. If Tony hawk pro skater was the poster boy for skateboarding games then Jet Set Radio Future is the poster boy for aggressive roller-blading games. The game is based in Japan with one of the best cell shaded graphics at the time, I must admit it’s probably the exclusivity to the OG Xbox that hurt it along with it being a free game along side the console and this is why I believe ultimately that’s why we have not gotten a further sequel to the series.

When you start the game you’re welcomed by the up spirited and energetic Dj Professor K, who sets the scene for us in a dystopian futuristic corpocracy with a police state cracking down on freedom of expression. Pretty sweet surface level intro to the story line, while you can switch between characters that you unlock throughout the game; Yoyo is the main star of the show accompanied by the trio of Corn (the leader of the GGs), Gum and Beat. I know….I know 12 year old me thought “whoa, now those are cool nicknames” they were fun, goofy and seemed to be rebellious names but 27 year old me just rolls my eyes and tell younger me “Have at it Hoss”  *laughs* on a serious note the cast of characters are unique. I’m really trying to reframe from spoiling this game too much; It’s a great linear story and while there is little side quest to unlock extra characters, the main story itself is roughly 12 hours. The only reason I know this first hand is cause my friends at the time and I where the dumbasses who believed the speed run rumors, you know the one where if you beat the game in under 13 hours and you’ll unlock all the characters at once. Yep and the lie detector indicated….that was a lie!.

Back on subject, you go around the futuristic city of Tokyo, Japan tagging other skating crews spots in a tuff war against the likes of Poison Jam and The Immortals, those are just a small example of the numerous other crews who appear later in the game each being unique in their own fashion. For example, Poison Jam is a sewer crew so they have a monstrous crocodile type of outfit while The Immortals are literally mummies it’s a really neat design that of reminds me of a max mad/ cyper punk type of take on a futuristic Tokyo. The art for Jet Set Radio Future’s character design is what really attracts me to the game, the bright neon colors and comic book look of every character/ crew from the Rokkaku Police are a dull gray and navy blue; come to think of it the whole conflict itself really reminds me of the 70’s ( I don’t know, I’m a 92 baby so I’m going off of second hand stories here) with the police going against the carefree peace loving hippies.

Some of the new mechanics in Jet Set Radio Future from its predecessor is the awful timer it gave you to start and finish the graffiti tag; moving which ever thumb stick to match racing against the clock. I know some Jet Grind Radio fans loved this feature but it was horrible, it slowed down the game for no reason other than to make you tag the objective area. Where as in JSRF it’s a smoother mechanic all the way through the game, you want to grind and need to graffiti right beside the rail…you can do that without the obnoxious time and abrupt thumb stick sequence scenes. I’ve said this once and I’ll say it again the fluid controls in JSRF are amazing beside a few frames dropping for me ever so often, but it only seems to happen when you’re going for trick challenges to unlock characters.

As for multiplayer with couch co-op you have the classic Capture the flag followed by my personal favorite game mode Hog Ball (basic keep away while making a full lap where-ever the ball is picked up off the ground) and graffiti wars which is a simple game of tuff wars; where the player with the most tagged spots wins the watch . This was a time before online multiplayer, early 2000s where most of us at the time were laughing at scary movie, drooling over the Matrix and knew nothing of games as a service outside of W.o.W (World of war craft), no real cellphones; flip phones sure but smartphones? Uh, what’s a smart phone in 2002? So you can imagine it really was not hard to get the gang all together at one persons house on the weekend to play from Friday to Sunday. Make no mistake though, I’m not saying a reboot current gen JSRF couldn’t get the old crew back together easier and faster with online play, hell in today’s gaming climate it’ll probably get more praise than anything else. Overall the game can hold a child or adult for awhile not too sure about a teenager in the middle of summer though they have the time to beat anything in 48 hours.

If you like Tony Hawk pro skater and are a fan of dystopian futures then I’d recommend playing Jet Set Radio Future. If you have then thanks for reading a review from a fellow fan, it’s a fun time and dude just all in all an excellent game to always have in your OG Xbox collection.

By the way, the games OST (original soundtrack) can be found on spotify and let me know below in the comment section who your favorite character from the game is. Mine is Rhyth, hands down.