Jet Set Radio: It sucks, official.

[Chief H]

I personally feel JSR is about as comparable to Tony Hawks as Colin McRae 4 is to Rallisport Challenge 2. You can trick, but that's not what it's all about. True, it's mechanics are flawed, its challenge boiled down more to strategy of which tags to get first, rather than how to evade enemies, but it has oodles more charm and character than some of the games released today. That's where JSR's charm lay for me, anyway.

[fuzzybee]

Beleive it or not i've actually played this game today for the first time in about two years and i still love it.
It's certainly not perfect but name a game that is, it just makes me smile from the moment it loads up. The graphics and sound are superb, yes it's very frustrating at times but i for one am a big fan.
I think it's a loath it or love it kind of game and i'm in the latter coloum, wouldn't gaming be very stale and boring if we all liked the same thing.

[gossi the dog]

I'd have to admit that the game isn't perfect (the controls are far too clunky). However the game simply has so much style, that I can't help but grin like a fool every time that I play it. Easily one of my fav games ever.

[Gareth C]

I'm in the love it camp i'm afraid. I replayed it to completion again about 2 months ago and was also playing it just last week.

[mrsquare]

I agree actually. JSR is just far too clumsy to control, which seriously detracts from the artistic style and soundtrack after extended play.

For me though, JSRF was incredible. Same style but with refined, speeded up gameplay. Bliss.

[Ady]

Again, I suspect I'm alone

No you're not. I hated it.

Which is a real shame because I'd heard lots of great things, and was enamoured with its aesthetics. But overall, I felt it played like a dog.

The controls were unwieldy (particularly the camera), and I felt the game threw you into the thick of things to quickly. There was no gradual learning curve to speak of (and that's important in a game with a complex control system).

I found the tagging too fiddly, and ended up being mowed down by police bikes instantly whenever I tried. The map was damn near useless, too. All in all, the game just made me angry (and I NEVER lose my temper with games).

I took it back to the shop in the end. Like I said, it's a real shame, I really wanted to like this game, but it just didn't click. It felt like riding a bicycle, trying to juggle and spin a plate all at once.

[Chadruharazzeb]

Despite the fact that you're a n00b around here Mr Tom Slater, I shall nevertheless agree with you.

I didn't really like anything about the game, not even the style or the music. Yawnsome overratedness abounds.

[Tom Salter]

It's Mr Salter, not Mr Slater :P (P.S. you are teh n00b!)

The common theme from everyone is the fact that everyone loved it's style, but few people liked the actual "game". Any game can do 'style', but that doesn't make up for a substandard game beneath. It's like Sony's ChainDive (review up soon!) which looks amazing, but the game completely sucks bavarian goat gonads. It's surprising how many people put up with the game purely for the music.

And regarding the infinite grind. It's easy to do, but it lacks flexibility. Whenever you do a stunt, the character performs a full-height jump. You have NO control over whether you do this stunt or not. If you've ever done a few full-laps of the first stage (Bus Depot) then you'll know this. The bridge part, where you have to make a few small jumps to get over it, if you fsck up and do a stunt, it's almost guaranteed to be game over. You'll fudge the jump, because the game made a choice for you. It's pure, **** game design.

[SuperBrother]

Cobblers to your well reasoned and legitimate argument.

JSR is teH dAddY and r0x0rs yOuR b0X0rs!
You are not l33T enough to play it!!

[Pistol]

Your topic makes me sad

I wub JSR

[electric_warrior]

The only thing that annoyed me was when you tried to start moving after being stationery, that was a real pain because it was kinda jerky ****.

I loved that game anyways, gotta be my favourite Dreamcast game. Is JSRF really good also? I wish that damn game was on Gamecube.

[Chief H]

I thought tagging was pretty good - capturing the tension of getting the tag off before the cops get you - especially with the camera angles showing all the action in cinema-view. Some tense moments when you want to get that last tag motion off for a big score but can't judge whether you have time or if you ahve to peg it early - you did always have the option to run away, lead the enemy away and then return to finish your tag. And the motions of tagging themselves are almost like calligraphy. Those that didn't get along with tagging maybe didn't notice that each motion brings you to the start point of the next motion, so it becomes one long motion across the stick, or that it's the same each time for each character, so the commands can be learnt, or that you get bonus points for returning the stick to the neutral position after each motion.

I reckon it's fair play to say that the game mechanics are a bti gash. They are unrefined, to say the least, but they get by. Just. If the trick system was the main focus of the game, it would be a huge problem, but there's so much more to JSR beyond that. Surely there has to be a substantial value for getting stuck into another world, particularly one with as much character as JSR's Tokyoto.

[Riskbreaker]

Cobblers to your well reasoned and legitimate argument.

JSR is teH dAddY and r0x0rs yOuR b0X0rs!
You are not l33T enough to play it!!

Agreed

As much as I love the style of the game, I did love JSR for the actual game itself and can't remember having any gripe at all with the controls. There's no way I would have just tolerated bad controls for stylish or musical content. I think I'm gonna have to replay this one to see what I think about it now, but all I have are fond memories from the first time through.

Blimey, next people will complaining about that Vanessa doesn't move properly, Gun Valkyrie is too hard to control and that the camera in DMC makes the game too difficult.....

[Brats]

It was great in its day. I reviewed both games for the site and both got good reviews.

But I think at the time the unique style and presentation washed over the obvious flaws in the game. Going back to them now, I just find them annoyingly broken in too many different ways.

Definately a case of style over substance. But at the time......what style! .

[Tom Salter]

Definately a case of style over substance. But at the time......what style!

Aye, I definately felt the same when I first got it. Absolutely amazing I just don't quite think it holds up compared to other games.

I've never tried Aggressive Inline, I read the IGN review (9.1 or something) and chose to ignore it. Anyone else give me some quick impressions?