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> Results: Jet Grind Radio
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Back To Tokyo-To
The original Jet Grind Radio on Sega Dreamcast introduced thousands of gamers to a graphic process known as cel shading (most recently seen on The Hulk). The striking visuals set a new standard for stylistic graphics and created a trend that continues to this very day in character design and animation. The Dreamcast game was also a heck of a lot of fun to play and had one of the best soundtracks money could buy (Jet Set Radio Future continued this trend on the Xbox ﾖ ed). Vicarious Visions was tasked with bringing this classic to the Game Boy Advance handheld gaming system and while the feel of the original is intact, the gameplay suffers on the small screen.  The game is set in a bastardized Tokyo, Japan. Gangs of punks on magnetic rocket skates outwit the law and paint their colors anywhere they can to mark their territory. You join the GGﾒs, the hippest group of punks. Your skates roll to the music of Professor K, DJ of underground radio station Jet Set Radio. The K gives you the lowdown on happenings in Tokyo-To and coolly sets up each tagging level. You whip to and fro on your skates, putting your mark where itﾒs demanded by flashing arrows. The set up is exactly like the Dreamcast game and even the text sometimes seems lifted from the original script. Even the levels are GBA-ized versions of those in the console game and while thatﾒs cool at first, it removes a lot of surprise from the gameﾒs progression.  Itﾒs hard to navigate these levels due to the pseudo 3D, isometric view used in the game. Thereﾒs no behind the character 3D available with the limited portable hardware so finding your way up a ramp can often be hit or miss. Part of that is due to the often rudimentary graphics used for structures as well as the unorthodox control scheme. Push up and the character will move forward in the direction heﾒs facing. Youﾒll always keep moving until you tap down. Using R you can speedily get from place to place and B will let you jump on various edges to grind. Itﾒs turning where this all sort of falls apart. Since youﾒre almost always moving, and turning has a very specific radius that never changes, you canﾒt quickly change direction unless you grind something. When you combine this control with graphics that make some edges and elevations difficult to see, and then throw in enemies that chase you or long courses that you need to navigate precisely, frustration is bound to set in. Fortunately, you can adjust to the control and make it playable. Itﾒs just not optimal.  The characters are animated well and retain a lot of the personality they had on Dreamcast. Thatﾒs partially due to the story that runs through the entire game which is both silly and entertaining. The level designs are inventive even if navigating or figuring them out is hard. It also takes awhile before the challenges become difficult enough to frustrate you. Usually the timer allows enough time to make some mistakes along the way which is a godsend when youﾒre trying to get to a particular tagging spot that requires some fancy footwork. The music is straight out of the original, with great hip hop beats and solid composition that makes it stick with you long after playing, though the loops are a lot shorter than the CD-based sounds of the Dreamcast game. Multiplayer might be cool, but it requires everyone to have their own cart and enough link cables to go around. Good luck with that. Publisher: THQ/Sega Developer: Vicarious Visions/Smilebit Players: 1-4 Players w/link cable and game paks Ages: 10+ ESRB Rating: E 
The game is just too darn hard for most young kids. It also gets an E rating despite the graffiti spraying focus of the game (which is against the law of course), while the Dreamcast (and Xbox) game is rated T. Consider also that the main enemy of the skating teens is firing a big gun at them and calling in tanks and helicopters that shoot missiles at you. The rating for this GBA version is especially suspect since itﾒs basically a portable remake of the original. Sprites instead of 3D models = E for Everyone? For teenagers, it might be a good time because everything about it screams ﾓcoolﾔ, well, except for the difficult and often mediocre gameplay. Probably best to give this one a pass.
Kid Factor by Dave Long
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