Jet Grind Radio Review (continued)
More User Submitted Jet Grind Radio Reviews
Date: 2001-08-03
Way cool, but the control is just a killer sometimes.
The good things about Jet Grind Radio have been pointed out over and over: it's one of the most stylistically cool games to ever be released (the Wipeout series and Grim Fandango are certainly in the same category). Everything from the music, to the fonts, to the story, to the stylized graphics, and the much copied cel shading technique add up to one of the most pleasing game experiences around . . . until you start to actually play the game itself.1. The camera has a mind of its own sometimes and with many of the levels having sharp corners, hallways, and other places to get caught behind, it's a nightmare to navigate some of the levels (especially when being attacked by a mob of enemies). With precise jumping being such a large part of the game, this was almost a game-killing problem. 2. The same button is used to switch the camera to a face-foward view as is used to use your graffiti skill. So, sometimes when you are caught in an awkward place and need to reposition the camera to find a way out, your character will instead face the wall. 3. When fleeing enemies to "safe spots" where they cannot get you, the action will be stopped (usually mid-jump) to show a short vignette of the bad guys yelling at you and stomping their feet because you escaped. Not a problem except that this interruption usually occurs MID-JUMP and often results in you screwing up the landing, falling off the place where you jumped to, or otherwise screwing things up. I can't imagine how this "feature" made it through usability testing. 4. In a game that promises fast rollerblading, controlled jumps, and pinpoint accuracy, I'm surprised that the levels are so cramped and offer next to NONE of the free-flowing jumping and skating that happens in Tony Hawk. Tony Hawk's levels are big and complex, but are also relatively easy to navigate. Some of Jet Grind Radio's levels feel like mazes. It's just not very fun to skate in someone's living room. 5. The control is difficult to master. Whereas Tony Hawk allowed anyone to pick up and feel relatively competent relatively quickly, Jet Grind Radio is a study in tediousness. The characters pause for one to two seconds after coming to complete stops, everything they touch seems to cause them to wreck (and the levels are designed so that many items are deliberately in harms way), they can't outskate any of the enemy gang members (who must be tagged on three of the levels), and mostly, I felt like I was skating underwater. Just not a whole lot of fun. 6. Slowdown. It'll happen. In summary, this is yet another Sega product that was a great idea, but which is just unpolished enough to be disappointing in execution. I'm sure there are many people who will be able to look past the problems this game has, BUT this is at best a flawed classic.
Date: 2001-07-31
This game kicks butt
This game is such fun to play...I'm not much of a Dreamcast fan but I make an exception for this...it's addictive! I really like the graphics and the different characters (especially the fact that there's a good range of female characters - not always the case with games) - and the game is just fun! However, I take one star off because it's just too short - I can complete it in a day now (when I get time) - I think they could have packed more into it and given us a multiplayer mode. Other than that, it's great!
Date: 2001-07-27
One of the best games I've ever played
Everything about Jet Grind Radio has classic written all over it. The anime style graphics and some great original gameplay keep you entangled in the game for days. Not much plot, but who cares, basically you play an angry teenager skating around spraypainting public property and outrunning and outmanuvering the cops while doing it. After the first real mission, the game gets downright addicting and even more fun than before, something SEGA is great at doing with most of their in-house developed games. The soundtrack is surprisingly decent too even though I'm not into hip-hop at all, tracks from Rob Zombie, Cold, and Professional Murder Music add to the replay value. The only problem with Jet Grind Radio is that there is no multi-player internet mode which would have made this the greatest game ever made, but thats only a minor gripe. All in all an excellent game that any Dreamcast owner should have.
Date: 2001-07-22
good
this game is lots of fun i mean whats better than going around town spray painting walls and cars and getting the cops and other people upset with you.One thing i found that i was very impressed with was the animation is beutifal to look at.One other thing i was afraid there was not gonna be enough characters but alas i was wrong there are plenty of characters you can use to help spraypaint town.
Date: 2001-07-13
Microsoft is lucky to have Jet Grind Radio Future!
When I first saw commercials for this, I didn't think much of it (primarily because I didn't own a Dreamcast then) but soon I found out how great the game is. I won't ramble about the plot like some ... do, but I will point out pros and cons PROS *Great gameplay, there aren't many buttons to use but it gets easy to play *Very Very Innovative *You have to love a game where you can spray paint really cool designs in a second *Cool graphics, the backrounds look great and the cel-shaded characters are cool (even though now most games are copying cel-shaded graphics to look "cooler") *Cool soundtrack- I know that "Dragula" is in here, but otherwise you'll find some good backround music (although there is some Asian-style Euro Pop in there) Cons *Too short- I was finished in a few days, I am an average gamer so an actually skilled gamer would breeze right through this game but hopefully it will be worked on in the sequel *Poor trick sceme- Most of the time, you can only do tricks during a grind or dashing on a half-pipe. You have no control over what trick/grind you perform and each character has a limited amount of tricks so it gets repetative but it is being worked on for the sequel * No multiplayer-There could of been some fun Multiplayer games but that's being worked on for the sequel "*" I don't consider it a con, I consider it as a pro but there are some who will think this way. The themes of See-Cop-Run-Away and See-arrow-and-tag-it aren't really good for strict parents, but most shouldn't care because the game itself is too much fun the theme set aside That's about it for my opinions and I applaud SEGA for making and importing this game to America. If there were more games like this there would be, aside from less pressure on developers that America can handle wackier and more serious games that I have seen and heard out of Japan. Microsoft is lucky SEGA is giving them this golden series and is the reason some people (like me!) will get an Xbox FOR THE GAMES!! I know the Xbox is great and all, but there aren't as many good games as I would like. Thank you and please let this influence your descison ....
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