So I got Jet Set Radio when it was free on steam months ago, I tried to play it, but my laptop isn't exactly what I'd call the benchmark of technology, so I had trouble running it since it had lots of slowdowns.
Recently I upgraded my memory to 8GB for work and some stuff ran a lot better. I decided to give Jet Set Radio another go and it ran very well, excluding some area where it got pretty busy with too many things on screen, but very well for the most part.
I think I remember Jet Set Radio Future being the first Xbox game I played, this was obviously a long time ago, so I do not remember much about that experience aside from enjoying how the skating worked.
Now that I played through the original through completion I gotta say I enjoyed it a lot. The play-through was slightly hindered by the fact that I played this on a keyboard, which made smoothly controlling the characters a lot harder than it should have, I think.
Music: The OST is great, some songs are a bit annoying, but they all fit pretty well into the game's aesthetic/style. There's one in particular that reminded me a lot of Splatoon (by the way I can see that game got some inspiration from here) I liked that it kept changing the songs as the time passes, making them feel less repetitive. Also was that kid barking in that one song or what.
Mechanics: The game's pretty simple in this regard, but the mechanics work well, and I felt most of my issues controlling the character came more from the camera issues and the fact that I was using a keyboard, but I felt all the characters controlled pretty well. Got to try them all and I think Gum and Yo-Yo were my favorite to use.
Level Design: I thought it was smart how the game forces you to get used to each city's fragmented sections as you advance through the game, you first go through each fragment of a city first, then when you revisit the same area, the city's fragments are connected and you can go travel through the area on the same level. That said, probably due to the keyboard controls, the one level in Grind City where you have to use those elevators to get on top was a bit annoying, since I kept falling down a lot. Last level was a bit disappointing though, very easy for a last level, and yet at the same time, introduces what could have been an interesting (if frustrating) platforming element not seen anywhere else.
There wasn't a lot of "story" mostly a framing device to excuse the kids going around spraying graffity, but I don't think it needed one anyways. Using the radio station as exposition was nice. I read that future has a bit more plot, but that its mostly a re-imagining of the original game (what's up with those redesigns, by the way)
Overall I enjoyed the game a lot, It would be nice to see a sequel with improves the mechanics, and maybe adds a hub world to freely skate around while you go to each level. Doubt that's happening anytime soon, though.
Recently I upgraded my memory to 8GB for work and some stuff ran a lot better. I decided to give Jet Set Radio another go and it ran very well, excluding some area where it got pretty busy with too many things on screen, but very well for the most part.
I think I remember Jet Set Radio Future being the first Xbox game I played, this was obviously a long time ago, so I do not remember much about that experience aside from enjoying how the skating worked.
Now that I played through the original through completion I gotta say I enjoyed it a lot. The play-through was slightly hindered by the fact that I played this on a keyboard, which made smoothly controlling the characters a lot harder than it should have, I think.
Music: The OST is great, some songs are a bit annoying, but they all fit pretty well into the game's aesthetic/style. There's one in particular that reminded me a lot of Splatoon (by the way I can see that game got some inspiration from here) I liked that it kept changing the songs as the time passes, making them feel less repetitive. Also was that kid barking in that one song or what.
Mechanics: The game's pretty simple in this regard, but the mechanics work well, and I felt most of my issues controlling the character came more from the camera issues and the fact that I was using a keyboard, but I felt all the characters controlled pretty well. Got to try them all and I think Gum and Yo-Yo were my favorite to use.
Level Design: I thought it was smart how the game forces you to get used to each city's fragmented sections as you advance through the game, you first go through each fragment of a city first, then when you revisit the same area, the city's fragments are connected and you can go travel through the area on the same level. That said, probably due to the keyboard controls, the one level in Grind City where you have to use those elevators to get on top was a bit annoying, since I kept falling down a lot. Last level was a bit disappointing though, very easy for a last level, and yet at the same time, introduces what could have been an interesting (if frustrating) platforming element not seen anywhere else.
There wasn't a lot of "story" mostly a framing device to excuse the kids going around spraying graffity, but I don't think it needed one anyways. Using the radio station as exposition was nice. I read that future has a bit more plot, but that its mostly a re-imagining of the original game (what's up with those redesigns, by the way)
Overall I enjoyed the game a lot, It would be nice to see a sequel with improves the mechanics, and maybe adds a hub world to freely skate around while you go to each level. Doubt that's happening anytime soon, though.
