Let's talk about Jet Set Radio.

Today, instead of playing through another game, i'd like to talk about one of my favorite games ever Jet Set Radio (released in north america as Jet Grind Radio because copyright issues or something) a "skating" game developed for the Sega Dreamcast in the 2000's, for context i was just born when this happened, and it's about a group of kids that paint graffiti in walls and listen to music all while escaping the pursuit of police and/or hired assassins. Sounds fun, right?

I found out that this game existed somewhere around 2014 if I remember right, thanks to another game of Sega's Sonic & Sega All Stars Racing, in which jet set's "main character" Beat is a playable character.

There's two different Jet Set Radio's out there, Jet Set Radio (which is the original game for the Dreamcast) and Jet Set Radio Future (which is a reboot of the game made for the Xbox). Jet Set Radio Future is the one that appears in All Stars Racing but searching for that one makes you find out about the original, as fans of the series love both and any article or page that talks about it mentions it's predecessor.

Jet Set Radio was "re-released" for the PC and other consoles around 2012 (which is why I played this one and not Future 'cause I don't have an Xbox), and I say "re-released" (with the quotes and everything) for the PC because this version feels like it's just playing on a Emulator.

_{This game comes with a disclaimer about graffiti that shows up every time you boot it.}

I first played this game during 2016, when Sega had this "Make Love Not War" event where Jet Set Radio and a bunch of other games (like Golden Axe) were put together and given to people for free, forever.

Those of you with sharp eyes will notice that the resolution in the first image is kinda low, that's because Windows 10 doesn't like this game at all; Jet Set Radio comes with two executable files, a launcher and the actual game which has its resolution and other options changed depending on what you did in the launcher before pressing "play".

Windows 10, for some unholy reason, doesn't want to load the launcher and running the game without the launcher will run the game at the highest settings possible, something that my beloved toaster pc is not capable of doing. There's a solution though, right clicking the executable file for the game and forcing it to run at a resolution of 640x480 will lower the resolution, the downside is that it looks like this:

_{The pixels man, they're everywhere!}

But the game is still very much playable and enjoyable.

Now that I'm done talking about Windows 10 and Jet Set let's talk about the actual game, it's a pretty simple thing, you choose a level then pick a character then paint the streets in graffiti and avoid whatever enemies may show up all while listening to some amazing soundtrack. In regards to the graffiti you paint, there's three different sizes and depending on how big the thing you're painting is you'll have to do more commands in order to successfully paint it.

I personally like how the game introduces each level, every one of them is just a different area in one part of the map and later on you get to play in a level where every single area you've been to is connected to the other. Your goal in every level is pretty simple, it's even pointed at by big red arrows, but if you explore the level you'll find some unlockables that give you more graffiti and unlock even more characters.

_{Here you can see the graffiti my characters are currently painting.}

Every level has different enemies (well, more like police officers) that try to stop you from painting stuff, usually they arrive in a level after you've painted X amount of graffiti but some other times they're already there waiting for you.

As you keep painting in a level the enemies that chase you will change, for example, you go from being chased by police cars:

_{Pretty normal stuff.}

To being chased by dogs...

_{Doesn't look too bad.}

To being chased by Attack Helicopters.

_{...wait what?}

Every level has it's own variations, so sometimes you'll be chased by Helicopters or Tanks and some other times you'll be chased by suicidal bombers people in jet-packs.

In case you haven't noticed yet, this game is from Japan.

You deal with those enemies by either avoiding them with your sick skating skills or by spraying them with graffiti, if possible that is. Some of them are more annoying to deal with than others and this leads to people painting every level's graffiti in a certain order, so that the only ones remaining in the end are the easy ones so that enemies don't screw you over while you're painting.

Don't expect a deep story or something with this game, Jet Set just gives you whatever you need in order to understand the setting: There's teenagers in Tokyo using magnetically enhanced roller-skates and forming up gangs that mark territories with graffiti and then there's the police trying to stop them from being a nuisance, because painting graffiti on the walls without permission and recklessly skating is kinda illegal.

_{The game's best character, DJ Professor K.}

One of the biggest selling points in the game has to be "DJ Professor's K"'s dialogue, this man is the DJ of the pirate radio station by the name of "Jet Set Radio" and he's one of the reasons why I find myself coming back to this game again and again; despite the fact that he always says the same stuff with some variations, he's always so full of energy and his lines always feel natural.

And also because he does this:

_{Truly, the best character.}

Other characters in this game include Officer Onishima, the "antagonist" of the first part of the game, who has a big revolver and tries to shoot you every time he sees you.

_{Oh god, the low resolution isn't doing him any favors...}

Props to his voice actor for actually making it feel like he's gradually growing angrier as more enemies are called in.

The only thing that's left to talk about is the soundtrack which is, in my honest opinion, pretty good. All of the levels in the game circle through a few songs and they all feel like something that definitely fits the atmosphere in this game. I don't think there's a single song here that I dislike, but there are some songs that I'd rather not hear as often as I do, the ability to change the music so that you hear only your favorite part of the soundtrack feels like something this game is completely missing.

However, every game has it's "bad" parts and let me tell you Jet Set Radio has some bad stuff in it.

For starters, the camera button (the one that is used to center the camera behind your character) is also the button set to "paint" or "spray" a graffiti onto something, this makes it so that every time you paint a small graffiti (one that requires a single press of said button) the camera centers behind you.

This problem becomes apparent when you're doing a pursue level (in which you pursue three members of an opposite gang and paint in their backs several times to defeat them) because you'll get disorientated quickly, even faster if your character gets hit, because they usually turn around thanks to the knock back that the enemies give and since you're usually mashing the spray button to paint as many times as possible you'll center the camera in the wrong direction. It feels like a very small problem, but once you play this game it becomes a big pain.

Another problem is how the characters feel like potato sacks on wheels; they're somewhat heavy and sluggish and this shows up every time you try to do "that one trick that looks really cool in my mind and i think i can do", because it FEELS like your character can do it but you'll fall short for a couple of centimeters and completely fail at performing said trick. Becomes more apparent when trying to quickly get away from an enemy mob but failing to do so because you're not aerodynamic enough or because you didn't build enough speed or didn't jump at the right millisecond.

But still, all of these are issues you can get over by actually playing the game and hey every game has something frustrating or annoying inside that makes you think "why did they make it this way" but we still enjoy them regardless (in most cases that is).

I still recommend this game but I have no idea if that's just my nostalgia speaking. If any of you want to play this one you should go look for it in Steam, it's an "okay" experience. As always thank you for reading and I hope you have a great day.