The GHZ Forum

I got out Jet Set/Grind Radio the other day and pretty much played through it nonstop, even achieving Potts as a playable character (which I had never done before, oddly). My love for tagging renewed, I am in finally in a mood to purchase its even lower-profile sequel. However, I have no idea if it is good or not, or more importantly if they decided it was a good idea to draw from Rob Zombie's questionable audio library for the soundtrack again. In fact, I am under the impression that it's pretty mediocre, despite having played it only once or twice, and that was years and years ago. I'll probably end up buying it regardless, but I want to know first what experience resident GHZers have had with this sequel to the game that put the funk and fresh back in funky-fresh.

I think JSRF is the better game, although lots of people say otherwise. Either way, it's not a bad by any stretch, and certainly worth playing if you're a fan of the original.

Plus it's finally backwards-compatible on the 360, apparently. I haven't tested this myself yet.

JSRF is fucking cool, a lot more fun than the original I think. No time limits, looks good, rocks out. I could play it for hours and hours.

Yeah, I liked it better than the original, and I don't believe Rob Zombie's in the soundtrack. I actually remember liking most of the soundtrack.

One big difference in gameplay that I loved and no one else seemed to was that tagging consists only of pressing the L trigger now as you pass by certain markers. I found it a lot nicer than trying to follow the patterns while cops are beating you with nightsticks.

Segaholic2 wrote:Plus it's finally backwards-compatible on the 360, apparently. I haven't tested this myself yet.

I don't own <i>JSRF</i> to test with, but <i>Panzer Dragoon Orta</i> was added in the same update, so I was thinking of trying that out when I get a chance. I'll wager there's a reason the two Sega games were added in the very same update... Considering Smilebit made both, I guess it makes sense.

I would test it cause I own both, but most of my original Xbox games have been at a friends house for about a year now and I haven't bothered to get them back. I got a question though, I have the JSRF/Sega GT disc that came with the Xbox back in 2002. Any idea if that will work? I don't really see a reason why it wouldn't, but you never know.

I think the original is better. in the sequel they made it so you are no longer running away from the cops and took out the inputing controller motions for the tagging. they took out the time limit and the frantic cat and mouse gameplay basically. But if you liked jet set radio for the exploration, tricks and level design jet set radio future is a pretty good game.

Like everyone has already said, Jet Set Radio Future removed the time limit and all the pursuing police officers. But doing this allowed to create some absolutely enormous (and incredibly well-designed) environments that extend for miles vertically as well as horizontally.

In JSRF, the challenge is actually getting to the places you're supposed to tag. The police characters of the original wouldn't even be able to get through the majority of the stages... they're too high up, and too reliant on grinding and wallslides to navigate. Similarly, the gesture-based tagging would not have worked because the majority of the tags have to be done on-the-fly as you are rocketing by them.

I missed the sense of urgency that being pursued gave you, but I think removing that and the gesture tagging was a worthy trade-off to get such awesome environments. Both games are fantastic though, and even though you're bound to prefer one over the other I can't see you not enjoying JSRF. Besides, you can buy it for like five bucks now.

Also: Birthday cake

I also give JSRF a big, fat, juicy thumbs up. It's a much more chill experience than the original, but no less sublime. It was the first Xbox game I really got into and I still rank it with the likes of Panzer Dragoon Orta and Psychonauts.

The only thing I liked less about JSRF than the original were some of the level designs. Some of them were just too ridiculously big and I got lost.

Also, the JSRF/Sega GT 2002 pack-in game does NOT work on the 360.

I liked the original's brighter colors and overall atmosphere better than JSRF. JSRF just feels more serious than its predecessor did with its presentation. A good example of this is with the top cops in each game... officer Onishima came off as some kind of goofy cartoon character cop where you'd spraypaint him and he'd get all pissy, and he was always trying to take you down with helicopters, tanks, and other ridiculous tactics. The voice acting for him was spot on. Officer Hayashi in JSRF on the other hand, has the "wheeeeeee I've got a gun and I'm just sooooooo crazy~" personality and it's pretty weak. The voice actors overall don't seem to speak with the same enthusiasm as they did in the original game, now that I think about it.

Not to say that JSRF is a bad game, because gameplay-wise, it trumps the original and I love them both... I just felt that it had less soul than the original.

JSRF puts JGR to shame. The graphics, the gameplay, the music.

The only thing I dislike is that once you beat it, there's nothing to do, except skate around endlessly. I wish they could've put a theater mode, consisting of all the cutscenes, or a boss battle mode, where you try and graiffiti all the tanks/choppers in a time limit. Idk. Something to encourage replay value.

cjmcray wrote:JSRF puts JGR to shame. The graphics, the gameplay, the music.

I don't know what you're talking about about the music. JGR and JSRF's soundtracks are pretty equal, the stuff by Hideki Naganuma and co. that is. As for those other tracks, I didn't care for any of the ones by The Latch Brothers (aka Beastie Boys) in JSRF. While Rob Zombie wasn't exactly pleasant in JGR, there were only a handful of those, whereas in JSRF, The Latch Brothers had over 1/4th of the soundtrack.

Plus Miller Ball Breakers is pretty much one of the best songs ever.

Double-S- wrote:

cjmcray wrote:JSRF puts JGR to shame. The graphics, the gameplay, the music.

I don't know what you're talking about about the music. JGR and JSRF's soundtracks are pretty equal, the stuff by Hideki Naganuma and co. that is. As for those other tracks, I didn't care for any of the ones by The Latch Brothers (aka Beastie Boys) in JSRF. While Rob Zombie wasn't exactly pleasant in JGR, there were only a handful of those, whereas in JSRF, The Latch Brothers had over 1/4th of the soundtrack.

Plus Miller Ball Breakers is pretty much one of the best songs ever.

I retract my statement in regards to music. I completely forgot about Miller Ball Breakers.

Double-S- wrote:

cjmcray wrote:JSRF puts JGR to shame. The graphics, the gameplay, the music.

I didn't care for any of the ones by The Latch Brothers (aka Beastie Boys) in JSRF.

Wait. The Latch Brothers were the Beasties?

<a href="http://www.mtv.com/news/articles/145277 ... arently</a>. I didn't know this either.

Well really, only one of the Beastie Boys was in the Latch Brothers. But he was in there, all right. And a lot of the other tracks from JSRF, like "Hello Allison", were done by artists on the Beastie Boys' now defunct record label.

I wasn't super crazy about the Latch Brothers tracks, but they fit pretty well with the environments they played in. I did really like that one track that they did with the Prunes, though.

cjmcray wrote:I completely forgot about Miller Ball Breakers.

I think you all might enjoy this, then. This is the full song, not the shitty Dreamcast rip that's floating around all over the place. Happened to pick up Sparkling Music by Deavid Soul several years ago.

Parn wrote:

cjmcray wrote:I completely forgot about Miller Ball Breakers.

I think you all might enjoy this, then. This is the full song, not the shitty Dreamcast rip that's floating around all over the place. Happened to pick up Sparkling Music by Deavid Soul several years ago.

I've been looking for the real version, thanks.
I was just thinking about all the weird looks my friends give me when I tell them I listen to video game soundtracks. Funny part is that they listen to linkin park and they say that is real music.

*sighs* You know, all this talk about reminicing is making me want to work on my JSR track collecting again...I damn near had every track from both games once...but that was years ago before my laptop decided to kill itself off for the 1st time.

I was quite the upset kid back then...

Off-Topic: Anybody checked out Air Gear, yet? It's like JSR...except filled with panty shots and bouncing boobs. <_<;

Soul wrote: Off-Topic: Anybody checked out Air Gear, yet? It's like JSR...except filled with bouncing boobs. <_<;

Sounds like GG's kind of game.

Air Gear is an anime and manga. I would recommend the manga, as the anime, while cool, has some terrible animation and rewrites. Character designs aren't as funky as JSR either.

I was watching the first episode on IGN (because it was <i>there</i>), and despite not being able to see all of it, there is one thing that bothered me.

The main character, Ikki? He's supposed to be 13, right? Then how come he has the voice of a 20-something-year-old, eh?