Jet Grind Radio (2000) - MobyGames (original) (raw)

Atari 7800+

Atari 7800+

aka:Jet Set Radio,Jet Set Radio HD

Moby ID: 4126

Moby Score

8.3

#749 of 25.5K

Critics

88%(62)

Players

(102)

Review Ranking

Collected By

443 players

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Description official descriptions

Tokyo-to, a city not unlike Tokyo, somewhere in Asia, in the near future. This is the story about the Grace & Glory (GG's), one of three rival teenage gangs who ride motorised inline skates and are tagging the streets with graffiti. There is a turf war going on between the gangs GG's, the Poison Jam, and the high-tech freaks, the Noise Tanks. The evil Rokkaku Corporation has the corrupt police in their grasp, and, headed by Captain Onishima, the cops are hell-bent on subduing the unruly teen protagonists. But there is light in the darkness: the underground DJ, "Professor K," and his Jet Set Radio station keep tabs on what is happening on the streets of Tokyo-to, and soon our teens will have something much darker than the police to worry about.

As one of the GG's, you skate through a variety of different levels, from busy streets to run-down rooftops and smelly sewers where you learn new moves, collect spray cans, and tag the streets with graffiti. New graffiti designs can be unlocked by finding "Graffiti Souls" in levels, by designing new graffiti yourself, or by going online and downloading any images you find while browsing the internet. Fight the rival gangs "Poison Jam" and the "Noise Tanks", the evil mega-corporation Rokkaku and their police cronies in this fresh take on the platform genre, mixing traditional platform elements with skating similar to that of the Tony Hawk's Pro Skater games. Players are scored on their performance in a level, both on the level of graffiti attempted as well as optional tags and skating tricks. As the game progresses challenge maps open that test the player's ability to do larger tags, more tricks, or race against an opponent.

The American and European release contained two new levels based on New York. The story and order that you meet characters was modified to include these two levels. Both releases also have different unique soundtracks for these levels.

The 2012 HD version has widescreen HD graphics and a new camera system, as well as all the original songs but one.

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Screenshots

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Videos

Credits (Dreamcast version)

138 People (126 developers, 12 thanks) · View all

Reviews

Critics

Average score: 88% (based on 62 ratings)

Players

Average score: 3.9 out of 5(based on 102 ratings with 7 reviews)

My favorite Dreamcast game

The Good
JGR uses cell shading technology which makes the game's graphics look kind of cartoony, but in a good way. Very smooth animations and cool graffiti. The soundtrack was totally awesome and I loved it. Though it probably doesn't appeal to all. It's a mix of techno and rap. There were also a few hard rock songs thrown in there.

There are a lot of different characters you can use and many different modes of play, which give the game a big replay factor, even if the story is somewhat short. It'll take you a while to find all the different pieces of graffiti. I love the fact that you can go through the storyline again and again.

The Bad
It seemed a bit too short, at least the story part of the game. There was also slowdown and the load times were too long and too often. It's hard to find too much wrong with the gameplay. The last boss was also quite easy.

The sequel (Jet Set Radio Future) will be on Xbox, instead of the canned DC. :-(

The Bottom Line
A wonderful mix of graffiti and roller-blading, and definitely worth the cheap price it's at now. A great game that has been somewhat overlooked.

Dreamcast · by Attila (553) · 2002

Wonderfully stylish game, but...

The Good
The graphics and overall style of the game is very good and unique and all that stuff. Certainly it was refreshing to see when it first came out. The music gets boring pretty fast but it well made and fits the game nicely. Even though I'm not much into "hip kids owning the streets" or whatever, the story and presentation works fine.
It is a very fun game, in fact I think it's one of the best games for the Dreamcast. And it's still almost unique, the sequel for the Xbox is pretty much the same game.
The level design is mostly wonderful, even if there really are just five different areas to skate around in. The individual stages of the game are smaller or bigger parts of these areas, and upon finishing the game you can choose to play individual levels, or skate around the areas as you wish.
There are three different challenges you can take on upon completion of the game, and these can be done as many times as you want, in any order, or not at all. They are JET Graffiti, JET Technique, and JET Crush. In other words, the graffiti challenge, the trick challenge, and the race challenge. Unfortunately there is no two-player mode, which is a real bummer.
The music is good, the tracks are very skillfully mixed into each other throughout the game, and there is much variation.

The Bad
The controls. Oh man, the controls seriously ruin the experience for me, and indeed for anyone I know who has played this game.
Simple things like running up a set of stairs or wallskating to tag something can get very frustrating and often requires many replays. And the worst part is that I don't know if it's Sega's fault for designing the Dreamcast's abomination of a controller, or if it's just poor programming. Which brings us to the trick system. As far as I have been able to figure out, all tricks are random, the manual doesn't really mention them, and that's a big bummer. Something more like Tony Hawk's Pro Skater would have been preferable. As it is now, you only have to use three buttons (A, L and R) to play the game. Would it not have been a good idea to use B, X and Y to perform tricks? Getting a high score on all levels certainly would have been more fun and challenging if there were actual tricks to perform, not just jumping and grinding, hoping that the character will do some nice tricks along the way.
And the fact that there's always a time limit makes me so stressed out that I almost don't want to play it. But I paid for it so I have to. Also, the game's menus are extremely annoying, think Medal of Honor x10.
There should have been a two-player mode, I do however think that it would require two Dreamcasts linked in some way, since the graphics can slow down quite a bit in the single player mode, and I shudder to think what would happen in split screen mode.
The system for designing one's own graffiti tags is quite simple, and could have been better, perhaps utilizing a system similar to Animal Crossing's system for designing patterns for use in the game. There used to be downloadable graffiti tags and other goodies, but I have no idea if there are any official servers left, since the Dreamcast's untimely demise.

The Bottom Line
Great eyecandy, ok music, pretty fun game hampered by extremely frustrating controls, overly simplistic trick system and a long, boring loading/warning-don't-do-this-at-home sequence in the beginning...it is however worth the small amount of money you'd spend on it. It is a fun game, but be prepared for some extremely frustrating moments, and it's all because of the controls.
However, I seriously feel that not even the controls can spoil the fact that this is, in my opinion, one of the top three games for the Dreamcast, and if you don't own this, you suck.

Dreamcast · by optrirominiluikus (70) · 2006

Jet Set Radio, Radio!

The Good
Jet Grind Radio is a wonderfully original game lets list what the many things is the first to do first to use Cel Shading, first to have a game about Spraying Graffiti and one of the first games to have licensed music. In the game you play as a gang called the GG’S which compete with other gangs like the Poison Jam from the city of dusk, Noise Tanks from the city of the night, and your gang is from the city of the day in a futuristic Tokyo where it is illegal for youths to express themselves the game begins when a newcomer gang hits you’re home turf and you have to get it back and in no surprise the cops try to stop you at first its just beat cops then slowly escalates to dogs, SWAT, Paratroopers, helicopters, and tanks. Once you take a territory you have to do a sort of “battle” in which you spray the backs of the gang members sort of silly which brings another point to mind I’ve seen reviews trashing this game one of their complaints being its too overblown but that is intentional to parody how overblown other Japanese entertainment can get. The music is one of the best game soundtracks ever except for Super Brother and you’ll hear a song end and it gets mixed with the beginning of the next song like a real DJ would do Perfection.

The Bad
Now the Bad the camera can be sloppy and the controls take some getting used to specially the spraying technique of course now I have mastered it playing it since it first came out and have beaten it about 100 times now I can get a jet rating on every level.

The Bottom Line
Overall I think the good out weighs the bad this is my favorite Dreamcast game and favorite game of all time.

Dreamcast · by Classic Nigel (108) · 2006

[ View all 7 player reviews ]

Trivia

1001 Video Games

The Dreamcast version of Jet Set Radio appears in the book 1001 Video Games You Must Play Before You Die by General Editor Tony Mott.

Soundtrack

Sega released a soundtrack for the Japanese version of Jet Set Radio.

Tracks List:

Those who preordered the American version of the game received a "Jet Grind Radio Music Sampler" soundtrack CD featuring music by the artists added for the American release of the game. The track listing is: * 1. Rob Zombie - Dragula * 2. Rob Zombie - What Lurks on Channel X * 3. Jurassic 5 - Improvise * 4. Mix Master Mike - Patrol Knob * 5. Cold - Just Got Wicked * 6. Professional Murder Music - Slow * 7. Shuvel - Set It Off * 8. Shuvel - Hit List * 9. Lefty - Girls * 10. Jurassic 5 - Improvise (Instrumental)

Tokyo

The three districts of Tokyo-to are actually the names of real districts of the real city of Tokyo in Japan. They are Benten-cho, Kogane-cho, and Shibuya-cho. The names of the real districts are simply Benten, Kogame, and Shibuya, but the "-cho" suffix can be added, as "-cho" simply means "district" or "area" in Japanese.

Version differences

The original Japanese version, did not contain the levels featuring Cube and Combo (Grind Square was one of these levels). When the game was brought to the USA, the name was changed to Jet Grind Radio and these extra levels were added. Songs from Rob Zombie were also added. Although, during the game, DJ Professor K still refers to the radio station as "Jet Set Radio". The US version of Jet Set Radio got a limited release in Japan as well, called De La Jet Set Radio. This version was released only through the Dreamcast/SEGA Direct system, and is completely in English.

In Europe, the game kept its original title and had the extra levels. It does not have the Rob Zombie songs. It also has some differently translated dialogue from the USA version.

Information also contributed by雷堂嬢太朗 -raido.jotaro-,David Mackenzie,Opipeuter andZovni

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Contributors to this Entry

Game added by Goteki45.

Windows, PlayStation 3, Xbox 360 added by Lance Boyle. PS Vita added by Sciere. iPhone, iPad, Android added by Kabushi.

Additional contributors: Trixter, Satoshi Kunsai, Sciere, Foxhack, Keeper Garrett, Patrick Bregger, FatherJack.

Game added May 21, 2001. Last modified June 11, 2024.