Jet Grind Radio for Dreamcast Review

The Story

You play a ‘tagger’ with the gang GG, the good-guy gang who’s only out to create graffiti art. There are 2 other rival gangs looking to take over your turf. You also have to keep an eye out for the Tokyo-to po-po, which is being paid off by a construction group looking to rid the city of all taggers as soon as possible.

The Gameplay

You goal in Jet Grind Radio is to tag as much turf as you can while rival taggers try to gain control of your turf or take back what’s been drawn on in their turf. Meanwhile, stay clear of the cops or no more city canvas for you. And did I mention you’re on roller blades? Yeah, that’s easy.

There are 5 cities with over 13 challenging missions. Most missions have you tag certain areas or put graffiti on the majority of the walls. Some missions make you spray graffiti on the backs of rival gang members. Now I know that sounds like fun to you. Score points by tagging, performing wicked tricks, and evading cops.

The Controls

Controlling the one of ten characters is pretty easy, once you get the hang of the physics. You can sprint, slide, spin, twist, perform ollies: anything you can do in real life on rollerblades, you can do in this game. Getting the right sequences of buttons before you hit air, while you’re in the air, and landing is the key.

Spraying graffiti is why you’re playing the game and the analog stick is used for that. When you come upon a graffiti point, you mosey on up and the game will throw certain directions you must perform. Usually something like, swing the analog stick from up to down. Then the next sequence will be to swing it around 360 degrees starting at the left position, then swing it back to the right via down. There are icons that show you the arrow movements because it’s hard to describe than see. If you perform the sequence correctly, you tag will appear and you can move on. If you run out of cans or you make too many mistakes, you failed and have to start over.

The Graphics

You can’t beat ultra-cool 3D, cell-shaded graphics. The type of game is perfect for it and the vibrant colors scroll smoothly. The cartoon backgrounds and personas of the characters make you laugh because they are overdramatic (the cop has extended bangs that pop out one foot from his head) and that’s how they’re suppose to be. Otherwise, any seriousness to the game would make it unbelievable.

Thompson’s Two Cents

Sega was the king of distinctive games on the Dreamcast. Jet Grind Radio is all about distinction with it’s theme and glorious cell-shaded graphics. You can still get the sequel on the PS2 or Xbox, but you always have to the original to see just where they got all ideas.

Remember, Sega doesn’t condone the act of vandalism in any form (as stated in the game and on the manual). And neither does Gregory Thompson.