Jet Set Radio is a video game for the Dreamcast, developed by Smilebit and
published by Sega on June 29, 2000 in Japan, October 30, 2000 in North America
and November 24, 2000 in Europe. A version of the game by Vicarious Visions
was released by THQ for Game Boy Advance on June 26, 2003 in North America and
February 20, 2004 in Europe. A HD version of the game by Blit Software was
released for Xbox Live Arcade, PlayStation Network and Windows in
September 2012. Its sequel, Jet Set Radio Future was released in 2002 for
the Xbox after Sega became a software-based company. The game is also
known for spearheading the use of cel-shaded graphics in video games.
Gameplay Jet Set Radio sees the player character
as a member of a rebellious gang called The GGs as they fight to gain control of
Tokyo-to whilst dealing with rival gangs and the police. The player character
rides using inline skates and is able to jump, grind on rails and skitch on the
back of cars. The most common goal in the game is to spray over other gangs'
graffiti with the player's own, which requires the player to collect spray
paint cans littered across the stage. Small graffiti can be sprayed over by
tapping the spray button whilst passing near them, and can be performed whilst
jumping or grinding. Larger pieces of graffiti, however, require the player to
follow a series of gestures using the analogue stick in order to spray over.
Other missions include showdowns with rival gangs, such as following them
along a certain route. At certain times, the police will be called in to chase
after the player, often sending troops to slow down the player and firing
weapons at them. Players will take damage from gunfire, as well as from
falling from too great a height, but can be recovered by collecting health spray
cans. Development and history
Jet Set Radio was announced at the Tokyo Game Show in 1999 and generated a
prodigious amount of press attention due to its use of the then revolutionary
rendering technique, cel-shading. Now commonplace in game design, cel-shading
allows for a "cartoon-like" appearance of 3D rendered objects. Jet Set Radio
was released in Japan on June 29, 2000. The graffiti featured in the game was
the work of a variety of artists. Most notably graffiti artist Eric Haze, who
provided a number of pieces used in the game by the player, the game's logo, and
other incidental art. Other graffiti contributors include Edge, Uecho, Enas,
Higuchin, Chikpon, and K-Chap. The U.S. release, re-titled Jet Grind
Radio because of trademark issues, contained two new maps, various new
songs, and other in-game content designed to increase the game's appeal
to Western audiences. This version also allowed the user to connect to the
Internet via SegaNet and download user-created graffiti tags, or upload
tags of their own, as some could also be used to promote other Sega games. Sales
of the game were relatively low, but it has gone on to achieve a cult following
in the gaming community. On February 22, 2012, Sega announced on
their YouTube channel and blog with a video titled "Guess who's back?" that
Jet Set Radio will be the next in their planned line-up of Dreamcast re-releases
for the PlayStation Network and Xbox Live Arcade, and a Microsoft Windows
version was also confirmed later on the blog. The game was released in
mid-September 2012 and retains the title of Jet Set Radio in North America.
Plot The game begins in Shibuya-cho, and is
introduced by Professor K, the DJ of a pirate radio station based in Tokyo-to,
who explains the basics of life in Tokyo-to for a "rudie", the term he uses
to refer to young people who roam the streets spraying and skating, as a means
of self-expression. The city is split into three
parts—Shibuya-cho, Benten-cho, and Kogane-cho, each of which corresponds to
a different time of day: Shibuya-cho, a daytime district resembling parts of the
real-life Dogenzaka, Hachiko Crossing and Udagawacho; Benten, a nocturnal
entertainment district which appears to be jointly inspired by Shinjuku,
Akihabara, and Ikebukuro; and Kogane, a sunset-lit dockyard. In each of these
areas, the player will encounter a rival gang - the Love Shockers in Shibuya, the
Noise Tanks in Benten, and Poison Jam in Kogane - that attempts to usurp the GG's
home turf. The player starts off forming a skate gang which also resides in
Shibuya-cho, and thus forms a rivalry between the gangs in the area. After
completing a set of menial challenges, designed to introduce the player to the
control system, Gum and Tab join the gang forming the first 3 members of the
GG's. The player starts out as Beat, a 17-year-old rudie who ran away from home
like many other Japanese rudies. Beat was first shunned from gang to gang over
and over again until he decided to start his own gang. Beat is the leader and
founder of the GG's, short for "Graffiti Gang/Gangsters". The player first starts
out spraying a little graffiti in Shibuya-Cho looking to recruit members.
First Gum joins, then Tab. Then, as the game starts diving into its further
plot, many other willing "rudies" decide to join your graffiti gang. But they
don't offer to join you as simply as possible. All of the new soon-to-be
rudies challenge you to a set of three challenges. These challenges are to test
your speed and graffiti skills, giving you a high score based on your
performance. The initial stage is set in a Shibuya
bus station, in which the player has to "tag" various parts of the bus station,
as well as spray over existing tags, so as to gain the area as part of their
territory. While tagging these places, the player is pursued by cops and their
leader, Captain Onishima. The police, the S.W.A.T team, and Goji Rokkaku's
Golden Rhinos are yet another obstacle to avoid while defeating rival gangs.
Also, Professor K narrates specific parts of the game via his eponymous
pirate radio station called Jet Set Radio.
Other gangs which feature in the game as opponents are the Noise Tanks, who
appear to be semi-cyborg otaku, Poison Jam, brutish thugs who wear fish
costumes, and the Love Shockers, an all-girl gang made up of jilted lovers.
Once the protagonist defeats each gang they hand over their belongings and
grant the area to the graffiti gang that dethroned them. Plus, after defeating a
rival gang, they might offer the player a "treat".
Soundtrack The upbeat Jet Set Radio soundtrack
includes an eclectic array of original and licensed songs combining the musical
genres of J-pop, hip hop, funk, electronic dance music, rock music, acid
jazz, trip hop, and in the North American version, metal. All but three
of the tracks from the combined worldwide soundtrack have been kept in
the HD port, with "Yappie Feet", "Dunny Boy Williamson Show" and "Many Styles"
being omitted due to licensing issues. The Game Boy Advance versions features
shorter samples of six of the game's songs.
Alternative versions = Game Boy Advance version=
A version of Jet Set Radio was released for the Game Boy Advance system in 2003,
created by Vicarious Visions, the developers of the numerous Tony Hawk Pro
Skater GBA games; and published by THQ. It featured an isometric perspective
similar to the GBA Tony Hawk games and, despite the hardware limitations,
cartoony graphics were designed to emulate the look of cel-shaded graphics,
despite the smaller resolution. Music is reduced to 30 to 45 second samples. The
levels ranged from exact duplicates to reminiscent counterparts of the original
Jet Set Radio. = Typing Jet=
There was a version for mobile phones titled Typing Jet released in summer of
2001 exclusively in Japan. = De La Jet Set Radio=
After the public reported several bugs in the original Japanese version of Jet
Set Radio, Sega decided to re-release it under the name of De La Jet Set Radio.
This version was only sold in Japan via Dreamcast Direct making it one of the
more rare Dreamcast titles available. The gameplay in this version was easier
to pick up and included the added music from the PAL and North American
versions, including the two levels only included in these two versions. The text
featured in the game is localized in the main language of the player's Dreamcast,
unlike the original Japanese version, which means that if the player's
Dreamcast system is set to English language, the text in the game will be
in English. The same goes for Japanese, German, French and Spanish. However, the
voices remain Japanese in this version regardless of what language the
Dreamcast is set to. = HD version=
A high-definition port of the game was released in 2012 for Xbox Live Arcade,
PlayStation Network, iOS, Android and Microsoft Windows. In association with
the announcement of the HD version, Sega ran a promotional contest to allow
players to submit their own artwork to be used as graffiti within the game.
Additional features include widescreen HD graphics, online leaderboards and a
new camera system. The game was released on PlayStation Network for PlayStation 3
on September 18, 2012, on Xbox Live Arcade and Microsoft Windows on
September 19, 2012, PlayStation Vita on November 20, 2012, and November 29, 2012
for iOS and Android devices. Reception
The game was received very well from online sources and magazines. Many have
praised the style of the game as the matching soundtrack with up-tempo music.
Critics also applauded the simplistic "pick-up and play" arcade-style
gameplay. Famitsu magazine scored the Dreamcast version of the game a 32 out
of 40. The lowest review according to Game Rankings was a 3.5 out of 5 from
Independent Gamer. IGN gave the game a 9.6 rating but criticized the camera
control, saying, "You'll spend at least a week wondering why all games don't
look this good. Then you will spend at least a month wondering why the camera
didn't get fixed during localization." Eurogamer scored the HD version 9/10,
writing that "The skating's still great, the city's still a joy to explore, and
the soundtrack's still one of the very best ever put together." GamesRadar gave
the HD version a 4/5, stating "Its varied missions will keep you coming
back for more and the added treat of hearing its eclectic soundtrack makes
playing them all the more fun." In 2009, an early antagonist in the
game, Captain Onishima, was ranked 95th in IGN's "Top 100 Videogame Villains"
list. IGN gave the Game Boy Advance version a
score of 8.6. Official Nintendo Magazine gave it 76% praising the game for "being
faithful to the original". = Awards=
E3 2000 Game Critics Awards: Winner for Best Console Game, runner-up for Best in
Show 2001 Game Developers Choice Awards:
Winner of Excellence in Visual Arts and Game Innovation Spotlights awards,
nominated for Game of the Year 4th Annual Interactive Achievement
Awards: nominated for Game Design, Game of the Year, Console Game of the Year,
Console Innovation, Original Music Composition, Sound Design, and Visual
Engineering Sequel and related titles
= Jet Set Radio Future= The sequel to Jet Set Radio, which is
called Jet Set Radio Future was developed for the Xbox and released in
Japan on February 22, 2002, in North America on February 25, 2002 and in
Europe on March 14, 2002 as a launch game for the console. The game's style
and cel-shaded graphics remained faithful to the original, although
somewhat improved to take advantage of the Xbox hardware.
= Appearances in other games= Two of Jet Set Radio‍ '​s characters,
Beat and Gum, are playable characters in the sports title Sega Superstars Tennis.
A tennis court is based on the game, with other characters from the game
watching the match. Beat also features as a playable character in Sonic & Sega
All-Stars Racing, taking his looks from Jet Set Radio Future, where his All-Star
move is speeding through the track on his skates, spraying graffiti on his
foes. There are several race tracks based on the game as well. Beat and Gum
also appear in Sonic & All-Stars Racing Transformed, but retain their designs
from the original game; a stage based on Jet Set Radio is included, as well as a
returning JSRF track from the original game. Two of the songs from Jet Set
Radio Future, "The Concept of Love" and "Teknopathic", were remixed for the
arcade game Ollie King. Goji Rokkaku makes a cameo in Yakuza. The world of
Jet Set Radio also features prominently in an episode of Hi sCoool! SeHa Girls.
Notes and references