Retrospectus On Jet Grind Radio

1up.com has a feature up looking back at the stylized wonder that was Jet Grind Radio. From the article: "Besides the relatively basic, and surprisingly challenging "collect spray cans, tag buildings and run away from the cops" premise, another thing that elevated the Jet Grind Radio experience was its exceptional soundtrack. Brassy, and brash as hell, the vibrant beats and future funk of the game's OST rests comfortably alongside Sega's equally cutting-edge soundtracks for games like Rez and Space Channel 5."

an instant classic

[N5]

By far one of the best (IMHO the best) dreamcast games ever. Even though the celshading was limited to items and characters, the art style brought the whole thing together. The soundtrack rocked, despite being bastardized by sega of america. (rob zombie?) The sequel lacked the joystick twirling while spraying, which for me was a huge disapointment because it added something. My only other gripe was I really liked the japanese name "Jet Set Radio" and to this day cannot figure out why they changed it. I was hoping for another sequel truer to the origional game (bright colors, funky beats) but with sega's reorganisation it is unlikely to happen.

Sega's Biggest Mistake

[Anonymous Coward]

I loved Jet Grind Radio for the Dreamcast but I can honestly say that the biggest mistake that Sega made in the past 5 years was to heavily support the XBox. Every game that Sega released for the XBox sold reasonably poorly and (in many cases) were good games that could have really sold well on another platform; in particular Jet Set Radio Future could easily have sold 2-5 times as many copies on the PS2 or Gamecube. In all honesty, Sega's games that were released on the Gamecube outperformed what you'd expect from a userbase the size of the Gamecube; Super Monkey Ball 1 and 2 as well as Sega's Soccer Slam performed reasonably well and I suspect that if Sega brought Jet Set Radio Future to the Gamecube it would have also sold reasonably well.

I don't understand why Sega is so XBox friendly, I know far more Sega fans who own a Gamecube or PS2 than own an XBox. It seems to me that Sega is really hurting themselves because (most) XBox fans care more about 'Realistic Breast Physics' in DOA or 'UBER cool FPS games' than any clever or unique game; and the only company that produces better clever and unique games than Sega is Nintendo.

Re:Great game.

[NanoGator]

"Jet Grind Radio was enjoyable to me. I loved the controls the graphics, and everything just fit together. I hated that in the sequal they took out the twisting of the stick. It changed the gameplay and made it to simple. :-( But the music and graphics MADE it even better. Good game, great game."

(Note: This isn't exactly a direct reply to your post...)

Intersting that by the comments so far, it appears that everybody remembers the game but not the contraversy surrounding it. PPl were up in arms about a game that 'promoted vandalism'. It's sort of a low-fat version of the problems GTA is having today.

Which begs the question: Did (illegal) graffiti rise from the sale of that game? Betcha nobody's willing to admit they were wrong.