Dan Geeks Out: Video Game Review #396: Jet Grind Radio

Jet Grind Radio

Sega Dreamcast

Nostalgia Factor:

The 90s are officially in our rearview mirror as Mop Up Duty takes us into the 2000s and beyond with my review of Jet Grind Radio for the Dreamcast. I've always heard good things about this game, but I never took it seriously as something that I would be interested in. I'm not big into the skating/graffiti/hip-hop scene (if such a scene even exists). In my mind, this game was always comparable to something like Tony Hawk's Pro Skater, which I also never had any interest in (and still haven't played to this date).

I finally decided to buck up and give the game a shot here in the year 2022. Better 22 years late than never, right? To my surprise, I fell in love with the game immediately and it now ranks as possibly my favorite Dreamcast game of all time.

How could such a turnaround happen, and so quickly? Let's dive in and find out!

Story:

This game's story is wild, and I'm not sure I ever fully understood what exactly was going on. The basic gist is that you play as one of the members of the GG street gang, located in Tokyo-to, an alternate version of the city of Tokyo. As part of this gang, you engage in turf wars with rival gangs. Not violent turf wars, but turf wars won by who can "tag" or spray paint their logos over the most locations. The police are fed up by these constant spray painting wars and pursue both you and the rival gangs as you "battle" each other.

After winning the turf wars, the GGs become alarmed by the presence of a vinyl record that is rumored to be able to summon a demon. An evil conglomerate moves into Tokyo-to and steals the record, and it becomes your goal to defeat them and stop them from taking over the world.

Wild, like I said.

Gameplay:

This game is so much more fun than I ever thought it would be. The basic premise is that you take control of your skater of choice. You're given a time limit for each level, and you have to collect spray cans and tag as many targets as you can before your time runs out. If you don't tag all the targets, you lose and have to do the whole stage over again.

As you continue to tag targets, you start to gain police attention. Cops will chase after you and shoot at you, making your task more and more difficult. If your life bar runs out, you lose and have to do the whole stage over again. So you're fighting both a time limit and your health gauge.

The police response really amps up with each target you tag. Some stages even have them coming with tanks and bazookas and shit. Seems a little extreme to catch some non-violent gang members, but that's part of the charm of the game. Everything is extreme. You will quickly adapt your strategy to get the more difficult tags taken care of first, and save the easier ones for when the cops are on your tail.

The controls themselves take a little bit of time to get used to. Landing on grind rails is still, even after beating this game twice, an iffy proposition for me. When I first started this game I was missing them left and right on nearly every attempt. To this game's credit, this still wasn't enough to turn me away from it. It was incentive for me to get better, which I did.

While most stages consist of simply tagging all the targets before the time limit runs out, there are a few exceptions. There are stages where you race, stages where you have to outperform other skaters in one-on-one skating challenges, and stages where you have to chase down other skaters and tag them before they get away from you.

As tough as some of these challenges can be, they never get old. Each stage is almost like a puzzle, where you have to figure out the best way to do things and in what order. I was up to that challenge, because the game itself is just so fun to play.

I can't say I've had a better time with any game I've played in recent memory, particularly on this Mop Up Duty review tour. From the second I started playing Jet Grind Radio, I knew it was going to be special. I'll get to the graphics and the music shortly (which are a big part of this game's charm), but the gameplay itself is so fun, so addicting. I became obsessed with this game and didn't put it down until I was done with it. Even then, I still took the time to play through it a second time.

Graphics:

This game looks absolutely stunning. Why more game developers don't use this cell-shaded technology in their games, I will never know. Everything looks like a comic book come to life, and it is amazing.

The characters and the settings are bursting with life and personality. I've heard that this game is modeled after the actual Tokyo, and I can believe it. This may be the best looking Dreamcast game I have ever played. Even the loading screens are "cool."

Sound:

Jet Grind Radio has an amazing soundtrack. While the music isn't typically anything I would listen to, I have to admit it fits the look and feel of the game perfectly. The voice acting is good too. Everything just has this really fun and goofy feel to it, and I love it.

One of my favorite moments of the game is when you take control of a new character from America, and as you are playing through their flashback level, Dragula from Rob Zombie starts to blare in the background. It's one of the best uses of music in a video game I have ever seen. Chills.

Overall:

What a game. I don't know if you can tell by my commentary, but Jet Grind Radio is flippin' fantastic. Even after playing this game twice, I could pick it up and play it again and not get tired of it. It constantly challenges you to not just meet your goal, but to do better each time.

I can't sing this game's praises enough. Don't make the same mistake I did. Even if skating, graffiti, and that kind of thing doesn't sound interesting to you, PLAY THIS GAME. My personal top 20 might have a new addition to it. This is so good. So good. I thought about just giving it an A because the controls can be a little frustrating at times, but after reading my thoughts on it, a simple A would be a disservice to it.

This is a simply awesome game.

THE GRADE:

A+

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