Jet Set Radio
Jet Set Radio —in Japanese: « (ジェット セット ラジオ Jetto Setto Rajio? )»—, published in North America as Jet Grind Radio, is a 2000 action video game developed by Smilebit and published by Sega for the home console. Dreamcast. The game takes place in a city inspired by Tokyo and stars the GG, a gang of inline skaters who paint graffiti, challenge rival gangs, and escape from the police.
The development team, led by chief producer Masayoshi Kikuchi and art director Ryuta Ueda, envisioned a title primarily inspired by 1990s Japanese urban culture. The settings were set in Tokyo districts such as Shibuya and Shinjuku, while the graffiti design was carried out by urban artists such as Eric Haze. Jet Set Radio was the first video game to use cel-shading graphics, which they gave him the appearance of a cartoon.
Jet Set Radio is considered one of the most iconic games in the Dreamcast catalogue, as well as one of the greatest examples of the creative phase that Sega studios experienced in the 2000s. The specialized press issued favorable reviews, with an average rating of 94 out of 100 according to Metacritic, and favorably mentioned aspects such as the gameplay, visual aesthetics, and soundtrack. video game industry awards, including the Game Critics Award for "Best Console Game" of 2000. The sequel Jet Set Radio Future was released for Xbox in 2002, and in 2012 the remastering of the original title was released on Xbox 360, PlayStation 3 and PC.
Game system
Jet Set Radio is an action-adventure video game, with platform elements, starring a gang of inline skaters who mark their territory with graffiti. The player can move anywhere around the map and use items within reach to speed skate, jump, and do grinds and tricks. Before the level there is a character selection screen that expands as the game progresses. Each of them has three parameters —power, technique and graffiti— and a maximum capacity of paint sprays. There are three types of phases: Street, Challenges, and Jet Trials.
Laning phases have a time limit and are divided into two categories. In the first, the player must repaint the graffiti spots already marked by the enemy gangs, while fleeing from the police. The second phase works as a section boss and consists of chasing rival gangs to mark them with spray on their backs. Graffiti spots are marked with red arrows; Depending on the size, the player can press a button and paint over it, or else they must do more elaborate graffiti, reproducing the commands that appear on the screen with the analog control. To paint it is necessary to collect the sprays scattered on the map: the yellow ones add up a pot and blues count as five. Enemies attack the player in an effort to reduce their health, which is restored by red sprays. Completing the level establishes a final grade based on points, time remaining, combinations, and skill.
In the challenges, new characters can be unlocked by overcoming the challenges they give us, such as imitating their techniques or winning speed races. These levels appear when certain street phases have been cleared. Once the story mode has been completed, the three trial phases are unlocked in each district of Tokyo-to: Jet Graffiti, in which all graffiti dots must be painted before the time limit; Jet Tech, which prioritizes the highest technical score within the time limit; and Jet Crash, a sprint against an opponent.
Players can customize character sprays, and even create their own designs with the built-in editor. The Dreamcast version included an internet connection to share the graffiti on the official website, previously uploaded through the VMU. The graffiti catalog can be expanded through the Graffiti Soul icons scattered around the map.
Scenario
Jet Set Radio takes place in the fictional city of Tokyo-to, a version of Tokyo set in the 1990s. Shibuya-chō to the south —inspired by Shibuya—, Kogane-chō to the east —an industrial zone based on Tsukishima— and Benten-chō to the west —which takes Kabukichō as a reference—, with levels that take place during the day, at sunset and at night respectively. In Shibuya-chō there are locations such as the bus station, shopping streets and parks. Kogane-chō is an industrial area comprising housing, the port, and the sewage system. Finally, Benten-chō is a Chinatown with narrow streets and buildings decorated with neon lights.
In the international version there is a second city, Grind City, which is inspired by New York. Bantam Street represents Roosevelt Avenue and the suburbs of Harlem and Brooklyn, with an elevated train track running through the stage, while Grind Square is very similar to Times Square, the most famous square in Manhattan.
Characters
The street skaters on Jet Set Radio are known as rudies, and they use natron-powered inline skates and cruise the streets of Tokyo painting graffiti as a form of expression. All skaters are informed through a pirate radio —Jet Set Radio— hosted by an eccentric disc jockey, Professor K, who acts as narrator.
The main gang of the game, "GG", controls the neighborhood of Shibuya-chō and brings together the three initial characters: Beat, Gum and Tab. After clearing several levels, new skaters appear who challenge the protagonists before joining the gang: five from Tokyo-to —Garam, Mew, Yo-Yo, Piranha and Slate— and two from Grind City — Cube and Combo—
There are three rival gangs: the "Poison Jams" control Kogane-chō and are disguised as monsters; the "Noise Tanks" dominate Benten-chō and are tech-savvy; and the "Love Shockers" are a group of punk skaters who aspire to seize power in Shibuya-chō.
The antagonist is Goji Rokkaku, head of the Rokkaku conglomerate, who seeks to control the city and limit the freedoms of its inhabitants. To do this, he has the help of the police force, commanded by Captain Onishima, and a band of hitmen known as "Golden Rhino", who will not hesitate to attack the skaters when they are within their reach.
Plot
The game is divided into three parts broadcast by Professor K over pirate radio. In the first, the GG gang wages a graffiti turf war in Tokyo-to against three rival gangs: after invading the Noise Tanks' territory in Benten-chō and the Poison Jams in Kogane-chō to get their kidnapped dog back, they have to defeat the Love Shockers to maintain control of Shibuya-chō. At the same time, the GGs must flee from the police, led by Captain Onishima, who will do anything to arrest them. Each of the defeated gangs leaves behind pieces of a mysterious vinyl record whose parts fit together.
The second part takes place in Grind City. Two skaters from that city, Combo and Cube, travel to Tokyo and join the GGs to warn them that their friend Coin has been kidnapped by Golden Rhino, a gang of hitmen interested in his vinyl collection. After two levels on Bantam Street and Grind Square, it is revealed that Coin had discovered the links between Golden Rhino and Goji Rokkaku, head of the Rokkaku group, who is eager to take over. the pieces of the mysterious vinyl.
In the third part, the Golden Rhino invade the territory of the GGs to try to steal their vinyls, and it is revealed that by putting the pieces together they can make an album called Devil's Contract which supposedly allows you to summon a demon. In the last level, the members of GG confront Goji Rokkaku to prevent him from making a pact with the devil by which he would conquer the world, destroying the mixer installed in his headquarters. Once they manage to defeat him, Tokyo returns to normal.
Development
Production
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The development of Jet Set Radio was carried out by Smilebit, a Sega studio made up of former members of Team Andromeda, who were behind the Panzer Dragoon saga for Sega Saturn. After finishing Panzer Dragoon Saga in 1998, Sega commissioned them a new project for the Dreamcast in mid-1999. Production was headed by Masayoshi Kikuchi, while Ryuta Ueda took over as art director. The team had twenty-five developers, fewer than usual, and an average age of 25.
The developers wanted to make a title completely different from Panzer Dragoon, so they relied on Ueda's designs to outline their idea. In the documentary Jet Set Radio: The Rude Awakening —included in the high-definition reissue—, Ueda stated that he intended to create a cool game representative of Japanese popular culture of the 1990s. To do this, he presented Kikuchi with a sketchbook, with illustrations of inline skaters very similar to the final result, and upon receiving his approval he made conceptual art focused on urban tribes and musical genres such as hip-hop, punk and electronica. In addition, Ueda has cited as influences PaRappa the Rapper (PSX, 1996), which in his opinion was "the first game to reflect pop culture". » of the nineties, and the anti-establishment theme raised in the novel Fight Club. Other references cited by Kikuchi have been the manga Tekkonkinkreet and Lupine the Third. Sega gave them complete creative freedom to carry out your proposal.
Masayoshi Kikuchi recognized that the team had some trouble coming to terms with the idea, partly due to his inexperience as a director, so he used trial and error to come up with the most suitable genre. In the end, Sega accepted the idea of a three-dimensional action-platform game where characters could move freely on the map. Although this system has sometimes been compared to Tony Hawk's Pro Skater and SSX, producer Masayoshi Yokoyama he assured in a later interview that they were not influenced by any urban sports title.
The settings are inspired by three Tokyo neighborhoods—Shibuya, Tsukishima, and Shinjuku—and Smilebit members photographed their streets for reference purposes. However, Sega executives felt that the game might fail outside of Japan and asked for changes for the international version. The team had to rewrite the script and included a second city, Grind City, with two levels set in New York—Roosevelt Avenue and Times Square—also the nationality of Combo and Cube, who in the original version were Japanese, was changed to fit them into the new Grind City story. Ueda was not happy with the changes because, in his opinion, they diluted the Japanese personality of Jet Set Radio, but ended up accepting them. Sega sold the international version in Japan under a special edition titled From Jet Set Radio.
To design the graffiti, he contacted street artists such as Eric Haze, who had previously worked for groups such as the Beastie Boys and Public Enemy. Haze also designed the cover logo.
The development team was also involved in the sequel Jet Set Radio Future, which was released in February 2002 for the Xbox.
Graphics
Jet Set Radio was one of the first video games to use cel-shading graphics, a rendering designed to make computer graphics appear hand-drawn. The cel-shading —which Sega dubbed Manga Dimension— hid the vertices of the polygons with thicker black lines, while the backgrounds were represented with thinner, darker lines. vivid colors. In this way, a greater contrast between the characters and the background was achieved.
The choice of this style responds to an artistic decision: Smilebit considered that Sega's catalog in the 1990s had too many fantasy and science fiction titles, so Ueda proposed a different concept that respected their designs and the idea of the environment three-dimensional urban.
Jet Set Radio was also one of the first games of its generation to feature open-world levels. In Kikuchi's opinion, that was the most problematic point because at that time it was very difficult to program an entire city, especially when the characters had to move quickly. The developers took advantage of the Dreamcast's PowerVR2 processor to display vivid colors, realistic shading, and up to 16 characters on screen. To avoid vision problems, a fixed third-person camera was chosen.
Music
The Jet Set Radio soundtrack aims to reinforce the representation of urban culture, and includes original songs from a wide variety of genres such as J-pop, hip-hop, funk, EDM, rock, acid jazz and trip hop. Most were composed by Hideki Naganuma, and there are occasional collaborations by authors such as Richard Jacques, Deavid Soul and Tomonori Sawada among others. Nagamura was inspired by the game's visual style during the composition, and dared to experiment with big beat sounds, mixes of voices and samples to find the final result. Smilebit collaborated with Sega of America and Sega Europe to add other music genres in the international version; the North American version included licensed songs such as Dragula by Rob Zombie, Improvise from Jurassic 5 and Just Got Wicked by Cold.
In December 2000, Polydor Records released the compilation album Jet Set Radio Original Soundtrack in Japan. In 2012, the remastered soundtrack was released, Jet Set Radio: Sega Original Tracks, distributed by Sega and published on iTunes.
Launch
Jet Set Radio was unveiled at the Tokyo Game Show in 1999, and from the first moment it drew the attention of the specialized press for its cel-shaded graphics. >, the gameplay in open scenarios and the visual section.
The game was released on June 29, 2000 in Japan, October 31 in the United States, and November 24 in Europe. Both the Japanese and international versions kept the title Jet Set Radio, but in the US it was renamed Jet Grind Radio, just like the grind gimmick. i> in skating, due to copyright on the Jet Set brand. Two extra levels, script changes, new songs and exclusive graffiti designs were included for the international launch, which also arrived to Japan under a special edition—De La Jet Set Radio—from October 18, 2001.
Reception
Commercial
At the time of its launch, Jet Set Radio had modest numbers that were tied to the uneven performance of the Dreamcast. In Japan, it exceeded 64,000 copies in physical format, being the 58th best-selling title on the platform in that country. Over time, they have increased thanks to the reissue in 2012 and its inclusion on platforms such as Steam or Xbox Network. Currently, it is estimated that more than one million copies of Jet Set Radio have been sold in all its versions, both in physical and digital formats.
Criticism
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Jet Set Radio received good reviews from the specialized press for its gameplay, visual aesthetics, and soundtrack. In general terms, it is considered one of the most iconic titles in the Dreamcast catalogue, as well as one of the most innovative of the sixth generation of video consoles due to the introduction of the cel-shading style and the exploration of levels.. The Dreamcast version has an average rating of 94 out of 100 on review aggregator Metacritic and 92 out of 100 on GameRankings, while the remasters have scored lower.
The Official Dreamcast Magazine praised the exaggerated physics and exploration of the levels. In the Spanish-language press, Hobby Consolas stated in its Dreamcast review that « its revolutionary game system, which differs from anything known up to now, makes it a unique title". On the other hand, the magazine Superjuegos applauded the gameplay and considered that the urban setting of the games scenarios was "superb".
Jet Set Radio was awarded the Game Critics Award for "Best Console Game" of 2000. It also won two awards at the first Game Developers Choice Awards held that year.
The remastered versions have had mixed reviews. While publications such as GamesRadar+ and Eurogamer have reviewed them positively, stating that the game has not lost its essence, other media such as Game Informer and Hobby Consoles have been more critical, since playable aspects such as camera handling and the precision of the controls, defined ten years later as "archaic", have not been polished.
Other versions
Jet Set Radio has had two portable 2D adaptations. The first title, Typing Jet (2001), was a mobile phone game that didn't make it out of the Japanese market, and where movements were executed by typing words on the keyboard. A two-dimensional version was released in 2003. by Jet Set Radio for the Game Boy Advance, developed by Vicarious Visions and published by THQ. To get around the limitations of the portable machine, the isometric perspective of Tony Hawk's Pro Skater was used with graphics adapted to the cel-shading style.
A remastered version of Jet Set Radio was released in 2012 for PC, PlayStation 3, Xbox 360 PlayStation Vita, iOS and Android. This version changes the aspect ratio to 16:9 and adds online rankings, achievements, and slight camera changes. Additionally, the soundtrack includes all songs with the exception of Yappie Feet and Many Styles, which they could not be licensed. Sega held a graffiti contest to promote the re-release, and the best artwork was included in the game.
Legacy
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Jet Set Radio is considered an innovative title in the video game industry for its pioneering use of cel-shading graphics, which gave the set the appearance of a cartoon, and which is a representative example of the culture of the 1990s. It is also one of the most remembered in the Dreamcast catalog, since it represents the creative freedom that Sega gave its studios with that console.
Following its good reception, Smilebit developed the sequel Jet Set Radio Future for Xbox in February 2002. This second part featured the entire team from the original game. Set in a futuristic universe, the sequel featured improved controls, open world options, and multiplayer. JSRF did not have the same sales as its predecessor, partly due to the poor reception of Xbox in Japan. However, it garnered good reviews and has an average rating of 88 out of 100 on Metacritic. there were more deliveries, the team members have worked on later Sega titles such as the Yakuza saga.
The game has served as an inspiration to numerous developers including Ted Price, President of Insomniac Games, who has cited it as an influence on Sunset Overdrive. Its impact has been noticeable on other titles as well. independents such as Hover: Revolt of Gamers, Bomb Rush Cyberfunk, and Hi-Fi Rush, which have been compared to the work of Smilebit.Beat, the protagonist of the series, has also appeared as a playable character in Sega Superstars Tennis (2008), Sonic and Sega All-Stars Racing (2010), Sonic and All-Stars Racing Transformed (2012) and Super Monkey Ball: Banana Mania (2021).
Controversy
Jet Set Radio was one of the first videogames that valued urban art as an artistic expression, for which reason it had to face a debate about the very consideration of graffiti. Although in some contexts it is an art of a subculture, in others it is considered vandalism or visual pollution because it breaks the aesthetic set of cities. For this reason, Sega included a warning screen:
graffiti is an art. However, as a vandalistic act, it is a crime. Each country imposes its own laws related to graffiti and local agencies reinforce these laws to avoid them. Going against the law can mean a fine, parole or even jail. Sega does not approve any vandalism in real life.
In the United States, Sega of America ran a promotional contest (Graffiti is Art) encouraging street artists to submit their own graffiti. The company chose five finalists and paid for them to travel to San Francisco so they could draw their works on murals, for a prize of $5,000. The mayor of the city, Willie Brown, was not aware of the municipal permit and tried to revoke it as part of his plan against street vandalism, but the court sided with Sega and the event could be held without incident., the Milwaukee city council tried unsuccessfully to prevent the sale of the game in that city.