Tag to the Beat
Jet Grind Radio is a unique and extremely addictive game from SEGA, where the goal is to tag your territory and protect it from rival gangsters. In the game, you play and spray (this game is about graffiti, for those of you who have no clue what "tag" means) with over ten different, funky looking characters in 5 fully detailed cities, jammin' to tunes like "Dracula" from Rob Zombie, "Improvise" from Jurassic 5, "Just got Wicked" by Cold, and many others. You play as the members of the GG gang (that's a real stoopid name don't you think)? While riding on Jet powered skates with a spray can in everyone's hand, your job is to tag your territory (like I said before) and take out your 3 rival gangs, Poison Jam, Noise Tanks, and the Heartbreakers (I think that's right). Don't be fooled though. Doing tricks on your skates and spraying walls isn't all to this game. During play, you'll discover unique allies, conspiracies, and a deep and involved story.
Grind to the Beat
The graphics in this game are highly unique and not very common in many games. The backgrounds for the cities are beautiful and what makes this game so fun is that it's all done in a cartoon-style art form (ALA Fear Effect) The characters are also in this cartoon-style art form, but lack a sense of detail. While the feel is supposed to be like Japanese animation, shading is somewhat poorly done and the characters look like the blockheads from Gumby. Still, it is pretty fun to watch the characters pull off moves and actions, and the ability to view and use multiple graffiti designs makes you want to come back for more.
Jam to the Beat
Not much I can say about the sound. The voice acting is really good with every voice "fitting" the character it's supposed to portray, however, I will admit that sometimes you want to punch the "narrator" DJ and tell him to shut up. The voices for your gang are hip and cool (even though I know nothing about being "cool") and the bad guys actually sound like "bad guys." Music, as I said before is really good, breaking down to songs from Rob Zombie, Mix Master Mike, Jurassic 5, Cold, and others. (If there were songs from Stained in here, I'd say it was the best sound track ever.)
Tricks to the Beat
Controls in this game are really easy to get the hang of. It's mostly just jump, grind, spray, and do lots of tricks. That's about it. For those of you who have or have played Tony Hawk, controls will feel familiar, but toned down a lot. Grinding rails has no button. You just jump on the rail or pole and there you go. Ditto for wall grinding. You just jump diagonally to a wall and you will grind it. The crouch button for Tony Hawk, which was the speed up button, is known as the speed burst button which allows you to execute a big burst of speed allowing you to run at top velocity. That's all there is to moving around and doing tricks. Spray painting and tagging walls is just a little more difficult. When you decide to tag an area, a series of joystick motions will pop up on the screen which you will have to follow to finish your artwork. The joystick motion can be quite complicated for some of the characters (there like something out of a fighting game), and may require some practice to master.
Overall to the Beat
This game is a type that you don't see very often. It's really fun to play and has a high replay value. Don't be afraid of this unique system. It really works in this game.
--Master of Puppets
Graphics: 7.0
Sound: 10
Gameplay: 8.0
Satisfaction: 9.0
Overall: 8.5
