Jet Grind Radio Message Board

We're of the firm opinion that your time is too precious, too valuable to be spent reading a full review for a game that was already reviewed many, many years ago. What's the point of applying a score to a game that's old enough to be enrolled in the sixth grade? That's why we invented Deja Review: A quick look at the new features and relative agelessness of remade, revived and re-released games. Jet Set Radio was more than one of the Dreamcast's best games. Jet Set Radio was emblematic of the system, exhibiting a joyful atmosphere, bright color scheme and arcade-style gameplay that all seemed unique to the last Sega hardware. The game will forever be associated with its Dreamcast home.

Uncoupling the game from the Dreamcast, however, does nothing to diminish the unforgettable atmosphere that developer Smilebit created. In fact, the association is strong enough that in playing the new HD version, I forget that I'm playing a new version on new hardware. It's just Jet Set Radio, looking how I always remembered it looking anyway.

It's still the most upbeat game about teenagers being shot at by tanks in response to minor acts of vandalism.

Sega's Jet Set Radio HD port is also being released on iOS and Android this summer, concurrent with the console, PC, and Vita versions, Sega revealed today. Players will be able to use their devices' cameras to create graffiti, and share progress via OpenFeint.

We expect the high-resolution mobile game to be more faithful to the original than the Game Boy Advance version; however, we also expect it to be more difficult to control.

There is, strictly speaking, new content to be found in the HD update of Jet Set Radio. It's limited to user-created graffiti designs, but it's new content nonetheless! In the video above, Sega introduces the winning designs in its graffiti contest, all of which look like legitimate graffiti designs and not just Rage Comics and QR codes linking to petitions about Sonic voice actors.

We're sure those were submitted - they just didn't win.

Stripping out Jet Set Radio's eclectic mix of original and licensed music would be a vandalism far worse than that perpetrated by its roving band of cel-shaded graffiti artists. Sega's proposal of a high-definition update to the cherished and influential Dreamcast game skated around the question, but now we know just how much of the music will remain intact: 16 tracks, roughly half of the 30 shipped between the North American and European versions.

Sega tells Joystiq it made every effort to pursue and re-license all the music, but cost and even the availability of certain music publishers became an impediment. In the end, Jet Set Radio keeps its original music (composed by Hideki Naganuma), and several fan favorites like "Magical Girl" (Guitar Vader) and "Funky Radio" (B.B. Rights). We'll probably survive without Rob Zombie.

Though the NTSC- and PAL-specific tracks haven't made the cut, the levels developed for those versions (including Grind Square) will be included with this summer's HD port. The preservation may not be flawless, but the presentation nearly is -- Jet Set Radio's bold, cartoonish aesthetic benefits immensely from the higher resolution, 16:9 display and 60 frames-per-second output. Oh, and there's one more thing you didn't have before: a second analogue stick to steer the camera!

You won't find any real surprises in this GamesRadar-exclusive trailer for the HD update of Jet Set Radio. Except, perhaps, at 41 seconds in, when you see that the graffiti contest announcement image is, apparently, a real in-game tag.

Sega has confirmed that an "upgraded HD version" of Jet Set Radio (known as Jet Grind Radio in North America) will be coming to PlayStation Network, Xbox Live Arcade, and Windows PC digital download this summer...

Sega's extremely subtle teaser turned out to be for an update of Jet Set Radio after all! Sega is re-releasing the beloved Dreamcast skating/vandalism action-adventure this summer on XBLA, PSN, and PC download -- under the proper name. None of that "grind" nonsense. The in-progress screens show an HD presentation that looks just like the original, but smoother.

Sega hasn't said anything about whether you'll be able to import your own graffiti images as was possible in the Dreamcast version. The publisher is, however, holding a contest to solicit eighteen winning images for inclusion in the game. Prizes include copies of the game, a solar-powered Bluetooth speaker system, and Jet Set Radio hoodies and beverage shakers.

SEGA revealed today that the original Dreamcast classic, Jet Set Radio (or Jet Grind Radio for us North American gamers), would be coming to Xbox LIVE Arcade and PlayStation Network. The announcement came via a cryptic youtube video posted on SEGA's blog, asking fans to "Guess Who's Back" with the game's logo. No dates or further info on the port was revealed...