Number 35: Jet Grind Radio, Smilebit 2000
Intro:
After a drawn out publisher splash and a long-sitting "Grafitti is art, but vandalism is illegal" warning, the slick loading animation appears momentarily before the title screen appears. The title screen is the logo over pre-recorded gameplay, and happy music screams over it all while the terrible announcer voice screams "Jet Grind Radiooooooooooo!" The menu is just three options: New Game, Load, and Tutorial.
Getting Going:
The tutorial is pretty good, except for the awkward commands to do long combination tricks or the "skate backwards" instructions which are terribly vague. Otherwise, it tells you EVERYTHING, including how to move. The controls are simple and quick to learn, making getting into the game no problem. The first level is easy enough, but the next couple levels get difficult pretty quickly, forcing the player to skate harder and get more creative really quick.
Fun:
The cartoony style and over-the-top... EVERYTHING of this game are great to see and interact with. The police bust out some heavy stuff on the player, but more often than not they're less than nimble and the player goes through the whole game with cops (or riot police... or guys in black suits with automatic weapons... or tanks) biting at their heels. And just about everything with an edge, short of passing cars, bystanders, and the level's sides, can be used to grind, and adventurous players are often rewarded for getting to places that are especially picturesque or hard to reach. And the grafitti-maker program is a lot of fun to use, even if the texture palate is a little odd. The idea of trading grafitti with other players sounded like fun, but I never got to try it.
Visuals:
The cell shading and cartoon shaders are nice, but as I've learned from other games trying to use this effect, the character design must complement it to be effective. And the character design is great. Every major character is edgy and creative, making the effect more striking and making the whole game feel like a grand adventure into a highly stylized world. Cars and bystanders didn't get as much attention, however, and tend to seem dull.
Intelligence:
Enemy intellegence is pretty simple convergence behavior, and the rest is repeated patterns. Nothing too spectacular here.
Immersion:
The visual style is very exciting and aesthetically pleasing, and at the same time each unique area has a certain individual style that makes the game feel like a deeper world than having one very expansive but visually uniform area. The funky house soundtrack complements the visual style very well. The pressure of a clock forces players to focus. The controls were a little unwieldy, thanks to the fact that roller blades change the physics of getting around a lot, but that combined with the autofollow camera make more advance trick combinations and destinations needlessly difficult to reach.
Cameras:
The camera is very good about keeping on the player, but the lack of control is very annoying, since some locations are tough to get to, and trying to form combination tricks requires a lot of quick thinking and not being able to look where I wish is annoying. The L-trigger functions as a quick-center, if the player needs a better view, which almost makes up for the lack of proper camera controls.
Controls:
Very simple controls. Jump, dash, paint, and move. Tricks are no big issue: if the player is moving fast enough, they'll perform a trick automatically. Grinding is also automatic, leaving the player to find and exploit big loops if they want to rack up a great score really quickly. Moving and jumping to places is a little awkward, but that's more of a reflection of the muddy physics of being on wheels than a game issue. It ends up making the game a bit more fun, in a way.
Ideas:
The game's approach to violence is very interesting, and quite refreshing in a world where gamers think they want to see Yoshi's head chopped off in a gratuitous display of gore and blood. Instead of eliminating enemies, they become a distraction the player must deal with throughout the course of each level. Making the player execute a series of joystick gestures to complete grafitti was a nice touch, making painting each piece much more involved than mashing a button or sitting while a timer ticked down before police would reach the player and beat him or her down. Making tricks simple made the mood of the game a lot more free and focused on grafitti, since players didnt' have to learn weird tricks or balance each grind just to get around. Creating my own grafitti was a lot of fun, too, since the tool was very easy to use, despite the cheesy and limited textures it provided.
Memory:
I have yet to see a game that used its atmosphere so effectively as Jet Grind Radio has. The music, the visuals, and the gameplay mesh in a glorious harmony: while just one piece was fun to see or hear, all of them together made for a very enjoyable and unique package. The premise is simple, and nothing gets out of hand or interrupts the experience.
After a drawn out publisher splash and a long-sitting "Grafitti is art, but vandalism is illegal" warning, the slick loading animation appears momentarily before the title screen appears. The title screen is the logo over pre-recorded gameplay, and happy music screams over it all while the terrible announcer voice screams "Jet Grind Radiooooooooooo!" The menu is just three options: New Game, Load, and Tutorial.
Getting Going:
The tutorial is pretty good, except for the awkward commands to do long combination tricks or the "skate backwards" instructions which are terribly vague. Otherwise, it tells you EVERYTHING, including how to move. The controls are simple and quick to learn, making getting into the game no problem. The first level is easy enough, but the next couple levels get difficult pretty quickly, forcing the player to skate harder and get more creative really quick.
Fun:
The cartoony style and over-the-top... EVERYTHING of this game are great to see and interact with. The police bust out some heavy stuff on the player, but more often than not they're less than nimble and the player goes through the whole game with cops (or riot police... or guys in black suits with automatic weapons... or tanks) biting at their heels. And just about everything with an edge, short of passing cars, bystanders, and the level's sides, can be used to grind, and adventurous players are often rewarded for getting to places that are especially picturesque or hard to reach. And the grafitti-maker program is a lot of fun to use, even if the texture palate is a little odd. The idea of trading grafitti with other players sounded like fun, but I never got to try it.
Visuals:
The cell shading and cartoon shaders are nice, but as I've learned from other games trying to use this effect, the character design must complement it to be effective. And the character design is great. Every major character is edgy and creative, making the effect more striking and making the whole game feel like a grand adventure into a highly stylized world. Cars and bystanders didn't get as much attention, however, and tend to seem dull.
Intelligence:
Enemy intellegence is pretty simple convergence behavior, and the rest is repeated patterns. Nothing too spectacular here.
Immersion:
The visual style is very exciting and aesthetically pleasing, and at the same time each unique area has a certain individual style that makes the game feel like a deeper world than having one very expansive but visually uniform area. The funky house soundtrack complements the visual style very well. The pressure of a clock forces players to focus. The controls were a little unwieldy, thanks to the fact that roller blades change the physics of getting around a lot, but that combined with the autofollow camera make more advance trick combinations and destinations needlessly difficult to reach.
Cameras:
The camera is very good about keeping on the player, but the lack of control is very annoying, since some locations are tough to get to, and trying to form combination tricks requires a lot of quick thinking and not being able to look where I wish is annoying. The L-trigger functions as a quick-center, if the player needs a better view, which almost makes up for the lack of proper camera controls.
Controls:
Very simple controls. Jump, dash, paint, and move. Tricks are no big issue: if the player is moving fast enough, they'll perform a trick automatically. Grinding is also automatic, leaving the player to find and exploit big loops if they want to rack up a great score really quickly. Moving and jumping to places is a little awkward, but that's more of a reflection of the muddy physics of being on wheels than a game issue. It ends up making the game a bit more fun, in a way.
Ideas:
The game's approach to violence is very interesting, and quite refreshing in a world where gamers think they want to see Yoshi's head chopped off in a gratuitous display of gore and blood. Instead of eliminating enemies, they become a distraction the player must deal with throughout the course of each level. Making the player execute a series of joystick gestures to complete grafitti was a nice touch, making painting each piece much more involved than mashing a button or sitting while a timer ticked down before police would reach the player and beat him or her down. Making tricks simple made the mood of the game a lot more free and focused on grafitti, since players didnt' have to learn weird tricks or balance each grind just to get around. Creating my own grafitti was a lot of fun, too, since the tool was very easy to use, despite the cheesy and limited textures it provided.
Memory:
I have yet to see a game that used its atmosphere so effectively as Jet Grind Radio has. The music, the visuals, and the gameplay mesh in a glorious harmony: while just one piece was fun to see or hear, all of them together made for a very enjoyable and unique package. The premise is simple, and nothing gets out of hand or interrupts the experience.