Jet Set Radio

Cool visuals and sound, but the levels are a bit of a mixed bag. It feels like some of the more complex ones were designed without taking into consideration how imprecise the controls are which makes for a frustating experience sometimes.

Sigue siendo divertido y siempre me a encantado la música de este juego

I tried more than once over the years to get into [b]Jet Set Radio[/b] but never fully managed to. It's been very influential in terms of style, as one of the earliest good implementations of cel shading, making the visuals hold up nicely even after a quarter century, on top of the soundtrack and the voice of DJ Professor K. The idle animations of the characters are so goofy, though! The gameplay, however, has aged much less nicely. It's very immediate as it requires only three buttons, but it cannot help but feel janky and heavy, not just by today's standards; even back in the day, the release of [b]Jet Set Radio Future[/b] a mere couple of years later had made the original obsolete, but that game has been left confined to the first Xbox. It's a notable improvement in gameplay, and it still looks great and runs at 60 FPS, so it's crazy that it's never been ported. While the maps after the first two are fairly impressive and expansive, it becomes clear that the later levels are just old maps with new enemies and objectives. The last playable character is unlocked incredibly late, to the point I wondered whether the game was rushed out the door; knowing that the Japanese Dreamcast version was even released missing some content that appeared in the Western versions only a few months later - and Japan got such content only through a second release - further drives that suspicion. This port still runs well on Windows 11 with modern resolutions, and offers valid mouse and keyboard controls; reportedly, the camera is improved from the Dreamcast version. Unfortunately, the circles and semicircles of the QTE to spray the graffiti are also done with the keyboard, and very hard to pull off. To be fair, I found that difficult even with an analog strick, so it may be some "original sin" ([b]Future[/b] simplified the spraying and removed the QTE entirely). Worst detail however is how the button prompts refer exclusively to... Xbox controllers. The irony is not lost on me. It still can entertain in short bursts, and I see why it is considered a cult classic; a case of one that walked so others could run, and grind. A shame it's been delisted from the store, unless it's to make space for the announced remake.