TGS: Jet Set Radio Future hands-on impressions

   The Fall 2001 Tokyo Game Show represented the first chance most gamers had to play developer Smilebit's Jet Set Radio Future. Though the title looks and sounds like it will fabulously uphold the aesthetic tradition of the first title, the gameplay has undergone a number of significant changes.

   Much is still the same, however. The basic gameplay is still the same: skate around an environment avoiding obstacles and the police, tagging graffiti points, and pulling off tricks with mad style. All of the characters from the original Jet Set Radio return with slightly modified looks, including the previously unseen Combo and Cube. Cube sports her Jet Grind Radio goth-chic outfit, while Combo has lost the boombox and hat, and now sports a blank mesh tank top and a tattoo of his name, "COMBO," down one arm. The character select screen has space for up to 24 skaters, so some new faces will undoubtedly join the original Rudie gang.

   Also returning are mega-indie Japanese rock sensation, Guitar Vader! Guitar Vader contributed the tracks Magical Girl and Super Brother to the original Jet Set Radio. Their song "I Love Love You" has been remixed by Jet Set Radio techno music guru Hideki Naganuma. You can and should download this track and others from Guitar Vader's mp3.com homepage. The only songs we could hear in the demo was this and the song from the second trailer, "I dreamt I was a butterfly." The final game, however, will feature lots of new music from the Grand Royal Records label.

   So how has the gameplay been changed? The most important change is in the way tagging is handled. In the original game, tagging was performed via a series of movements on the analog stick. Different characters used different movements, and larger tags required more "steps." This meant that larger tags were far more difficult, as they took eight times as long as a smaller tag. Moreover, only small, single-paint can tags could be gotten "on the move." Larger tags required the player to stay stationary for a certain length of time--a serious danger, especially when faced with the heavy artillery of the later levels.

   Jet Set Radio Future ditches this mechanic in favor of a one-button solution; simply pressing the "paint" button hits a tag point. Larger tags are simply represented by a series of adjacent tag points. Holding down the trigger button also uses spray paint continuously. If you're moving quickly past a series of tags, you'll hit them all in sequence. If you miss the tags, you'll just waste a lot of paint. It's much easier to "accidentally" use paint than in the previous game, so you'll have to make sure your tagging attempts are accurate.

   This new mechanic means that the focus is on speed, finesse, and hitting tags while on the move, as opposed to the time management and evasion of the first game. Other new gameplay mechanics support this stylistic change. For example, your character will occasionally earn a "boost" technique that speeds your character to supersonic levels, blurring the screen into a pointilistic mess. Backwards skating is also much simpler; a single button switches your character from a forward stance to a backward one. Backwards skating is similar in control, speed, and execution to regular skating. Like many things about Jet Set Radio Future, it just looks cool.

   The Tokyo Game Show demo begins as a series of tests led by Garam, the black skater with the amber "Spider-Man" glasses. Garam teaches your skater to skate, perform tricks, pick up spray cans, turn around, use the speed dash, and tag successfully. Once Garam thinks you're up to snuff, you can start the level proper. Fans of the original title will recognize this as an extensively reworked version of the original's Shibuya bus depot. From here, you can skate around the level, searching for secret paths and trying to bomb as many tags as quickly as possible. The police are fairly low key on this stage, sticking to ground troops, but this is sure to escalate in later levels. The demo ends when the player hits all of the tags or time runs out. Except for tagging, the gameplay is almost identical to the original. The major difference is in the increased scope and view distance of the levels; more than ever, the environments feel like real--if cartoony--cities.

   Also on display was a simple two-player mode. This mode was a race between two players around a circular track. Players could spray each other and fire spikey-bombs in order to jockey for position. Though fun, it paled next to the game itself. Fortunately, the main gameplay mode is also playable by up to four simultaneous gamers via split-screen modes.

   Though the gameplay has changed significantly, it's clear that Smilebit's vision of the future is as razor-sharp and impossibly funky as ever. Jet Set Radio Future will come to the Xbox on February 12, 2002 in the U.S. A Japanese release will follow shortly thereafter. Smilebit and Sega have not announced if Jet Set Radio Future will come to any other platforms, though they have not ruled out the possibility.