Everyone’s Favorite Iconic Sega Dreamcast game has finally made its way to android. After months of talking about the culmination of when this title would grace our not so humble play store, the day has come. Jet Set Radio is now out and available for download via Google Play.
Grind and trick your way through the streets of Tokyo-To and tag your territory to make sure people know they’re on your turf. The city of Tokyo-To is being torn asunder by the rival gangs and it’s your job to make sure you grab as much territory as you can by tagging anything you see. Don’t forget to look good while doing it. The game will have you running a series of courses, spray painting all the billboards, walls, vehicles, and rival gang members you can while grinding rails and jumping large gaps to trick out and earn points. If you have never played this game before, or just think you might be a bit rusty, not to worry. Jet Set Radio will have you going through a few tutorials to acquaint yourself with the ways of the “Rudies.” The game so far is just how I remember it. Lots of funky beats and just downright fun skating around the city. The controls are oddly enough very easy to get used to. This was my main concern in seeing that a port was coming to Android. To my surprise, everything seems fairly fluid and the controls while a tad different, aren’t hard to master. You will have your virtual joystick on the left, and your four main buttons on the right which control your speed, jumps, tagging and your different camera angle.
The game has a whole new list of features that come along with the old classics of the game in a totally optimized for mobile experience. New features for mobile include swiping the screen to apply graffiti and you can even take pictures with the camera and use those as your gangs tags. Of course you still have the option to completely customize your tags in-game as well with tons of different designs or you can choose from a large list of pre-loaded graffiti designs. What could be better than skating around tagging your gangs insignia to the hardcore sick tunes of pirate radio which features 29 of the original 30 tracks from the Dreamcast version of the game. The entire gang from the original version is all here as well allowing you to play through while recruiting up to 10 different playable characters.
Probably the most rewarding thing about the game that I have noticed so far is that Jet Set Radio is now part of Sega’s heritage collection. Which means it’s been redone with high-resolution visuals and looks great on the Nexus 7 and even on phones like the Galaxy nexus. Still its way better on the bigger screen with the quad-core processor I think.
Time to skate through the streets of Tokyo-To and perform as many tricks as you can while taking over any territory possible. Don’t forget to bring your paint cans. And watch out for the FUZZ!
