Jet Grind Radio

Written by Nick Schmidt  on November 10, 2000

Review: The first of it's kind and simply a masterpiece.

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Speaking of personality, Jet Grind Radio's visuals are quite simply the best... ever. Forget everything you thought about Shenmue, Rayman 2, or even Soul Calibur; this is hands down the most impressive use of technology to ever grace a home console. As many of you now, Smilebit, the game's developers, went ahead and created a brand new form of 3D rendering called "cell-shading." In essence, cell shading makes everything look like one giant 3D cartoon by outlining certain polygon seams with thick, black outlines. When mixed with bright colors and intense textures, the results are very pleasing.

Plus the game as a whole runs so smooth that I couldn't help but cry for joy (No really, you should have seen it... so pathetic it was almost saddening). Even with the massive environments filled to the brim with cars galore and several pedestrians at every angle, it never slows down. Well actually, I have seen it slow down... but only once, and that was for about two seconds. So it didn't distract my game-playing experience one bit.

What most people will probably overlook about the graphics is the use of gratuitous shadows. With creating the cell-shading engine, Smilebit creatively implemented a nifty graphical feat; characters shadows actually cast shade onto themselves. Now I know this may not sound that impressive, but in all actuality, it is. Not many games out there can say they use this feature, and it works perfectly, particularly with the cell-shading technique. Plus you got to love the dust effect; it's so cool!

Equally on par with Jet Grind Radio's visual tour de force is the amazing soundtrack. While there are some new licensed tracks for the U.S. version, such as "Dragula" by Rob Zombie and "Improvise" by Jurassic-5, the best of the music is definitely the stuff done in-house. Varying it up by using some rock, lots of hip-hop, and even some techno, Jet Grind Radio's soundtrack is definitely one of the best for any game, ever.

The actual sound effects are quite noteworthy as well. Each character has their own voices, and each one suits them perfectly... even though they are merely bits and pieces while playing. But for the cut-scenes, the use of voice is handled tastefully and executed with perfection. The narrator does a great job, as does the one and only Professor K.

As for replay value, I would definitely say that it's very high. Even though the actual game can take a few days for the avid gamer to beat, you'll want to go back through each stage over and over again trying to top your high score with tricks, or maybe playing the entire game over again as many times as you want. And for those nit-picky gamers who obsess on getting every last thing in the game, you can always go back and try to collect all the graffiti points which grant access to newer designs to spray on the walls. Plus you can make your own graffiti in the edit mode, or even download or upload custom designs to or from the internet. You never run out of things to do.