One of the more memorable GBA games in my collection.

User Rating: 8.5 | Jet Set Radio GBA
Jet Grind Radio for the GBA had held my interest for a good 3 or 4 years after I had the pleasure of experiencing the original DC game, until one day I finally came across a copy that I just had to buy.

Upon starting the game, I noticed it was very similar to the GBA generation THPS games, without most of the complicated controls. Not a bad thing, considering those were some of the most technically advanced games when it came to graphics on the handheld, and I'm glad to say that graphically, the GBA version of JGR does its console cousin justice. The character models move fluently, the cities are normally bright or colorful, maintaining their personalities from the original game.

The cities are close to exact replicas of the ones found in the Dreamcast version, with minor tweaks here and there to make the levels possible to navigate from an isometric view, but if you've played the original, you'll definitely recognize how the levels are structured.

Control works as well as any THPS on GBA did, but it's definitely simplified. You don't hold a button and release to jump, you just press it once, and there's no grind or trick buttons. Up on the D-pad will always move you forward no matter which way you're facing, and the L button is used to initiate tags, where you have to match arrow movements displayed on screen to D-pad movements. This controls surprisingly well due to the small size of my DS Lite's D-pad, which is easy to slide around to make circular movements.

The story is exactly the same as the Dreamcast version's, and you'll still face rival skater's for admittance into your gang (races can be frustratingly hard), and you can still unlock and create your own graffiti. It's close to the same experience minus the technical limits of the GBA and the upped difficulty of certain parts of the game.

Overall, Jet Grind Radio for the GBA is really a great game. It oozes style, appeals to anyone that's ever wanted to go out and break the law for no reason other than to claim your territory, and it's definitely one of the only GBA games I still enjoy playing. If you can find a copy, just go ahead and buy it because it's bound to be cheap, and it's one of the better experiences you may have with console to handheld "ports".