A truly fresh gaming experience that has it all: amazing visuals and gameplay, a long story and a great soundtrack.
The story of Future is fairly simple. Tokyo is being run by a evil corporation, led by Rukkako Gouji. Gouji has control of everything, including the police. You are a part of the rudies, a gang of youths who will stand up to Gouji's corruption and make Tokyo a fun place. During the story, you will meet tons of other youths who will join your gang and stand up to the corruption.
The main way the rudies stand up to Gouji is by spray-painting, or tagging areas of Tokyo, facing rival gangs, and fighting the police and armed forces. The game play is fairly easy to grasp, but takes some getting used to. You can collect up to 30 cans of paint, and pressing the right trigger releases a can of paint. You can release a boost dash which can be used as an offensive weapon, but uses up 10 cans of paint. The game has a trick system where you can bust some sweet moves, including spins and flips, which increase your speed when grinding. Doing tricks to increase speed will help you get to new areas. You can also slow down your grind by pulling the left thumbstick back.
The amount of playable characters is incredible: there are 12 playable characters, all with their own unique moves and skills. This is a strategic part of gameplay, since some characters are better suited for types of gameplay. In the game, you can choose to progress with the mains tory or just hang around and try to break some of the records, like the longest grind or most tricks in the air.
Radio Future also has a multiplayer component for up to four players on split screen. There are five types of minigames to choose. The idea of multiplayer was good, but the main reason to get this game is the single player, which is pretty lenghty clocking in at 15+ hours with replay value as well.
The graphics in this game are definitely one of the best on the xbox, even 4 years later. The game uses cell shaded graphics, which show incredible detail and vibrant colors. The grapihcs fit this game perfectly: light-hearted and fun. All the characters have their own fashion, and the detail is amazing. The animation is top notch, and the little things like the neon lights on water and birds really makes it life like. There is traffic and lots of people in this game, who will all react to you skating all over the place. And the game still maintains a steady 60 frames per second, even with all the incredible stuff you see, creating a superb visual experience.
The sound is superb as well. The soundtrack is a huge mix of great songs, which all sound great but don't mix all the time when moving from one area to another. The gameplay sound is good as well. The little sounds like the sound after tagging is nice, and your gang members voices sound pretty cool. If you have a home theatre you have a really amazing sound time with JSRF.
The game's only real problems are the camera, which jumps around a bit. Also, the game is really oepn ended so you don't know where to go or what to do sometimes.
The game has good value. The game is about 15 hours to finish the single player, and you can unlock more characters by replaying it, and trying to beat all the records. There is also a create your own tags feature. The multiplayer won't last too long, but the single player will last you quite a while.
Jet Set radio Future is simply a fun game which can appeal to fans of the first or anybody looking for a addictive game with good value, fantastic graphics, a great soundtrack and style. JSRF is definitely a must own for anybody with a Xbox.