You start off the game as Beat, a young and ambitious skate punk who wants to start his own tough and incredibly hip gang, the GGs. After proving your worth through a couple of simple skating and tagging objectives to Corn and Gum, two of the other founding gang members, you're ready to hit the streets and show the other gangs what your made of. The fictional, yet incredibly realistic, city of Tokyoto is your canvas and is divided into 3 sections, one for each gang. Some of the gangs include the heart broken Love Shocker girls, red haired punks with attitude, and the bionic Noise Tanks, who wear white body suits and roller blades with tank treads. The gangs themselves are not the biggest threat however. The real action sets in when the long arm of the law steps in with tanks, Apache helicopters, and paratroopers with assault rifles. Since you don't have any other weapon you'll have to get by with your magnetically driven skates and a few cans of paint. So starts your adventure leading into an entirely new quest involving a mob scheme to control peoples mind through the use of a legendary record known as the Devil's Contract. Sega surprises us again with a story that only the Japanese could create.

Jet Set Radio's graphics are the type that force people to run out of their home to the nearest import shop. Jet Set Radio gives you an excuse to buy that Dreamcast instead of holding out for the PS2. The polygonal graphics are smooth with not a jagged edge to be found on any of the characters. With the combination of the new polygon shading system, bright colors, and fun characters design, Sega creates a world in which you control a living, breathing cartoon. The frame rate is solid, with a few instances of slowdown if there is plenty of action occurring on screen. I mostly found this problem occurring in the east part of town particularly. It's possible with a little bit of tweaking Sega of America could fix this issue in the stateside release.

The most impressive graphical feature in the game has to be its real time shading. Your character always has a shadow that stretches and shrinks along with your position in comparison to the sun. You can even watch the shadows flash along your body as you swing your arms for momentum. I'm already guilty of spending minutes simply moving in circles to watch the shadows spiral around my skater; it's that well done.

The motions that each skater makes is so realistic that you feel like you are controlling a real person. Ever watch a skater have to clunk their way up stairs with those huge roller blades? The skaters in Jet Set Radio are no different as they have to take extra time in making their way up large flights of steps. With the power of the Dreamcast being fully tapped, the end product is a collection of simply jaw-dropping graphics that demand attention.

With graphics as sparkling as these, there was no way that Sega could let us down in the gameplay department. Jet Set Radio truly has the bite that jacks you into that happy place where you are forced to play mission after mission. All of the missions are location based with each of the three sections of the city further dived into three smaller sub-locations. Depending on which gang you are challenging, and how far along you are in the game decides which section you go to. Most of the missions objectives are similar: Spray paint all of the areas with red arrows, scare away rival gang members, and avoid the cops at all costs. Spray painting, or tagging, is accomplished by pushing the left trigger when you are close enough to a wall and following the motions presented on screen with the analog stick. Some of the designs stretch out over entire walls and may force you search out more cans of paint in order to fully complete them.

Johnny Law is not too happy about your tagging antics however, and it may prove difficult to create a work of art when your dodging bullets from snipers, mad bombers, and even stinger missiles! You are not entirely helpless however. Your spray paint can be used as a defense against enemies too. Want the police off your back? Show them what a talented artist you are by tagging them as well. Apache helicopters giving you trouble? Jump up and give them a new paint job that will render them blind, watching them spiral out of control to a fiery end. With each new stage, you'll continually discover more useful tactics for tagging and saving your skin.

Occasionally, a new skater will appear at your hideout that wishes to join the GGs. Each new character has a set group of tasks you must accomplish first to prove how cool your gang is before they will join. Once they join, you can use them for future missions. This is good because each skater has different strengths and weaknesses. Their stats are divided into three sections, power, technique, and graffiti. Power is how much damage each character can take before being knocked out. Technique is the characters skating prowess. Knowing the characters techniques is helpful since some are faster than others. Technique also shows how reckless a skater is. Some characters are so fast that they take more damage from simple bumps and trips. The graffiti stat is the maximum amount of paint a character can store at any given time. Certain stages may require a skater with a lot of speed and able to carry a lot of paint so you can tag on the go. While other stages may need someone with a lot of power to take the hits you will most likely receive in a given stage.

The gameplay feature that you will always abuse is the ability to grind along almost any surface and bounce off of most walls. Grinding is a necessary technique since most cans of paint are conveniently placed along fences and guardrails. Grinding also helps you to get the advantage when it comes to running away or catching up with a opponent since short grinds increase your speed.

Needless to say, for a game that only consists of two buttons (jump and tag), the depth is astounding. Practice is a necessity since the gameplay can be a little challenging at times. The game engine is not completely flawless with your character occasionally missing grinds you should have surely caught, but with the game so well put together you can easily forgive those few frustrating moments.

With all of these great options what more could a gamer ask for? Well, good tunes for one and JSR delivers in spades. From house to punk rock, you'll surely find most of the tunes highly addictive. I'm even guilty of playing stages just to hear a certain song again. Since most stages are over 8 minutes in length you'll be able to hear a couple of songs in each mission. This is going to be the new big thing for gamers to collect so I urge you to get a copy while you still can.

Lastly, gamers always want more and more customizable extras. Luckily Sega did not slack off in this department either as you are able to create your own custom tag artwork and upload it to the Jet Set Radio site for the world to use. You can create tags in English or Japanese or draw your own pictures right down to the pixel. It's not surprising to spend hours perfecting your very own collection of tags for personal use. Or, if you're not the artistic type you can collect the 150+ hidden art icons scattered throughout Tokyoto. Each character has their own hidden artwork that goes along with their style, so players can have hours of replay value collecting their favorite skater's tags.

In all, Jet Set Radio is one of the best games to be released this year. In fact, I consider it one of the best games to be released in the past 3 years. JSR can proudly sit atop shelves with such greats as Metal Gear Solid, the Resident Evil series, Castlevanyia: Symphony of the Night, and many others. I love Crazy Taxi and I fondly remember playing Skate or Die 2 on my NES, amazed at what they did with an 8-bit system. This title combines the best of both titles, bringing to life a new cartoon world where the player is given the freedom to go anywhere, paint their own tags that they create, and just groove to the tunes. Even after already beating the game once (20+ missions and side games), I'm already attacking it again. If you don't already own this title, I urge you purchase a copy, sit back, and immerse yourself in the beautiful, cool world of Jet Set Radio.