Jet Set Radio Coming to XBLA/PSN

Sega's pledge to bring Xbox Live Arcade and PlayStation Network downloaders a hefty chunk of titles from the publisher's final foray into the home console market has brought us such Dreamcast...erm, "classics" as Crazy Taxi, Sega Bass Fishing, Daytona USA, and Space Channel 5: Part 2, which is to say, it hasn't exactly brought us very many of the games people who owned Dreamcasts are actually shouting about when they yell at you regarding how great the Dreamcast was. Fortunately for those who enjoy yelling about how great the Dreamcast was, that's about to change.

Via a vague YouTube video posted on Sega's official blog, the publisher has officially announced its intention to bring the much-beloved Jet Set Radio to XBLA and PSN sometime in the not-too-distant future.

Jet Set Radio (known as Jet Grind Radio in North America) is, of course, the famous Dreamcast game that somehow managed to make rollerblading seem like something other than a misguided holdover hobby from the early '90s. In it, players would take control of a group of rollerblading miscreants hellbent on grinding every available piece of scenery in three distinct districts of Tokyo-to, while spraying graffiti all over everything and staving off rival gangs, cops, and military soldiers in the process. Think of it like Tony Hawk meets Marc Ecko's Getting Up, all wrapped up into a still rad-looking cel-shaded art style from a time before people really knew what the hell cel-shading in video games even was.

While Sega's mystery blog doesn't give any hints as to a time frame for Jet Set Radio's arrival, we can expect that it won't be too far off, if they're already dropping hints about this thing. In any event, it'll be plenty of time for people to start arguing about whether Jet Set Radio, or its sequel, Jet Set Radio Future, had the superior soundtrack (it's totally Jet Set Radio Future). And while you're doing that, maybe say a little prayer that the full soundtrack actually makes it into this HD re-release. After all, it's not like we haven't had to deal with excised licensed tracks in these sorts of games before.

Finally, please enjoy this original trailer from the game's original press cycle back in 2000, and remind yourself how adorably unpretentious video game trailers were back then.

YESSS! Finally!

Love Jet Set/Jet Grind this is long overdue!

Cant wait!!! :D

man this is great news

Sweet! Bout time.

Edit: Also holy crap that trailer...

Has Sega been cleaning up the visuals for these things? That art style should look really solid in HD.

That said, I remember Jet Set Radio being extremely frustrating. Future was fun, though.

Fuck YES!

Rollerblades? Sounds like some kinda chainsaw contraption.

Ahh man... JSR was not nearly as good as JSR-F... I'd definately buy JSR-F, but hated JSR

I played one of these games for the first time recently and didn't like it, maybe I played it too late to appreciate the game. I could be interested in this, I haven't decided yet.

uh it's called Jet GRIND Radio

O-M-F-G

THIS YEAR IS GONNA KEEP GETTIN MORE AND MORE OFF DA CHAIN

uh it's called Jet GRIND Radio

I HAVE LOST MY JSRF CD AND I AM SAD

Oh my fucking god yes.

Jet Set Radio Future is where it's at, but this rules regardless.

Hope they price it reasonably. $10 feels about right.

Great game, never played it for more than the multi-player racing though.

Got the JSRF/Sega GT 2002 combo disc with my original Xbox. Still my favorite Xbox game.

I have interest in this.

@Vexxan said:

Fuck YES!

@Alpha1 said:

Cant wait!!! :D

@SM5240 said:

Oh my fucking god yes.

ALL of this. I have been waiting for this game, since I played it as a kid. Still remember some of those songs, and

!!!SPOILER!!!

YOU rollerblade as a FREAKING dog. Excellent.

Excellent, i love this game, never got very far but still played the hell out of it.
 
Excited.

I loved this game, playing as Potts was one of my most beloved computer game memories :D

Future EASILY had the better soundtrack.

Come along children. We're going to have a little music, like old times, like old times. Look now, I'll start the melody on the organ!

Hopefully the original soundtrack comes back, I wanna play that game the way it was meant to be played!

About time!

Both soundtracks were good in their own right. They both had their own tones and suited each game well. I personally have both CDs and enjoy them in equal part.

Now, if one were to suggest that Ollie King had a better soundtrack . . .

@TheDigitalistic said:

Future EASILY had the better soundtrack.

Come along children. We're going to have a little music, like old times, like old times. Look now, I'll start the melody on the organ!

Hellllloooooo Allison....

I would love to play this on my Vita, but I'll play it however I can!

The JSR quick look throwback ( http://www.giantbomb.com/quick-look-throwback-jet-grind-radio/17-1328/ ) was enough to convince me that I do not ever want to play this game, even without the hand cancer inducing monstrosity that is the Dreamcast controller.

I only played the GBA port of this game and it was great.

HOLY FUCK. This just became my most anticipated game this year. One of my very favorite Dreamcast titles. FUCK. I'm so excited.

YESSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSS!

Sega, I love you and I forgive almost everything you've done that was stupid, retarded and idiotic.

Never will I forgive you for Sonic 2006. You still owe me big for that one.

Groovy! Totally looking forward to this!

I'm sure more people will discover the quaint concept of love.

I hope, hope that it still has its original soundtrack. It would suck if it didn't.

Sounds awesome, can't wait

gamegiant.net

@Methodis said:

uh it's called Jet GRIND Radio

if not joking... original name was Jet Set Radio, it was changed when it was localized because of trademark issues.

they brought back the original title in Jet Set Radio Future which wasn't changed.

Jet set radio future HD-release, would also be epic.

Well that's awesome. I'm still holding out for an XBLA version of Power Stone Collection though.

@TheDigitalistic: That song was my childhood. That and Funky Dealer. And statement of intent. And fucking Aisle 10.

Damn I loved that game. A re-make or new game with modernised controls and the same soundtrack would be the greatest thing on this earth.

I just exploded in joy!

Now all I need is JSRF as a re-release.

This news makes me unreasonably happy.

I remember back in the early 90s when aggressive inline skating was fucking huge, i had a pair of K2 fatty's and loved it.

@Styl3s said:

I remember back in the early 90s when aggressive inline skating was fucking huge, i had a pair of K2 fatty's and loved it.

Ha, I was just thinking about my K2's... good times.

Hell yeh! I still play JSRF pretty regularly, but I'm still pumped as fuck for this.

OH my GOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOSH, I'm SOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO excited gosh dang it!

YES.

First SSX and now this, oh my goddddddddddddddddddddd I'm 15 again.

And yeah, JSRF most definitely had the better soundtrack.

Wow, after watching that trailer I have to say its quite impressive how the game still looks damn good even though its been 13 years since its release.