It’s a bit funny how something like this reeks of such ‘punk attitude’, but get’s stuck relying on a certain way to play. I’m pretty sure being punk and grinding on rails aren’t exactly the same, but it’s a little weird for a game that loves making fun of how much of a game it is. Between the lines of self referential banter is a constant reminder of how you need to play.

On the surface of it all, is a game with a personality not unlike Deadpool, the developers create a humorous game that includes you in on the joke if you’ve been playing videogames for any one period of time. It’s cute in a way and there is genuine laughs, incredible comedic timing (4Kim is flawless in reactionary humour), nothing too offensively ‘videogame-y’. but it feels like the writing team got a lot of their jokes from watching hours of let’s play videos and wanted to relate the the bodiless voices that play open-mic night to an empty room.

That’s fine though, there’s clearly a crowd for that kind of thing.

Those that are familiar with what Jet Set Radio is are in for a bit of a treat as the core idea of the gameplay is centered around grinding on rails. They want you to get around the city that way. Once you start doing that though, you immediately realize that something is missing.

Why can’t I do tricks?

The STYLE METER points this out just by it’s sheer existence. The more cool things you do, the more style you have, the more badass you become. There’s not a lot of things you do to build up any amount of style (grind, bounce, kill). Granted, it’s something that builds up quite easily when you’re not paying attention to it (while being busy trying not to die).

But often times, I find myself asking “Why is there no trick system?” Is this game trying to appeal to the Pro-Skater crowd without having the thing that appeals to the Pro-Skater crowd?

Tangentially, constant grinding is the games biggest flaw. It’s a means to survival, constantly having to move around to avoid attacks. If you don’t have that much coordination with controls/awareness of your surrounds, it could take a while to attack the larger enemies (at first).

I suppose we could also sit here for hours wondering why a game like this is even bothering with tower-defense scenarios. “The player will be moving around so much so ‘fly’, that we have to include a mini-game that really utilizes the frustration of getting ahead of yourself so you don’t lose.”

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But let me get into the part of the game that has made it a strangely positive experience:

First off, when it comes to games with ‘create-a-character’ modes, what do you do with it? Do you put yourself into the game? Do you create the person you want to be? Do you just want to create eye candy? How about creating the character that fits the world?

There’s a character that I fell in love with a long time ago, in the days of the Pro-skater franchise. THPS3 had a well realized (for the time) create a character mode, she was a punk-ass lady named Facegurl (named that way because of the special move called ‘The Jackass’. you know, the one where you kick the skateboard into your face). I grew attached to the character so much, that I would often make it my mission to see if I could make that character in anything else with a create a character mode.

When I have something so specific, it makes it hard to recreate that same person in another other game that wouldn’t allow her look. I’d either have to fit her into whatever context I can (as a robot in most Sci-fi games), or just not create her at all.

But even still, she was always destined to be a joke character. Let’s face it, most games where you create your character you, want to imagine that they fit the world. An awkward skateboarder doesn’t make sense as a Grey Warden, Space Bounty hunter, or Barbarian.

When I made her in Sunset Overdrive, I can admit that it was just for the sake of making her. But the more I played with her, and the more she spoke, everything just kind of fit. It’s a nice feeling to see a character behave in the exact way I imagined her. Regardless of how I felt about the humour as a whole, it’s those reactions coming from her that made total sense for me.

It helped me enjoy Overdrive more than I probably should have.

Before I go, let’s talk about our Amiibo collections. How far deep are you wading through them? Have you collected more than you should, or are you showing a hell of a lot of restraint?

I figured I was going to stop at Link. When I picked up Smash Bros on launch day, I told myself “Well obviously, I should get one too see what it’s like… And also because I have Hyrule Warriors.”

I enjoyed it for what it was.

Some time later I received Zelda as a christmas gift. I didn’t expect it at all, but I guess my friend assumed that I was really into Amiibos (again, we’re probably thinking in a Hyrule Warriors frame of mind here).

Having both Link and now Zelda, I get to thinking “Well I should probably just wait until Ganondorf is released then.” At least then, I’ll be waiting it out for the next one and not buying things when I see them in store. I’d basically be completing the ‘Tri-force’ as it were.

But then I got to thinking, that I should probably get some variety.

My reason behind that is, I’m really interested in where the future of these Amiibo figures leads. Because of that, I can’t really expect every game to use every Amiibo all the time, there’s bound to be some games that will only relate to the certain franchises.

I bought Luigi today, because I wanted to have at least one thing Mario related.

Now with the three Amiibos under my belt, (and if my friend comes back from his trip with a WiiFit Trainer, that’s going to make it four) I’m wondering if this is really becoming the start of a collecting craze, even if so far, I’ve only been getting the ones that I want.