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on "Let Your Momma Sleep!"

 
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kirkjerk
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Joined: 12 Apr 2006
Posts: 1227

PostPosted: Wed Sep 27, 2006 5:34 pm    Post subject: on "Let Your Momma Sleep!" Reply with quote

Maybe the ground is well-covered elsewhere but I almost thought the article was remiss in not being more specific about the art style; it wasn't just the great urban influence, but of course cel-shading. (I guess I was most into gaming right around when that game came out, so its origin story is drilled into my head.) Cel-Shading really was new and different, an interesting dialog between 2D and 3D.

And this might seem like blasphemy to the article's author, but I thought the Xbox's Jet Grind Radio blows the pants of its ancestor... not brining innovation to the table, but:
1. Adding speed. The DC version plays like molasses, relatively
2. Adjusting the difficulty. I forget which level killed me on the DC, but the time limits were brutal at times, and then... I think maybe it was the "Times Square"-ish one that just was my doom. The Xbox version brought things to more humane levels, though the ending was no cakewalk. The image of my battered DC avatar huffing and puffing, holding their side whenever not in motion, haunts me still.
3. Ditching the little "controller dance to make a tag" thing. This one might be debatable, I guess. I didn't miss it at all... while I can appreciate the nice Puritan principle of having to work to get stuff done, the motions (half circle left, up, half circle right etc) just didn't have any connection to the tag art that was then produced, and that bugged me. And it was of course a pain in the ass, especially when paint was scarce.

I forget if the Xbox version let you customize your tags. I had a lot of fun with the editor on the DC, VMU-issues and all. I made a version of my Alien Bill character with a chunky pixelart style I still use sometimes today... using a fat paintbrush tool to color in (example), rather than fill, letting the color bleed over the outline.

But, overall, great game, and the DC version broke ground in art, music, and play styles.

And hearing how you went from "how do I move around virtual 3D space???" to conquering it speaks well of you.

Now Space Channel 5... I swear that game cheats. Or maybe I'm just getting slow in my old age...
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Harveyjames
the meteor kid
the meteor kid


Joined: 06 Jul 2006
Posts: 3636

PostPosted: Mon Oct 09, 2006 3:48 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

The Xbox version is turd. JSRF is a bad game, and I love JSR. watch as I launch into a sleep-deprived rant.

Firstly, and most importantly, they've separated the cop-dodging and the spray-tagging into different rounds, which is exactly like doing a sequel to pacman and putting the dot eating and the ghost dodging seperate. The spraying just feels empty and pointless, like eating dots in a ghostless maze. The cop bits are no fun at all.

Secondly the peas 'n' carrots color scheme, while in some ways more adventurous than what they went for on the DC version, is kinda boring. Also, the few levels that do deviate from this colour scheme look like ass.

Thirdly the stage design. In JSR, grinding was just something you could do. In JSRF, it's your primary means of getting about. You fight bosses by grinding on train tracks. There's a level on a fucking rollercoaster.

Finally, the game feels very rushed. There's one later level where you have to fight these super radical cyborg dudes, but they presumably didn't get round to programming any AI for them, so they just made them hang in the air and rotate, and you have to 'collect' them all before the time runs out.

Also I remember thinking the last boss was the least fun I've ever had playing a computer game. But I've thought this at least three times since.
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kirkjerk
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Joined: 12 Apr 2006
Posts: 1227

PostPosted: Mon Oct 09, 2006 8:57 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

Huh, I don't remember most of the problems you mention.

I thought there was a bunch of dual tagging/running modes?

I thought the look was ok,

Don't remember the AI floating level

The boss was a biyotch, that's true.
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Harveyjames
the meteor kid
the meteor kid


Joined: 06 Jul 2006
Posts: 3636

PostPosted: Mon Oct 09, 2006 10:46 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

kirkjerk wrote:

I thought the look was ok,


Yeah, it's nice. Shibuya Station looks good, anyway, but the other ones either get by in their aping of the Shibuya level or they fail horribly, like the ugly rollercoaster level.

Actually, the level where you're in that teeter-tottering junk shanty town is quite cool looking, too. But's there's nothing there to compare to JSR's bright mid-day levels which were such a breath of fresh air when the DC was released. Grind Street, the one with the big train track running over it, is just lovely.

I remember when I played JSRF I played the whole thing through to the end just to see if there were any levels as nice looking as Shibuya Station, and there weren't ;_;

I would totally get that game again just to play around the first level, though (if it was on offer for like £1).
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Nana Komatsu
weak sauce
weak sauce


Joined: 17 Jul 2006
Posts: 1293

PostPosted: Fri Nov 17, 2006 8:29 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

I thought JSRF was a terrible game, but I liked it anyway.

I agree that fencing off the police portions from the tagging portions (literally!) killed the flow.

The level design was all right, but my favorite part of the original JSR was grinding anyway so the new levels didn't bother me. I would load up the original and just grind around the Times Square level for hours, so I felt right at home.

The addition of the Tony Hawk achievements was dumb.

The sound track was all right, but only having three songs per level was annoying. Also, they cut out a line from the Cibo Matto song and any time that song played I couldn't help but think about that.

The last level/boss fight was stupid, but the last level in JSR was stupid too.

I wouldn't really recommend this game to anyone, but then I also don't recommend the first either anymore.
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Harveyjames
the meteor kid
the meteor kid


Joined: 06 Jul 2006
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PostPosted: Sat Nov 25, 2006 11:33 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

Nana Komatsu wrote:
Also, they cut out a line from the Cibo Matto song and any time that song played I couldn't help but think about that.


Yeah, 'You fought a war with the Vietnamese'. They suck for cutting that. ENJOY YOUR BLOOD MONEY MICRO$$$OFT
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Nana Komatsu
weak sauce
weak sauce


Joined: 17 Jul 2006
Posts: 1293

PostPosted: Mon Nov 27, 2006 4:59 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

They also took out the line "We love LSD, we die easily" which I guess could be racist? Then again the rest of the song is about drugs and other songs on the soundtrack were not censored, so I really don't know why they'd do that.
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Karoshi
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Joined: 16 Mar 2005
Posts: 43
Location: Philadelphia, PA

PostPosted: Wed Nov 29, 2006 12:19 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

To Randorama,
"And then . . . ", "And then . . .", "And then . . ." ad nauseum.
I otherwise enjoyed the piece. Your enthusiasm for the game definately shines through your writing!
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friedchicken
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Joined: 16 Mar 2005
Posts: 496
Location: Port Land, OR

PostPosted: Wed Nov 29, 2006 9:48 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

Ehh, somehow I missed the discussion here about what I thought was a great article. It needed to be written-- even as a 'sleeper hit' as a lot of contemporary writing called it, JSR is woefully underapreciated. I had wanted to one day write an article about it myself, but I can't write for shit!

Everyone makes a lot of good points about JSRF's failings. It does seem rushed, but then so do the new American levels in JSR. The soundtrack... well, I have to say that I love both and own both (although the lack of Guitar Vader on the JSR OST is disappointing-- anybody have an MP3 of Super Brother?), but I actually prefer the JSRF soundtrack. Its a matter of taste I guess. Now the looping in JSR is much better.

I don't know, in terms of gameplay, I like both. I always think of JSR as a daytime game, and JSRF as a nighttime game. I had expected to hate the simplification in JSRF of the tagging, but I think it improved the flow and made the tagging seem a little more real-time, even though it still wasn't realistic time-wise. Harveyjames, you're right about the seperation of cops and tagging. Both games have an amazing sense of lightness, even though they achieve it in different ways.

I agree too that the cop parts stink. But I did enjoy the tank fights for some reason!
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Shapermc
Hot Sake!
Hot Sake!


Joined: 14 Oct 2004
Posts: 6279

PostPosted: Wed Nov 29, 2006 10:37 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

Karoshi wrote:
To Randorama,
"And then . . . ", "And then . . .", "And then . . ." ad nauseum.
I otherwise enjoyed the piece. Your enthusiasm for the game definately shines through your writing!

Rando is Italian, so English is not his first language. We spend a lot of time cleaning up his articles, but love his enthusiasm and knowledge base. Rando has such a great grasp on everything he writes about that an imperfect style is still OK in my eyes. Basically I'm saying that the "And then..." may not have been his doing, but an editors (or mine, or possibly his! You never know).
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