Jet Grind Radio

• Title — Jet Grind Radio • Developer — Vicarious Visions Smilebit • Publisher — Sega • Director — Craig Derrick • Designer — Robert Gallerani • Programmer — Eric Caraszi Jan-Erik Steel • Artist — Robert Gallerani Brent Gibson • Composer — * Hideki Naganuma • Richard Jacques • Genre — Action, platform • Modes — Single-player, multiplayer • Platforms — Game Boy Advance

Jet Grind Radio is an action platform game based on the Dreamcast game, with gameplay that differs in several key areas from its home console counterpart. Instead of being a 3D game using polygons, it is a 2D game that utilizes an isometric viewpoint. The goal of the game is to traverse through neighborhoods and find key locations to tag them with graffiti under a specific time frame. Players can grind on rails and perform tricks. When a key location is reached, players must tag it with graffiti that may require a single press of a button, or a sequence of buttons that need to be pressed at the correct time. The game offers a graffiti editor to customize and create unique graffiti tags. Players can collect hidden icons scattered throughout in order to expand the number of graffiti tags. After completing the story mode of a specific neighborhood, three new time attack modes are unlocked for that neighborhood. The three modes involve tagging an entire city, racing, and performing tricks. Jet Grind Radio also offers 4-player multiplayer that allows players to compete within the unlocked time attack modes.

The player assumes the role of one of the GG's, a graffiti gang, led by Beat. The business conglomerate, the Rokkaku Group, and the Tokyo-to government have teamed up to clamp down on the "Rudies", the game's term for the graffiti spraying youths. The object of the game is to "tag" certain surroundings with graffiti before the time limit runs out or "before the indomitable array of cops arrive".

Jet Grind Radio was developed by Vicarious Visions, who previously developed GBA ports of games in the Tony Hawk's series, and was published by THQ. The game utilizes the same engine and isometric perspective as the Tony Hawks GBA titles. Due to hardware limitations, cartoony graphics were designed to emulate the look of the Dreamcast's cel-shaded graphics. The soundtrack, produced by Shin'en, was reduced from more than 21 music tracks on the Dreamcast to around 8 on the GBA, and the songs that remained were reduced to 30 to 45-second samples which looped repeatedly. The levels ranged from exact duplicates to reminiscent counterparts of the original Jet Set Radio.