Jet Grind Radio

Pee-wee gang members skate throughout a shrunk-down future Tokyo in the GBA version of Jet Grind Radio.

Vicarious Visions once again does the unthinkable with its impressive miniaturized version of Jet Grind Radio, which retains much of the visual style and gameplay of the Dreamcast cult classic?right down to the custom graffiti editor that lets you create and use your own tags. Controlling various members of a street gang, you zip through the streets of a futuristic Tokyo on rocket-power inline skates while waging graffiti wars with gangs from other turfs and avoiding oppressive police forces.

Though obviously simplified, the beautifully detailed environments are ripped right from the original, but the isometric presentation can skew perspective, and you may find yourself having a hard time figuring out where and how high certain targets and paths are. The cel-shaded, three-dimensional graphics look cool (if a bit pixilated), and the animations are nice and fluid. JGR also boasts some of the most amazing sound design on the Game Boy Advance to date with music and sound effects so similar to the Dreamcast version that you won't believe you're hearing a GBA game.

Be warned, though?while JGR's control scheme will feel familiar to anyone who's played the Tony Hawk games, others may find the learning curve to be steep at best and table-poundingly frustrating at worst. Practice and persevere, though, and you'll find yourself jumping, grinding, and using the directional-pad based tagging feature with ease. More than a decent scaling down of a seminal game, Jet Grind Radio is an accomplished and guaranteed time-killer.

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