I was so energised by Jet Set Radio Future that I got interested in the Sega crossover racing games that feature tracks and racers from the series. Plus I wanted a nice multiplayer racing party game that wasn’t Mario Kart. Unfortunately Sega doesn’t quite have the brand power of Nintendo, at least for me, but the IPs represented here are somewhat varied despite a heavy weighting towards Sonic, and it was a chance for me to become more familiar with them.

The game is fun to play. It feels smooth but takes practice to master the mechanics; the Monkey Ball tracks in particular are difficult to get right, but learning tricks and how different characters handle is rewarding. There’s also plenty for a solo player to do, which is a huge plus in my book: the substantial mission mode is a good addition, and there’s an unlock shop with a universal currency so playing any mode will allow you to make progress and choose what to get next.

Sumo Digital have also done a good job representing the worlds of the franchises on offer. There’s maybe not enough choice, with only a handful of IPs having three often similar-looking tracks each (and Sonic getting three times that number), but what’s here has been lovingly presented, none more so than the highly detailed Tokyo-to tracks from my beloved JSRF. Available characters come from a wide variety of Sega games so that’s a lot of fun (I also liked to imagine BD Joe and Ulala fitting into the Jet Set Radio cast).

I also played the DS version alongside the main console game, and it was a decent port. Obviously scaled back quite a bit, with cheap-looking visuals and simpler courses, it does still have as much content, and much shorter loading times. Some items, and mechanics such as drifting or starting boosts, work differently. The second screen is used well to display a minimap during races (a feature lacking in the bigger game), and to present the menus much better (the console menus are bloody awful). I think its set of missions is unique to it, which is nice. The economy of the shop is different too, I was able to unlock everything much earlier than I did on PS3. This version was also ported to smartphones, badly. It has less content and an exploitative economy that almost demands in-app purchases to unlock some characters and tracks, and it uses the console-style menus, on top of unsuited touchscreen controls for gameplay. Avoid it, but check out the DS version by all means.

I will admit that the greater fidelity of the PS3 version made it a more enjoyable experience on the whole, as soon as I changed the control scheme away from using the analog trigger to accelerate. I’m looking forward to the sequel, Transformed, and hoping for a greater variety in the track content. On the whole though, a solid game and double thumbs up from me for drawing designs specifically from Jet Set Radio Future as opposed to just the first JSR (the tracks do have pastiche elements from both games, they’re really good tracks).