an old sega fan plays more "recent" sega games

[shadobeni]

My renewed interest in sega games was mainly due to Outrun on ps2 and continued with Chu Chu Rocket on gba which was a real delight.

I recently borrowed an xbox to play a couple of sega games that have been well reviewed but which I never had the chance to play when they came out: Panzer Dragoon Orta and Jet Set Radio Future.

Despite its difficulty I found Panzer Dragoon to be one of those games that's instantly fun from the get go. Whereas other difficult games I would give up on after a few hours, for some reason I just had to beat that first episode (took me almost 20 times on normal difficulty probably because I never looked at the tutorial). I've only gotten to episode 4 thus far but I'm enjoying the variety so far. It's twitch gameplay but it requires real strategy to even stand a chance. A game like this I think could easily have fallen into tedium and at least so far it hasn't.

Jet Set Radio Future I am less impressed with. Great visuals and music but after playing the first few areas, I've already started to find the gameplay rather dull with a sometimes bothersome camera. I guess the graffiti/tagging just doesn't appeal to me as it reminds me of those collect-a-thon 3d platformers. The automatic nature of grinding also feels a bit off. Beating the police by skating into them and spray painting them while unique also begins to become repetitive. For some reason I wish I could punch them too. Also not being able to grab onto ledges I find limiting. I'll probably play it a bit more to see if it gets better but so far I haven't found the game to be fun.

I guess the only other sega titles I'd like to try are NiGHTS and maybe Space Channel 5.

[GagaMan]

If you get a Wii or have one already I'd recommended trying out House of the Dead Overkill as well. Really fun.

[Mod_Man_Extreme]

I always found that Jet Set Radio Future never really felt as good as Jet Set/Grind Radio due to how everything was simplified and automated in JSRF when compared to the mostly manual JSR on Dreamcast.

[the7k]

Another thing I didn't like about JSRF was that everything seemed to be a lot darker. I loved the amount of color in JSR, so it was a shame to see little of it in the sequel. That, plus the simplified tagging made it less than its prequel.

[Mod_Man_Extreme]

Another thing I didn't like about JSRF was that everything seemed to be a lot darker. I loved the amount of color in JSR, so it was a shame to see little of it in the sequel. That, plus the simplified tagging made it less than its prequel.

Yeah, I loved how bright and cool, looking the original JSR looked. But by the time JSRF came out darker and grittier looking titles were becoming the norm so I guess that explains the change in color palette.

[shadobeni]

I remember playing House of the Dead 2 in the arcades briefly and really enjoying it. I like light gun games in general. I kinda wonder what it would be like if you could play panzer dragoon on the wii with the freedom to aim separately from movement around the screen.

Actually I find JSRF to be plenty colourful but then again I've never played the original.

[MrPopo]

Another thing I didn't like about JSRF was that everything seemed to be a lot darker. I loved the amount of color in JSR, so it was a shame to see little of it in the sequel. That, plus the simplified tagging made it less than its prequel.

Well, they had to darken everything to make it acceptable to the "new" breed of gamer.

[cyborc]

have you tried shinobi for ps2? it seems to be a love it or hate it kind of game. i love it personally. one thing you can't deny though is that the game has an amazing soundtrack.

[Barry the Nomad]

Despite JSRF not being as good as JSR, JSRF still is an incredible game. The way I see it, JSR is an arcade game, while JSRF is a sandbox home console game. It's like comparing a racing game to GTA's driving segments. Similar mechanics, but different type of game. In JSRF I've spent hours just skating about Tokyo-To, while in JSR I usually play a few time trials and a few story levels.

Edit: or like comparing Panzer Dragoon Saga to Panzer Dragoon Zwei.

[emwearz]

Sega have been publishing a few decent games on the Wii (Madworld, The Conduit).