A quiet (gaming) week has drawn to a close; a week dominated by some drunken dating revelry and the looming spectre of Work. But, thanks to the resurrection of the Dreamcast, I managed to get some quality time where it matters – in front of the consoles :)
Jet Set Radio, of course, got the bulk of my attention this week. Managed to finish (not complete, List Watchers!) the game this evening, giving it a pretty naked game-time of five evenings and an afternoon – maybe ten hours? Which seems a little light, really – when I first played through (a long, long time ago) it felt like it was much longer – and much more difficult. But, with few lingering memories in place, I managed to cruise through the story mode & all the immediate challenges, just leaving the simple matter of getting Jet Rankings in all the levels to finish unlocking playable characters.
…oh wait, did I just say “simple”?
Hahahahahaaahahahahahahahaaaaaaaaa. Hahahaaa haaa haaaaaaa. Whee.
Jet Set Radio‘s Jet Rankings seem to be anything but simple. Sure, I managed to nail an Infinite Grind in Shibuya first go, netting a Jet Ranking in Technique there, but the Jet Crush races are just insanely difficult. Falling back to my fair Mew, I only just managed to snaffle a win in Kogane… and was presented with a lowly Turbo Ranking. Much work to be done, I fear.
…no, “fear” is the wrong word. I’m loving Jet Set Radio the second time around; it’s got a wonderful style, a good solid world, and isn’t the clunky game I first thought it was. And it’s got Mew.
*swoon*
The only other game played this week was the stand-alone release of Portal on XBLA. This is, surprisingly enough, the first time I’d played Portal – yes, I remain(ed) a virgin to the game which garnered approximately twelve billion Game-Of-The-Year salutations last year. Well, I downloaded the demo to pop my cherry and… it’s not bad. Not bad at all. The portal device has a wonderful satisfying *thunk* to it – bound to be even more impressive with a decent subwoofer – and the game plays rather spiffingly. I bailed out around Chamber 13, so I know better than to comment on the “story”, but I’m committed to picking up Portal: Still Alive… when something else has been knocked off the list.
Now, back to those Jet Rankings…