ShadowLegend
01-06-2009, 07:50 PM
January 6, 2009 - Just a few months back, word got out that a proposal to SEGA from developer Headstrong Games (previously Kuju Entertainment) was apparently turned down for a Jet Set Radio Wii. Concept art got out, fans cried, and we were left wondering if we'd ever see the franchise again, or if SEGA had its own plans internally for the game, and just shrugged off Headstrong, and not the idea.
Regardless of the situation, we're here to voice our opinion not on the drama that happened a few months back, but on how amazing a Jet Set Radio Wii could in fact be. With the IGN "Reboot" feature, we've already looked at games like Luigi's Mansion and fantasized about how amazing of a return the game could make on Nintendo's new console, and with the help of one seriously talented Deviant Art artist this time around, we've made our Jet Set Radio Wii dreams more of a reality.
For starters though, let's look at the state of SEGA. Moving from a console manufacturer to third party software publisher and developer, SEGA has found a home across all consoles, including DS, PSP, Xbox, Xbox 360, Sony's consoles, and Nintendo's GCN and Wii. With Wii though, we're seeing even more of a push in the 2009 months than we've seen from the company across any platform since Dreamcast, perhaps showing that SEGA has serious faith in what Nintendo is aiming for with Wii. We've already seen Mario vs. Sonic – a team-up we didn't think would ever happen – a remake of Samba de Amigo, new Wii-specific Sonic games, a Nights remake, and a 2009 that already promises House of the Dead: Overkill, publisher support for the hardcore first-person shooter The Conduit by High Voltage Software, and of course, the always-awesome MadWorld. SEGA is on fire with Wii, and with about half of the games consisting of classic franchises being reboot, we're counting the days until we get the inevitable Jet Set Radio Wii. SEGA has to do it, right?
All we can try to do is paint the picture, and let our readers get behind the idea. So here we go.
Our vision of Jet Set Radio Wii is a pretty simple one; base the series off its Dreamcast roots (but don't port it), and push the Wii's unique IR as a great starting point for a new take on the franchise. We dig Tokyo-to, we'd of course need Professor K spitting lines over some amazing beats while we skate and spray, and the occasional "Wii-mote to the ear" for incoming messages from other members of your skate team, GG's, could be used. Keep motion to a minimum, but make IR spraying the #1 hook for the game.
The original cast of characters and locales still hold up really well, so while it'd be interesting to add in some new talent into the mix, the old trio of Gum, Tab, and Beat should kick off the adventure. The beautiful cel-shaded design could be taken to the max, making environments huge, but simply constructed, and big on style. Throw in Captain Onishima and his awesome animation set, and you've got the Jet Set Radio feel in no time.
With a game like Jet Set Radio though, it's all about the style, and if pulled off well, Wii's lack of power compared to the other consoles wouldn't even be a factor. The interface on Dreamcast and Xbox was already pretty well designed and showy, but with the Wii-mote SEGA could really open up the idea. House of the Dead: Overkill already uses the concept of holding A while cursoring over a dial, and then rotating the Wii-mote to turn knobs and make adjustments, and this could be a great concept for menus, tuning your radio in-game, or – to take the game in a bit of a different direction – repairing and tweaking your gear, should that option arise. An entire menu system where players "tune in" options and selections via knobs and sliders could be fun to manipulate, and really set the game apart from other Wii titles along the way.
What it really comes down to though, is the painting, and the Wii-mote is perfect for it. While skating around the world, players could maneuver their character with the analog stick on the nunckuk, auto-grind by landing on rails, and jump with the A button; pretty standard fare. When going up to spray areas though, the B button is held down, and rather than just bringing up a few arrows across the bottom of the screen – previous Jet Set Radio games were all about moving the analog stick in half circles and lines to paint – the camera could push to the side, showing the player's character offset on the edge of the screen, and opening up the playfield to show off the wall or spray target itself.
CONCEPT PHOTO of how Spraying could work on Wii HERE;
http://media.wii.ign.com/articles/941/941935/img_6318380.html
Instead of smaller arrows, larger on-screen (and very stylistic) guides pop up, drawing themselves in with a graffiti-inspired flow. Once slowing, the arrow area can be filed in by holding A, and aiming the cursor at the screen. Draw over the lines, and you fill them with paint. Do it enough times (based on the difficulty of the area you're painting) and an area is complete. Screw up, and you need to shake the can again (by shaking the Wii-mote) to get the paint flowing again after a couple short, quick snaps of the wrist.
There's another way to do painting as well though. In specific "freestyle" areas, the option could be given for players to cash in on a new paint system. Like the classic games, players collect yellow and red cans to stock up on juice for painting, but at times other unique cans could be found with specific colors attached to them. Use these in the freestyle areas, and players have access to a color wheel with a whole slew of different cans, each representing the colors they've tracked down.
Rather than showing any lines at all, these areas have a pre-set amount of spray needed to cash in on the zone, and players can use a mix of different colors found, a unique blend option for mixing colors, and the Wii IR to create their own spray tags on the fly. The longer you wait to build up colors around the world and spray them, the better multiplier and bonuses you'll get for more abstract and diverse tags. Wait too long though, and you risk losing your colored cans via general mission failure, running out of time, or having them snagged by the AI gangs occupying Tokyo-to.
With spraying as the obvious high point to the game, SEGA could take the design even further. Co-op or competitive play could allow for more extravagant city-spraying, allowing for teams of players locally to face off against other groups of AI gangs, or online foursomes to take to the streets and spray their own tags against other skate crews online, all with the help of WiiSpeak. Unique, user-made spray icons, taken from the original Dreamcast concept, could be made offline in a simple IR-based editor (or with the help of a connected DS and stylus), with whole crews using those logos not only in-level for basic spray zones, but also as their crew tag in massive online leaderboards.
Go even further, and teams could compete in campaign-like tournaments online, with sections of Tokyo being taken over with their color and tag icon as the weeks and months continue, each online match adding to the city-wide play between a few groups of rival crews. Whenever you're online, players hop into their crew's current match, see how their team is doing from round to round, and hop in, connecting with new teammates and battling for the city in a "season" of online competition. When offline, WiiConnect24 would give updates and city screenshots to team members via the Wii message system, showing weekly updates of how their global skate teams are currently doing, and encouraging them to get back into the competition.
And of course, as anyone that's read our reboot series (or listened to our podcasts) knows, we're crazy about the possibilities for time-based environments, and link-ups with the Wii's weather channel. The idea of active day and night gameplay based on real time zones, or the ability to have levels with changing weather based on any set region of the world could be extremely fun. Imagine a psychedelic parallel world based on Seattle, Washington. If it's raining in Seattle, small, micro-isolated thunderclouds spawn in that locale in-game, raining on specific spray points and forcing users to go back and re-capture areas against where paint has washed off against rival AI gangs or in competitive matches. High temperatures could cause fires or irritable traffic conditions, icy snowstorms allow for slippery sidewalks and tougher grinds, and night matches online turn into spray competitions guided by stylistic lamplight. The possibilities are endless, and SEGA seems to have the guts lately to really go out on a limb and make something unique.
Amidst all the abstract designs and wishful gameplay possibilities though, what it really comes down to is SEGA pushing yet again, as the company already has time and time again on Wii, and making something really unique on Wii. The system doesn't have much in the way of hardcore gaming, and with 2009 alerady holding Overkill, The Conduit, and Madworld, we're looking to the house that Sonic built for even more hardcore support as the system pushes on. Someone's gotta do it, and SEGA seems to be really focusing in on what the Wii hardcore are looking for.
Here's hoping for a Jet Set Radio Wii.
Some awesome "what if" photos;
http://media.wii.ign.com/articles/941/941935/imgs_1.html
Regardless of the situation, we're here to voice our opinion not on the drama that happened a few months back, but on how amazing a Jet Set Radio Wii could in fact be. With the IGN "Reboot" feature, we've already looked at games like Luigi's Mansion and fantasized about how amazing of a return the game could make on Nintendo's new console, and with the help of one seriously talented Deviant Art artist this time around, we've made our Jet Set Radio Wii dreams more of a reality.
For starters though, let's look at the state of SEGA. Moving from a console manufacturer to third party software publisher and developer, SEGA has found a home across all consoles, including DS, PSP, Xbox, Xbox 360, Sony's consoles, and Nintendo's GCN and Wii. With Wii though, we're seeing even more of a push in the 2009 months than we've seen from the company across any platform since Dreamcast, perhaps showing that SEGA has serious faith in what Nintendo is aiming for with Wii. We've already seen Mario vs. Sonic – a team-up we didn't think would ever happen – a remake of Samba de Amigo, new Wii-specific Sonic games, a Nights remake, and a 2009 that already promises House of the Dead: Overkill, publisher support for the hardcore first-person shooter The Conduit by High Voltage Software, and of course, the always-awesome MadWorld. SEGA is on fire with Wii, and with about half of the games consisting of classic franchises being reboot, we're counting the days until we get the inevitable Jet Set Radio Wii. SEGA has to do it, right?
All we can try to do is paint the picture, and let our readers get behind the idea. So here we go.
Our vision of Jet Set Radio Wii is a pretty simple one; base the series off its Dreamcast roots (but don't port it), and push the Wii's unique IR as a great starting point for a new take on the franchise. We dig Tokyo-to, we'd of course need Professor K spitting lines over some amazing beats while we skate and spray, and the occasional "Wii-mote to the ear" for incoming messages from other members of your skate team, GG's, could be used. Keep motion to a minimum, but make IR spraying the #1 hook for the game.
The original cast of characters and locales still hold up really well, so while it'd be interesting to add in some new talent into the mix, the old trio of Gum, Tab, and Beat should kick off the adventure. The beautiful cel-shaded design could be taken to the max, making environments huge, but simply constructed, and big on style. Throw in Captain Onishima and his awesome animation set, and you've got the Jet Set Radio feel in no time.
With a game like Jet Set Radio though, it's all about the style, and if pulled off well, Wii's lack of power compared to the other consoles wouldn't even be a factor. The interface on Dreamcast and Xbox was already pretty well designed and showy, but with the Wii-mote SEGA could really open up the idea. House of the Dead: Overkill already uses the concept of holding A while cursoring over a dial, and then rotating the Wii-mote to turn knobs and make adjustments, and this could be a great concept for menus, tuning your radio in-game, or – to take the game in a bit of a different direction – repairing and tweaking your gear, should that option arise. An entire menu system where players "tune in" options and selections via knobs and sliders could be fun to manipulate, and really set the game apart from other Wii titles along the way.
What it really comes down to though, is the painting, and the Wii-mote is perfect for it. While skating around the world, players could maneuver their character with the analog stick on the nunckuk, auto-grind by landing on rails, and jump with the A button; pretty standard fare. When going up to spray areas though, the B button is held down, and rather than just bringing up a few arrows across the bottom of the screen – previous Jet Set Radio games were all about moving the analog stick in half circles and lines to paint – the camera could push to the side, showing the player's character offset on the edge of the screen, and opening up the playfield to show off the wall or spray target itself.
CONCEPT PHOTO of how Spraying could work on Wii HERE;
http://media.wii.ign.com/articles/941/941935/img_6318380.html
Instead of smaller arrows, larger on-screen (and very stylistic) guides pop up, drawing themselves in with a graffiti-inspired flow. Once slowing, the arrow area can be filed in by holding A, and aiming the cursor at the screen. Draw over the lines, and you fill them with paint. Do it enough times (based on the difficulty of the area you're painting) and an area is complete. Screw up, and you need to shake the can again (by shaking the Wii-mote) to get the paint flowing again after a couple short, quick snaps of the wrist.
There's another way to do painting as well though. In specific "freestyle" areas, the option could be given for players to cash in on a new paint system. Like the classic games, players collect yellow and red cans to stock up on juice for painting, but at times other unique cans could be found with specific colors attached to them. Use these in the freestyle areas, and players have access to a color wheel with a whole slew of different cans, each representing the colors they've tracked down.
Rather than showing any lines at all, these areas have a pre-set amount of spray needed to cash in on the zone, and players can use a mix of different colors found, a unique blend option for mixing colors, and the Wii IR to create their own spray tags on the fly. The longer you wait to build up colors around the world and spray them, the better multiplier and bonuses you'll get for more abstract and diverse tags. Wait too long though, and you risk losing your colored cans via general mission failure, running out of time, or having them snagged by the AI gangs occupying Tokyo-to.
With spraying as the obvious high point to the game, SEGA could take the design even further. Co-op or competitive play could allow for more extravagant city-spraying, allowing for teams of players locally to face off against other groups of AI gangs, or online foursomes to take to the streets and spray their own tags against other skate crews online, all with the help of WiiSpeak. Unique, user-made spray icons, taken from the original Dreamcast concept, could be made offline in a simple IR-based editor (or with the help of a connected DS and stylus), with whole crews using those logos not only in-level for basic spray zones, but also as their crew tag in massive online leaderboards.
Go even further, and teams could compete in campaign-like tournaments online, with sections of Tokyo being taken over with their color and tag icon as the weeks and months continue, each online match adding to the city-wide play between a few groups of rival crews. Whenever you're online, players hop into their crew's current match, see how their team is doing from round to round, and hop in, connecting with new teammates and battling for the city in a "season" of online competition. When offline, WiiConnect24 would give updates and city screenshots to team members via the Wii message system, showing weekly updates of how their global skate teams are currently doing, and encouraging them to get back into the competition.
And of course, as anyone that's read our reboot series (or listened to our podcasts) knows, we're crazy about the possibilities for time-based environments, and link-ups with the Wii's weather channel. The idea of active day and night gameplay based on real time zones, or the ability to have levels with changing weather based on any set region of the world could be extremely fun. Imagine a psychedelic parallel world based on Seattle, Washington. If it's raining in Seattle, small, micro-isolated thunderclouds spawn in that locale in-game, raining on specific spray points and forcing users to go back and re-capture areas against where paint has washed off against rival AI gangs or in competitive matches. High temperatures could cause fires or irritable traffic conditions, icy snowstorms allow for slippery sidewalks and tougher grinds, and night matches online turn into spray competitions guided by stylistic lamplight. The possibilities are endless, and SEGA seems to have the guts lately to really go out on a limb and make something unique.
Amidst all the abstract designs and wishful gameplay possibilities though, what it really comes down to is SEGA pushing yet again, as the company already has time and time again on Wii, and making something really unique on Wii. The system doesn't have much in the way of hardcore gaming, and with 2009 alerady holding Overkill, The Conduit, and Madworld, we're looking to the house that Sonic built for even more hardcore support as the system pushes on. Someone's gotta do it, and SEGA seems to be really focusing in on what the Wii hardcore are looking for.
Here's hoping for a Jet Set Radio Wii.
Some awesome "what if" photos;
http://media.wii.ign.com/articles/941/941935/imgs_1.html