Last night for the first time in a long time, I got some quality gaming in. I started with Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers on PS2 and finished up with Jet Set Radio Future on XBox. Read on for more detail.

Lord of the Rings

Let me tell you, this game has provided some of the greatest beat-down action I’ve experienced since Gauntlet Dark Legacy and New Orleans high school football games. But here’s the problem. I’ve finished the “main” missions of the game and now I’m left with the bonus missions which unlock a secret mission and a secret character. So now I have to make a judgement call about how far I need to take things with Summer Games 2003. Must all games be taken to 100%?

Eat My Dwarf

And then I did the unthinkable. I started another game. Before I go on here, let me give a little advice. If you’re going to have any success in Summer Games 2003, for the love of Christ think before starting any new games! That said, let me talk a little about:

Jet Set Radio Future.

Riding Along

This game is something new. And new stuff makes me happy. Let me give you a breakdown. JSRF gives me something I need in games which is a break from ultra-realistic gaming. Nobody ever said video games were supposed to be lifelike. In fact they’re meant to be a departure from realism. JSRF is like being inside a Saturday morning imported Japanese cartoon, screaming teenage girls and all. This is the first cel-shaded game I’ve ever played and I tell ya it looks great.

You’re character is some kind of ultra-extreme Red Bull drinking punk who rollerblades around town trying to “rock the establishment” by spray-painting buildings and pushing down old ladies down in the shopping mall. If I was any good at rollerblading I’d probably be doing this in real life. It wouldn’t rock the establishment in any way, but I’d make a hell of a mess. Aside from raising hell in Tokyo and bulldozing the homeless, you can also do lots of fancy tricks. So the game is broken up into three major components: spraypaint, skate tricks, and abuse. Final note: if you stop dancing for any extended period of time, everybody starts dancing to the game music. That was good for a laugh.