Jet Set Radio is returning in glorious HD on PlayStation Network and PS Vita as part of Sega’s Heritage Collection! Originally launched in the year 2000 on Dreamcast, Jet Set Radio has always been regarded as a true SEGA classic – bringing a genre-bending mix of rollerblading, stylish graffiti, and a soundtrack that people are still talking about to this day.

Set in Tokyo-to, Jet Set Radio is the name of the pirate radio station that fuels the local street gangs called ‘Rudies’. The game follows a group of Rudies called The GG’s, as they challenge the rival gangs for control of Tokyo-to. Powered by magnetically enhanced in-line skates, they grind, jump and tag their way while avoiding the ever present and increasingly ruthless police force.

Our goal with Jet Set Radio (and indeed all the Heritage Collection titles) has been to deliver the closest experience to the original product and, when possible, improve on it. Wait – I know the chill you get when the word ‘improve’ is mentioned in the same breath as your favorite game, and I can assure you that the core of the game is completely unchanged. The levels are just as beautiful as the original, just more so when displayed in full HD, 16×9 resolution.

The music is there, and even more so – we’ve merged the Japanese, European, and North American soundtracks for 28 out of the total combined 30 tracks. We’ve also included all new graffiti by none other than you, the fans! What’s more, we’ve added Trophies to offer additional challenges and bragging rights. Finally, we met with the original art director for Jet Set Radio for a series of interviews you can only get within the game itself!

And for all you PlayStation Vita owners out there, we’ve added some great new features that can’t be found on consoles. The PS Vita version of Jet Set Radio looks stunning on the handheld’s OLED display, and comes with some platform-specific enhancements. Now you can use the touch screen to draw the graffiti in the game, or use the system’s camera to import new tags to the graffiti editor. Both are subtle changes, but add a ton of fun to building new art in the game, or tagging with speed while avoiding the cops. All of these new additions are completely optional, and play off PS Vita’s unique hardware specifics.

We hope you enjoy Jet Set Radio as much as we do when it arrives September 18th on PSN and October 16th on PS Vita! And if you’ve ever had doubts that being a PlayStation Plus member isn’t a great idea, let us give you one more reason to sign up: PS Plus members are getting Jet Set Radio a full week early starting September 11th (THAT’S NOW!) at a limited-time, discounted price. If that’s not enough, we’ll even be throwing in a free exclusive Dynamic Theme and Avatar Bundle to be delivered in the coming weeks.

We’re pretty excited about the upcoming exclusive PS Vita release of Super Monkey Ball: Banana Splitz on October 23 – the game is coming along nicely! We have a lot of familiar Monkey Ball features returning along with some fan favorites, as well as some new tech and new goodies to take full advantage of PS Vita.

Super Monkey Ball has always been built on the premise of accessibility and challenging gameplay – easy to pick up, difficult to master. We’ve made the transition for new players a lot easier, with a gentler difficulty curve in the beginning that helps you master the tough challenges that will eventually come your way. And don’t worry, we’ve got some punch in there for the veteran Monkey Ball fans looking for a challenge, from more varied levels with new routes and shortcuts, a higher degree of challenges, and the ever- popular minigames!

While the full game is built on personal challenges, the minigames have always been about multiplayer with your friends. Super Monkey Ball: Banana Splitz enables both local multiplayer and online multiplayer over Wifi — a first for the series! We’re bringing back all the minigame hits too, from Monkey Bowling, to my personal favorite: Monkey Target. There are eight total modes to play and compete in, all of which leverage PS Vita’s unique hardware strengths.

We’re making sure that Banana Splitz uses Vita’s built-in tech for controls across the minigames and main game modes. You can use full tilt control to navigate the entire game or opt to play with the analog sticks – it’s entirely up to you. My favorite feature of the game is the level generator that uses PS Vita’s camera. You can take a photo of anything in real life, then craft a level generated from the photo. In another twist, you can shake your PS Vita to set the difficulty level. The harder you shake, the more difficult the level becomes! Or shake it lightly for an easier time, the choice is in your hands. Creating and playing custom levels is a lot of fun.

There’s ton to do in the game and we hope you enjoy our newest trailer (above) that shows off many of the features I’ve outlined here. What do you think of the game? Leave your thoughts in the comments!

The Story So Far…
Vanquish is set in a desperate future, one that centers around exponential population growth, a demand for resources, and a political power play from Russia that lands you in the heart of the action aboard an orbiting space station. You play Sam Gideon, DARPA Agent and co-designer of some very advanced technology – the Augmented Reaction Suit (ARS). Your mission is to work with the infiltrating military to restore order, find your fellow agents, and prevent an attack on New York City, among other American targets.

The Secret to Success
Vanquish is the newest game from the mind of Shinji Mikami, creator of such classics as Resident Evil. Known for his epic games, Shinji Mikami has taken on the 3rd person shooter in a way that only he could. Working with PlatinumGames, together they’ve come up with a very fast, very fluid, and very intense cover to cover shooter. How you operate the Augmented Reaction Suit (ARS) system and the key abilities it grants you will be the deciding factor in your success – or failure. The two abilities that I find the most useful are Boost and Augmented Reaction (AR).

The Augmented Reaction Suit, you’ll find, is incredibly fast and agile when you use Boost to navigate around the demo area. Boost allows you to dash over to save wounded marines, evade attacks, or quickly close the distance on any enemy to deliver a punishing melee attack. Boost into cover, boost out of cover – boosting is one of the best tools you have for both defensive and offensive action in Vanquish.

While Boost grants you speed, Augmented Reaction (AR) will grant you time. Time will save you in both a reactive and proactive manner – push forward with your Boost and flip on AR to destroy enemies while you dash past them. Jump out of cover into AR to line up headshots and stop a guarded threat behind cover. Roll into AR, plant your body, and focus fire at heavily guarded targets for maximum efficiency. Defensively – you’ll enter into AR when you take on too much damage, granting you a moment to kill your main threat, or evade into cover to recharge and continue the fight.

I highly recommend checking out the tutorial before jumping into the full game to see how these two abilities play out. You’ll get a chance to mess around in a safe environment and become comfortable with how the game works. Trust me, you can adapt while you play the game and absolutely get through it – but you will benefit from a bit of practice!

The Demo Challenge
So as a spot of fun, I figured I’d leave you with a challenge to see if you can best what I consider to be a very impressive clear-time on the demo. Our own internal producer, Keith, has become quite good at the demo from various trade shows and has a clear time of 6 minutes and 12 seconds. I challenge you to beat this time! Keith is good, but I’m betting the community will be able to best him in a few short days after release – prove me right, post screenshots if you can, and show them what community can do!

The Vanquish Demo releases on Tuesday, August 31 at a time to be specified by PSN – we hope you enjoy the demo and look forward to your impressions!

Alien Syndrome
Alien Syndrome is a sequel to an old arcade game of the same name and takes place some 20 years after the original. Featuring over 80 different weapons, hundreds of armors and items, 3 difficulty modes, ad hoc multiplayer, and over 40 levels, Alien Syndrome will keep any dungeon crawler busy for a while. The game is probably best described as a top down shooter with added RPG elements.

Crazy Taxi: Fare Wars
Are you ready to make some crazy money? Crazy Taxi for PSP is actually a collection containing the original Crazy Taxi and the sequel, Crazy Taxi 2. In Fare Wars, you’ve got access to all the original crazy moves, over 30 crazy mini-games, and crazy modes you remembered from the original games. Added bonuses include a customizable soundtrack based on your own music from the memory stick and local multiplayer games in head to head battles. We’ve had some fun replaying this in the office and it’s a welcome addition to anyone that’s been looking for a Crazy Taxi fix.

Crush
I’m a huge fan of Crush and think that every PSP owner and puzzle fan should check out this game, it’s just that good. Crush uses a unique concept, taking 3D environments and “crushing” them into a 2D plane. Since the environment is in 3D, you’ll have to rotate game world to find the best places to crush and gain access to different areas of the level. Need to get atop a ledge, but can’t jump to it? Simply look top down, Crush, walk over to the ledge, unCrush and you’re where you need to be. The challenge then comes in working with the basic rules of the game – for example, some blocks you can or cannot traverse in the 2D plane, but can’t get across in 3D, or vice versa. If you missed Crush before or just want to replay it, now’s an excellent time to pick it up.

Full Auto: Battlelines
If Crazy Taxi is a bit too tame for your racing needs, Full Auto Battlelines might be the fix you need. Full Auto is all about car combat, destructible environments and an ‘unwreck’ ability that allows you to create opportunities out of mistakes. Unwreck is, like it sounds, an ability that allows you to escape a bad decision and rewind time to avoid that bad turn or unexpected hazard.

Sega Genesis Collection
If you are a Sega fan and want some game to satisfy your classic game lust, this is the title for you. The Genesis Collection features 28 games and 5 unlockables, including favorites such as Sonic 1 & 2, Phantasy Star series, Shinobi, Vectorman 1 & 2, and the Golden Axe series.

Iron Man
Based on the blockbuster, Iron Man PSP gives you the chance to head into battle as Tony Stark within the Iron Man suit. If you are familiar with the basic plot of the Iron Man movie, the game is essentially the same with a few additions, including new encounters from other Marvel villains within the Iron Man universe.

Sonic Rivals & Sonic Rivals 2
Sonic Rivals is a different take on the normal Sonic the Hedgehog experience you might be used to. Rivals is best described as racer, you compete against other characters from within the Sonic world, pick up powerups, tackle bosses, and fight to stay at the front of the pack. Bosses? Yes, there are some unique play ideas at here that have you competitively and cooperatively downing bigger enemies. On top of a solid game, you’ll also find unlockables cards that give you some insight into the past Sonic series.

Super Monkey Ball Adventure
Monkey Ball for the PSP actually comes in a different style of game than the previous series additions. You play not only Monkey Ball puzzle stages you are familiar with, but also play in larger open world areas with platforming, missions, and mini-game, hence the Adventure name.

As noted, back at the Sega Blog, we’re doing a bit of additional coverage on the PSPgo titles. Some of us are revisiting old games we enjoyed; others are picking them up for the first time. Head on over and read my write up on Crush and look for new blogs about some of our other games in the days to come.