Let’s get the elephant out of the room immediately. Bomb Rush Cyberfunk is a brand new Jet Set Radio sport. Within the grand custom of indie studios creating religious successors to dormant franchises, none have been so blatant of their lifting of supply materials. Every little thing about its gameplay and magnificence is almost an identical to the SEGA basic, from the extent development, artwork course, city industrial places, character proportions, and breakdancing animations, all the way down to the eclectic soundtrack that includes tracks from composer Hideki Naganuma. Staff Reptile has made it obvious the one factor protecting Bomb Rush from being Jet Set is pesky copyright regulation. And that’s not a slight; it’s excessive reward.
Jet Set Radio is the last word vibe sport. The sort of sport that stands out not with mechanics however via sheer pressure of inventive id; capturing the rebellious optimism of hip-hop tradition within the Y2K period with pioneering cel-shaded graphics, funky recent beats, and memorable characters. It is a fashion that’s of its time and but hasn’t aged a day. The identical can’t be mentioned for the controls. The Dreamcast unique suffered the woes of many early 3D video games of its time, with stiff unwieldy controls that betray the promise of being a nimble punk on skates hitting methods, doing crime, and leaving the 5-0 in your mud. Jet Set Radio Future on XBOX improved the formulation by modernizing the management scheme, however that didn’t imply it was polished. There was all the time a chasm in high quality between the fashion and setting of Jet Set Radio and its minute-to-minute gameplay. Bomb Rush Cyberfunk lastly closes that hole.
You play as Purple and the remainder of the Bomb Rush Crew rising up the ranks in New Amsterdam attempting to earn sufficient rep to tackle rival gangs throughout the 5 boroughs and turn out to be All Metropolis. Graffiti is the way you earn rep, and portray items over these of your rivals is the way in which to get their consideration. It’s as much as you to search out the spots to color, and extra importantly, learn to attain them. At its core, Bomb Rush Cyberfunk is a 3D platformer on wheels. Whether or not it is skateboards, BMX bikes, or in-line skates, you’re utilizing these alongside together with your boostpack to discover the semi-open world, uncover secrets and techniques, and attain the locations you’ll tag. When you’ve earned sufficient rep, you’ll be able to problem your rivals in a head-to-head competitors to earn essentially the most factors inside 2 minutes.
Factors are earned by constructing combos with methods. These methods could be carried out at any time by urgent A, Y, or X, however you should be within the air, grinding a rail, or doing a handbook to maintain up the combo streak. Multipliers could be gained by taking arduous corners on rails or by driving partitions. However don’t assume you’ll be able to grind the identical rails and journey the identical partitions; every one needs to be new to depend. Equally, spamming the identical trick will turn out to be stale, so your methods should be blended as much as web essentially the most factors.
It sounds technical on paper, however in follow, it is completely electrical. There’s nothing fairly like constructing pace, chaining a sequence of rail grinds, manuals, wall rides, jumps, mid-air dashes, and boosts to run up the quantity as excessive as you’ll be able to take it, solely to bail and eagerly do it once more. It’s the mark of an incredible motion system while you catch your self not progressing in any respect within the story or facet targets, however as an alternative jamming out to the stellar soundtrack and hitting methods for minutes on finish for no different cause than the satisfaction of pulling off one other killer combo. It’s the sensation I all the time hoped to expertise with Jet Set Radio however by no means acquired to as a result of everpresent jank. Staff Reptile delivers what SEGA and Smilebit couldn’t by honing a motion system that lowers the ability flooring for newcomers by creating one thing that’s polished and approachable whereas elevating the ability ceiling with extra nuances to grasp.
The extent design enhances the motion fantastically. These city playgrounds comprise collectibles in secret areas to reward exploration and on the finish of obstacles to satiate these hungry for a problem. Incomes extra rep than required to progress the story will unlock further parts of the map with their very own set of secrets and techniques and challenges, and it is all the time a good suggestion to scour the maps after finishing the story to do distinctive quest strains for unlocking characters. These zones are actually dense, which is as a lot a blessing as it’s a curse. You might be supplied a map through your flip cellphone and the pause display screen, but it surely’s not all that useful till after you could have claimed the borough to your crew. Solely then will you be capable of return and discover the map information. This mechanic incentivizes listening to the considerate degree design and making observe of routes alongside the partitions and rails of every zone. However when nothing is marked in your map and you’ll’t discover your method via the twists and turns of zones like Pyramid Island otherwise you occur to overlook a niche to slip beneath, it could possibly result in frustration.
The police could be equally irritating. After you have thrown up sufficient items round city, the cops are alerted to your location, chasing you down with weapons, turrets, snipers, and extra. They’re simple to disregard at first, however as soon as you’re at max warmth you should have a military in your tail, making ahead progress depressing. It is in these cases that you simply’ll wish to find an outhouse to lose the fuzz—and possibly change your match whilst you’re at it. You possibly can struggle again by boosting and doing methods into the police in the event you’d like, however this isn’t an actual fight part of gameplay. If something, it is simply a possibility to interrupt dance into your haters and humiliate them into the air together with your sick artwork for additional factors.
Staff Reptile understands the vibe it is going for and commits to it fully, and that goes past the thrill of tagging lawmen only for kicks. Your flip cellphone isn’t simply the way in which your crew communicates info; it is also your map, your music, and your digicam. You modify characters and hail taxis not by deciding on choices on a display screen however by busting strikes in particular places. It could be easier to relegate these choices to a menu however clear effort was put into making these particulars a cohesive a part of the world even at the price of participant comfort. And I really like Bomb Rush Cyberfunk all of the extra for it.
This brings us to the story, which oozes as a lot character as all the things else—even when the premise isn’t as recent. Your journey as a cyberhead attempting to get his flesh head again and perceive his previous is the amnesiac trope we’ve seen 1,000,000 instances however with additional steps. Nonetheless, the execution is what stored me engaged with enjoyable character interactions, putting cutscene course, and distinctive gameplay integration. All through his journey of self-discovery, Purple shall be sucked into his unconscious. On this dream state, you because the participant must platform your method via an impediment course constructed out of fragmented recollections and surreal structure. They don’t final lengthy however these bite-sized sections are a few of the most memorable. Bosses are much less so, although. The few that you simply encounter are tremendous moments to punctuate the story however outdoors of a pair exceptions they don’t ship the identical awe or pleasure.
We’ve already achieved a tech evaluation and comparability throughout Swap, PC, and Steam Deck so I gained’t reiterate the small print. The cliff notes model is that Swap efficiency is satisfactory however not wonderful. The sport runs at steady resolutions and a constant 30fps with an choice to uncap the framerate if you want. And you may count on pop-in points and longer loading instances. The couple of issues I didn’t catch in my earlier testing have been the handful of crashes I skilled late within the sport. These have been alarming at first however the beneficiant auto-save threw me proper again into the motion with out lacking a beat. I’d additionally like so as to add that the pop-in throughout some later in-engine cutscenes was way more pronounced than in my preliminary checks. If you may get Bomb Rush elsewhere, then I’d advocate a model on higher {hardware} however don’t really feel like you’re shortchanged by choosing it up on Swap if you must.
It’s simple to look at Bomb Rush Cyberfunk and see an inexpensive imitation. A piece whose worth is present in what it takes quite than what it creates. However Staff Reptile has confirmed that by-product artwork can surpass its inspirations. I can recall practically half a dozen cases of me beginning Jet Set Radio with the hope that it might lastly click on, that I may lastly get pleasure from shifting in that world as a lot as I loved being in it, solely to by no means make it previous the second degree. In a 12 months chock stuffed with landmark releases, I’m booting up Bomb Rush Cyberfunk once more to make up for all of the misplaced time, to play the sport that I all the time hoped existed. Now that I’ve it, I merely simply can’t get sufficient.