Let’s get the elephant out of the room straight away. 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 part about its gameplay and elegance is sort of similar to the SEGA traditional, from the extent development, artwork route, city industrial areas, character proportions, and breakdancing animations, all the way down to the eclectic soundtrack that includes tracks from composer Hideki Naganuma. Group Reptile has made it obvious the one factor maintaining 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 final word vibe sport. The type of sport that stands out not with mechanics however by way of sheer drive of creative identification; 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 model that’s of its time and but hasn’t aged a day. The identical can’t be stated 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 tips, 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 model and setting of Jet Set Radio and its minute-to-minute gameplay. Bomb Rush Cyberfunk lastly closes that hole.
You play as Pink and the remainder of the Bomb Rush Crew rising up the ranks in New Amsterdam making an attempt 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 seek out the spots to color, and extra importantly, discover ways 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 along 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 possibly can problem your rivals in a head-to-head competitors to earn probably the most factors inside 2 minutes.
Factors are earned by constructing combos with tips. These tips might 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 guide to maintain up the combo streak. Multipliers might be gained by taking arduous corners on rails or by driving partitions. However don’t assume you possibly can grind the identical rails and trip the identical partitions; each must be new to depend. Equally, spamming the identical trick will turn out to be stale, so your tips should be blended as much as internet probably the most factors.
It sounds technical on paper, however in follow, it is completely electrical. There may be 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 possibly can take it, solely to bail and eagerly do it once more. It’s the mark of an ideal motion system if 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 tips for minutes on finish for no different motive 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 received to because of the everpresent jank. Group Reptile delivers what SEGA and Smilebit couldn’t by honing a motion system that lowers the talent ground for newcomers by creating one thing that’s polished and approachable whereas elevating the talent ceiling with extra nuances to grasp.
The extent design enhances the motion superbly. 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 extra 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 traces 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 have got claimed the borough in your crew. Solely then will you be capable of return and discover the map knowledge. This mechanic incentivizes being attentive 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 approach by way of the twists and turns of zones like Pyramid Island otherwise you occur to overlook a niche to slip below, it may result in frustration.
The police might be equally irritating. After getting 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’ll have a military in your tail, making ahead progress depressing. It is in these cases that you just’ll need to find an outhouse to lose the fuzz—and perhaps change your match whilst you’re at it. You may combat again by boosting and doing tips into the police in case you’d like, however this isn’t an actual fight part of gameplay. If something, it is simply a chance to interrupt dance into your haters and humiliate them into the air along with your sick artwork for further factors.
Group Reptile understands the vibe it is going for and commits to it utterly, and that goes past the fun 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 choosing choices on a display screen however by busting strikes in particular areas. It might be less complicated 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 like Bomb Rush Cyberfunk all of the extra for it.
This brings us to the story, which oozes as a lot character as every part else—even when the premise isn’t as recent. Your journey as a cyberhead making an attempt to get his flesh head again and perceive his previous is the amnesiac trope we’ve seen 1,000,000 instances however with further steps. Nevertheless, the execution is what stored me engaged with enjoyable character interactions, hanging cutscene route, and distinctive gameplay integration. All through his journey of self-discovery, Pink will likely be sucked into his unconscious. On this dream state, you because the participant must platform your approach by way of an impediment course constructed out of fragmented recollections and surreal structure. They don’t final lengthy however these bite-sized sections are among the most memorable. Bosses are much less so, although. The few that you just encounter are tremendous moments to punctuate the story however exterior of a pair exceptions they don’t ship the identical awe or pleasure.
We’ve already carried out a tech evaluation and comparability throughout Change, PC, and Steam Deck so I received’t reiterate the small print. The cliff notes model is that Change efficiency is enough however not wonderful. The sport runs at secure resolutions and a constant 30fps with an choice to uncap the framerate if you want. And you’ll anticipate pop-in points and longer loading instances. The couple of issues I didn’t catch in my earlier testing had been the handful of crashes I skilled late within the sport. These had 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 exams. 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 selecting it up on Change if you need to.
It’s simple to look at Bomb Rush Cyberfunk and see an affordable imitation. A piece whose worth is present in what it takes moderately than what it creates. However Group Reptile has confirmed that by-product artwork can surpass its inspirations. I can recall almost half a dozen cases of me beginning Jet Set Radio with the hope that it will lastly click on, that I may lastly take pleasure in transferring 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 yr 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.
