Bomb Rush Cyberfunk Review (PS5) – The year was 2000 when video games would change forever before our eyes. In that year players saw the release of innovative games such as Diablo 2, The Sims, Counter-Strike, Marvel vs. Capcom 2, Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater 2, Perfect Dark, and more.
Some titles laid the foundation for the future of video games, others withered away in time. Among these games, Masayoshi Kikuchi spearheaded an original idea.
To express Japanese pop culture in a creative and engaging way, in a game known as Jet Set Radio. Players freely roamed the streets performing stunts and laying graffiti to express their style and avoid the powers that stood in their way.
The game was also the first video game to feature cell-shaded graphics, which many developers today attribute their influence to. The series received a few entries but unfortunately had been discontinued so that publisher SEGA could focus on other major IPs. There’d been nothing almost exactly like it, until now.
Developer Team Reptile answered the call two decades later to fill the Jet Set void among gamers with Bomb Rush Cyberfunk. I’m very pleased to report that this game is truly worthy of the title ‘spiritual successor’.
Featuring smooth mechanics, vibrant visuals, a surprisingly deep narrative, and an incredible soundtrack, Bomb Rush Cyberfunk not only raises the bar for indie titles, but it is one of the best indie games you will experience this year.
Bomb Rush Cyberfunk Review (PS5) – Jet-Set Greatness In The Making
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The City Is Your Playground
Jet Set Radio fans will feel right at home with Bomb Rush Cyberfunk. The gameplay loop is simple; perform stunts to build your reputation, draw graffiti, hunt for collectibles, and avoid the law. What players will notice when they take control is how smoothly the game performs.
The animations transition flawlessly making them smooth and very responsive. This is vital for players to perform stunts and chain moves together.
Every area you go to will be dominated by an opposing gang. Your objective is to build enough reputation for them to notice you, and take you on as a challenger. With the many varieties of graffiti art to unlock, you will go around the area and mark your territory with the style of your choice.
Simply go up to a yellow-highlighted spot and press R1. Push the left stick towards the yellow on-screen prompts to design your graffiti and you’ve set your mark.
Once you have built up enough reputation to take on the dominating crew, you’re prompted to a ‘crew battle’. This is hands down one of the best parts of the game. In limited time you have to rack up as much score as you can before the timer runs out, chaining stunts and increasing your combo multiplier.
In addition, each area will have collectibles for you to find such as music tracks, graffiti art, costumes, styles for your gear, and brand-new characters for you to unlock. For some collectibles, you have to find and others will be in a terminal locked by smiley faces with big hands.
Chain stunts as you pass by these signs to give a high-five. Hitting all the signs while in a stunt combo will allow you to go inside the terminal to collect the hidden item it contains.
As alluring as this all sounds, the law feels otherwise. As you spray graffiti through the city, you will build a heat level. This will cause you to either escape or fight the law. By pressing square, triangle, and circle, you can use the same moves you use to perform stunts to fend off your foes.
Combat does feel a bit clunky, there’s no lock-on system, and fighting enemies in the air can be a chore.
You can avoid the law by changing your attire. Feeling a different character? Simply go to a checkered floor and perform a dance move using the D-Pad. you can switch to different characters, each featuring different styles as well as gear.
Skateboards, roller skates, and BMXs can be equipped by all characters. Each of the different sets of gear features different maneuver styles to add variety to your stunts.
Get Started To Get A Head In Life
Players may find the narrative of Bomb Rush Cyberfunk to be a pleasant surprise. I definitely was, as it’s a lot deeper than you might expect. The game starts you as Faux, a veteran “writer” taken into custody by the police. Bomb Rush gang member and “writer” Tryce breaks you out and together you escape the confines of the prison.
As you escape, Faux’s head gets decapitated by DJ Cyber. He is a gang leader of the group “Futurism” and is obsessed with the inner mechanisms of the brain.
Faux reawakens with a new cyber head and thus dubbed the name “Red”. As a new member of the Bomb Rush crew, your mission is to get your head back by becoming the best “writer” in the city. The story will have players witness many twists and turns that greatly expand the story, which we will not spoil here.
You’ll be visiting many places as the game features vibrant and original areas. You’ll be going through cities, shopping malls, vertigo mind vistas, cities day or night, and more. As previously mentioned, you’ll have to build your rep in these areas to compete against rival gangs.
The law will do everything in its power to stop you, featuring unique boss battles that will require you to think on your feet and outsmart your foes with the skills and stunts you have learned. By progressing through the story, Red will learn more about his former life and uncover the mysteries of the game’s antagonist DJ Cyber, and his motives.
The Skaters New Groove
Team Reptile has clearly worked very hard to make this game aesthetically and visually pleasing in every way. The gameplay is flawless, performing stunts is an absolute joy, the visuals of the locals are vibrant, and the music is exceptional.
Players will find themselves bopping to the beat as your stunts synchronize with the rhythm of the tracks. Which is no real surprise, as Reptile brought on the expertise of Hideki Naganuma who previously composed the score of the Jet Set Radio series. A nice added touch for Jet Set fans.
And while there is a lot of fun to be had with this game, there is a lot of room for improvement.
The game greatly lacks tutorials, has clunky combat, has no options to perform technical stunts, lacks modern next-gen features, and suffers from having no post-game content.
Tutorials would have been vital as there are so many cool tips and tricks that would be great for players to know. For instance, as I was typing up my review I found out you can spray graffiti on vulnerable enemies in the air by chaining an aerial attack, boosting into them, and pressing R1.
That is a fantastic feature and important to thwart enemies and yet the game never teaches the player about this. As well as the aerial attacks, players will learn most combos by pressing a combination of buttons rather than learning through tips or tricks.
Speaking of the buttons, the move set for the stunts the game features works well it would have been amazing if players were given the option to perform manual and complicated stunts. For instance, holding L1 and pressing a combination of buttons would allow you to execute harder-to-perform stunts.
Even utilizing the left stick at the same time to influence the direction and style of the stunt itself would have added variety. The benefit of this is adding a complex skillset between the average player and those who really want to challenge themselves.
To reward the player, performing these stunts would be double in value compared to the average score given for normal stunts.
Once you are finished with the game, you can explore the city to spray all graffiti spots, find all hidden collectibles, earn achievements, and hunt for new characters to unlock.
There is a lack of post-game content. Bomb Rush Cyberfunk would have greatly benefitted from having a challenge mode. Having the option to do crew battles or a mode where you have to earn the highest score by performing stunts in an allotted time would have been fantastic.
Having a split screen mode with up to 4 players would make this game an ideal party game to play with a variety of modes as well. During my playthrough I faced game-breaking bugs where I had to restart my game to progress, falling through floors, and witnessing missing backgrounds during cutscenes.
One Of The Best Indie Games You’ll Play This Year
Despite its flaws, Bomb Rush Cyberfunk is a great game. Featuring fantastic animations, great gameplay, satisfying stunt mechanics, unique graffiti, an incredible soundtrack, and a deep story, this game is the complete package.
You will find yourself motivated to chain stunts, outdo your personal record, explore different areas, unlock new characters, uncover the narrative, and find the next crew battle.
Team Reptile has the potential to set up a running franchise. With the features the game lacks and areas to improve, we hope to see these changes and suggestions put in future installments.
Jet Set fans can finally unite from their slumber, Bomb Rush Cyberfunk is here to mark its territory in the games industry.
Bomb Rush Cyberfunk is now available on PS5 and PS4.
Review code kindly provided by the developer.