Bomb Rush Cyberfunk is a Indie Action-Adventure Platforming game was released in Aug 2023 for PC and Switch, and it was then later released in next month for other platforms such as PS5, PS4, XSX/S, and XBONE. It was both developed and published by Team Reptile.
Before I begin reviewing the game, I just wanted to share an interesting gaming history that was all started back when the Dreamcast era became the thing at the beginning of the early 2000s.
We had a wide selection of great nostalgia titles like Chu Chu Rockets, Crazy Taxi, Soul Calibur, Power Stone, Quake III Arena, and of course Sonic Adventure which those are the libraries that made us remembering the SEGA's most unique system in 6th gen console era, but there's one of the title that attracts my attention which is definitely Jet Set Radio.
It's one of the SEGA's most innovative title that I have never seen anything quite incredible for SEGA's one of the kind machine could pull-off an amazing visual design that utilizes the cel-shaded art techniques which I considered it as cool, funky, and colourful.
The game is quite different from any of the SEGA's titles which makes Jet Set Radio a very first game where you go out skating around the city, doing numerous of wicked platforming stunts and tricks, getting chased after by the police, challenging bunch of rival gangs, and of course one important part of the game is that you can create and design your graffiti on the wall as much as possible is what made the game quite recognisable by the Dreamcast owners.
It garnered acclaimed praises and has won several awards by gaming medias for its graphics, soundtrack, gameplay, and replay values making it a Dreamcast's one of the finest title.
It also has received a sequel called Jet Set Radio Future which was released in 2 years later, after the first original, for Xbox Original which also gained positive reception are just as good as the first title has to offer, but sadly it suffered with the low sales overall compared to the first original which is why we never get to see the future third installiment, but until SEGA has finally confirmed at Game Awards 2023 that they are working on the new Jet Set Radio title alongside with other SEGA franchises are still on the development.
So I had a blast playing the first original game on SEGA Dreamcast which defines my gaming childhood back in my early 2000s days, and I did able to re-visit the game again with the 2012's HD releases which I've played it on my PS Vita, so the first original game has aged remarkably well which the visuals and the game design really still lives up to the today standards.
I never actually played the sequel which unfortunately it's still remains being stuck on the Xbox Original which sadly my brother who used to have the system back then are being thrown out into garbage is pretty seems to be a stupid move because I wish I would have kept his console that my brother are no longer using it, so that I can able to buy and pick-up the game that I really wanted to play...oh well that's the shame, and I don't even know when SEGA are consider re-releasing the sequel for modern console platforms in near future.
The only way option to play the similar game that uses the same art-design, stylish gameplay mechanics, and of course the funky-style soundtrack is that there's one of the indie title that gives me the throwback of the Dreamcast classic title that I really liked it back in my old days of gaming, so that is Bomb Rush Cyberfunk.
I remember the day when I watching the Nintendo's Indie World Showcase 2021 to see the upcoming reveal of indie titles, so that's when I've discovered the reveal trailer of Bomb Rush Cyberfunk which I was glad to see somebody had made their own indie game looks pretty identical to SEGA's Jet Set Radio in terms of visuals, gameplay, and music which is the reason why I am so desperate to try this game out that I wanted to play, so the game has finally released in 2023.
I've just bought the physical copy of this indie title to try it out and see if this game are actually a great alternative to SEGA's own funky franchise or is it not the right kind of game you're looking for? so I'll be covering all the things that the indie game that does the job quite right and some others that needs to be addressed.
So without go further do, let's start the review.
Presentation
The game takes place in the fictional city of New Amsterdam, so it all started with the young guy named Faux who was caught by the police and placed in the cell. He then being awoken by a man breaking out of the cell and introduces himself as Tryce, as he says he's looking to form a new gang crew.
After they agreed to help together, they make their way out of the prison until they see the man in a robed costume and full-head mask named DJ Cyber which he decapitating Faux with the vinyl record.
One day later, Faux is awakened in Tryce's new gang's hideout and is now fixed with a red cybernetic head.
Due to having to suffer a memories loss, personality, and sense of self associated with the brain he had prior to being decapitated, Tryce had explained the situation that the Faux's head had gone missing and likely believed that DJ Cyber still has the head of Faux with him which is the reason why Faux is no longer the same person, so instead he is now being renamed as Red.
Tryce then introduces the female skater named Bel who is a 3rd member of their gang came to help with these guys.
They all began to go on their adventure to track down the DJ Cyber to retrieve the Faux's head back to normal, as well as doing the graffiti wall job outside of the all city to become the city's best writers group.
The opening story in this game has a pretty good start where it all began with the young guy had managed to escape from the prison thanks to Tryce had came to rescue him, till the robed dude shows up and cuts the young guy's head off and stole it which is quite brutal.
Then he is being resurrected as a guy with the long-ass red helmet, as he and his gangs went on their quest to bring his head back to normal.
The game does shares with many plot twist and mysteries which I really liked hearing stuff like the past memories and trying to restore his true identity just seems to be working well for this particular title.
It is really cool to have any of gangs spending time doing a graffiti on the wall which I believe they want to aim their goal to become one of the city's best writer, so yeah just like every real-life graffiti artist wanted to achieve their goal by creating and designing their best artwork as possible to make it look more cool and rad.
The game has several of really decent characters like Red in which I kinda liked his long red-helmet giving more a mecha-like design, and then you have Tryce who is the leader of the Bomb Rush Crew has an ambition to find and retrieve Faux's head, reinstating him and fufilling the mutual aspiration of achieving all city status.
Then you have Bel who is the 3rd member of the Bomb Rush Crew, as she described as cheerful and relaxed demeanor and often found engrossed in her mobile device, and of course she wore a cute blue outfit and has nice orange boots.
The game also later introduces other members such as Vinyl, another female character came to aid Red in the restoration of his memories. Then you have weird looking guy named Solace kinda look like a crash test dummy doll paired with two wings.
There are a rival crew members that dares challenge with the Bomb Rush gangs, such as Flesh Prince and the Franks, the Eclipse, DOT EXE, Devil Theory, and FUTURISM.
There are a member of the New Amsterdam Police went on to track down these graffiti artists and the gangs such as the chief inspector Berlage, lieutenant sniper unit Escher, and of course the jetpack flyer Irene Rietveld.
I considered DJ Cyber as the most mysterious antagonist who is responsible for decapitating Faux at the beginning of the game. He's one of the person that refuses to give answer what was the reasoning for committing murder on Faux, so it really just delivers the most interesting mystery plot of the game.
The presentation in this game is absolutely incredible because I'm really into with the types of games that uses the cel-shaded techniques just makes it everything a colourful, bold, funky, and appealing just like you previously see it from the classic Dreamcast title like Jet Set Radio.
It fits well for the city setting environments, animated characters, cinematic sequences, and of course the most important bits are the graffiti art-design which is the reason to make the whole game look more comic book type of thing makes it very appealing and recognisable.
There are full of the city locations like the city streets, skating park, shopping mall, backyard, bus station, train tunnel, sewers, and hideout.
Overall, it has good story, decent characters, and incredible art presentation.
Gameplay
In single player game, you take control of Red or any of other playable gang if available in open-world perspective, as your main goal is to complete numerous of the objectives such as spray many graffiti point as possible in many areas, beat against the rivalry for specific challenges like scoring and tricks matches, and defeating multiples of bosses.
You'll move the player around by pushing the left stick, and then pushing the right stick to rotate the camera around.
Press the cross button is to jump which can be used for jumping on stuff like riding on the grinding rails and jump up high in mid-air from the skating ledges.
You will have three trick buttons including square, triangle, and circle which allowing you to perform many cool tricks and stunts off the rails and ledges while in the mid-air, so it awarded you with multiples of scoring combos which adds up your high scoring points.
Then you have a boost speed which allowing you to dash forward by holding the left trigger button, but also depletes your boost meter which you will need to collect many boost items to increase enough your boost meter, so this will help you to being able to reach the long distance platforms and breaking through the heavy glass of doors or windows.
Then you have a slide move which allowing you to slide through the small gaps, as well as through the pavement floors temporary which are also useful for tricks and stunts purposes.
You will have a two options to control your playable character with or without the roller skates, skateboard, and bicycles by simply pressing the left shoulder button, so the without ones can be good for some parts that you don't want to end up accidently slipping off the platforms, where as the with ones are mostly better for speed and manuvering through the platforms like being able to rode on large sign boards and some curvy looking rails.
During the exploration, you will see bunch of rivalry's graffiti on the wall which highlights with the yellow looking static which means that you can able to do your graffiti job by using the spray can with the right shoulder button when being close to the rivalry's graffiti wall.
In order to finish your graffiti job when activating your full graffiti mode with the right shoulder button which displays the QTE sequences, so you will need to match the lines up with the right stick controls which allowing you to make patterns that designs your graffiti on the wall till it's everything done.
The full graffiti mode can be only activated mostly on medium and large sized graffiti, except the smaller ones which can be done very quickly by simply pressing the right shoulder button without QTE sequences.
In combat purposes, you'll be encountered by bunch of police forces when you keep continuing your graffiti habits which led you into the wanted list which shows you a status wanted levels starting from regular riot police to professional squad police which carries weapons and shields, as well as deploying their machinery objects like chained-up turrets and flying ship will come after you.
In order to fight back, you can also use these three trick buttons which also acts as the melee attack button, so that you can able to fight off these bunch of police squads and their machinery turrets which can be defeated by finishing them off with the spray can if you successfully landing these police team in mid-air or being able to find machinery object's weaknesses.
You can gain access to the phone screen by pressing the right d-pad button, so you can use the phone to check messages which gives you a sort of hint and tips or even with clues, and you can able to see the list of all graffiti items that you have collected, and you can able to change any of soundtrack being listed during the gameplay, and of course you can play one of the simple but cool mini-game with it.
The phone does display the map screen which is quite small to see, but you can able to see a full map screen by pressing the pause button to display a full map which tells you what area are you at? but unfortunately I find these map display detail is poorly designed which all I can see is nothing but a flat looking structures, so I wish they could have done better by adding more details enough that I can able to see where I'm at in the city.
Thankfully you'll have a flashy blue dot which leads us to the main objectives locations seems to help a bit while exploring in open-world areas.
So far, the controls works just great throughout the game because I had no issue with the default control settings which I find controlling the character feels really smooth and responsive to play.
The game does have an option to re-configure the control settings which really helps the players that much fully preferred to change it to match their playability.
I also discover the camera sensitivity speed are kinda slow at the beginning of the game, so I had to change the speed up to high to get the camera movement bit faster to make it easier to rotate around, so the camera movement seems to work fine after changing the sensitivity speed.
What I've liked about the game itself is the REP point system, so what it is basically means is that you really need to build up your enough REP point system, so that you can able to challenge your rivalry gangs to take control of each of the 5 boroughs of New Amsterdam.
In order to do that, you must finish several of graffiti wall point which adds up your REP points, so once it had met the requirements then that leads you accessing to the rivalry battle which has an awesome scoring challenges where you had to beat your rivalry by gaining enough high-score as possible using many tricks and combos within time limits.
Another favourite part of the game is that I really love spending time exploring around the city to do more graffiti job which I really liked designing stuff on the walls and getting into trouble with the police teams that came chasing after me throughout the city, and I also love doing lot of wicked tricks and stunts such as riding on the rails, sliding though the pavement, going through the loops, doing wall sliding on the large sized signboards, and performing the mid-air tricks is what I've loved about skating genres in video games.
There are one thing that are missed out in the game is create your own graffiti mode, so remember back then when games like Jet Set Radio had included really awesome feature that allows you to create and design your own graffiti artwork which seems to be really creative way of doing your own cool stuff in the game that Bomb Rush Cyberfunk had totally missed out, so it's a really shame because I would love to see this kind of game that allows you to design something really wicked and rad art-stuff and having an option to upload your own graffiti through the online workshop so that everyone can able to share, download, and keep it that could be sounds like an amazing idea for this type of indie game.
Overall, it has great controls, cool tricks and combos system, great platforming design, and of course shares with epic rivalry battles and fun graffiti job.
Graphics
The graphics are looking excellent in the game which I had a reason to like animated cel-shaded design
that are so incredibly impressive with bold and sharper edge textures, colourful environments, detailed outlines and filters, and of course the character's animation just works magnificently for this style of game that are comical, cartoonish, and funky.
The open-world design has large areas to explore like the city buildings, parking avenue, bus station, skating park area, shopping mall, streets district, rooftops, and many more location environments that are being well designed.
Luckily the PS5 version that I am playing on has no sign of frame-drops which is a good news because it plays really smoother with the 60fps and being able to ran on higher resolution which performs quite better than you could say Switch version which caps to locked 30fps and being able to ran on both 720p undocked and 1080p just plays fine, but when you turn on the "unleash the beast" mode from the option menu which unlocks 60fps on the switch which unfortunately it suffered with frame dips, so it's better to stick with having it turned off and play on 30fps instead.
Overall, it has excellent cel-shaded design, large open-world areas, and smooth performance.
Music and Sounds
The music in this game has some of the decent numbers of soundtrack with multiples of genres including jazz, funk, DJ, electronic, and hip-hop which it features various of indie artists including Hideki Naganuma, who previously created soundtrack of the SEGA's Jet Set Radio series, and other contributors include musicians such as Ethan Goldhammer, Sebastian Knight, Klaus Veen, 2-Mello and Grrl.
Each of these indie soundtrack kinda gives a mid-90s and early 2000s throwback in terms of musical style which really sounded great for this title, and I also wanted to give a kudos to Hideki Naganuma for creating such a cool and funky soundtrack just like from SEGA's Jet Set Radio.
The sound design is really pretty rad for its wicked use of sound effects including DJ scratching noises and some boing beats, and I also liked the environmental sounds on some areas which you will hear some street noises and construction sites.
The only things that's missing in the game is the full voice dialogue during the cutscenes, so you can only hear some small hey and ay-yo sounds in every dialogue, but I rather have much preferred the proper full voice dialogue would have made it more sense.
Overall, it has decent soundtrack and wicked sound design.
Special Features
The game has numerous of collectable graffiti items, music CDs, and of course the outfits to collect from the open-world areas, and you have a 1 DLCs pack which unlocks two playable characters including Base and Jay which only cost less than £5 which is not that expensive to purchase.
Like I've mentioned about earlier ago that this game did missed out "create your own graffiti mode" would have made the game quite better.
Overall, an okay features.
Advantages
Incredible art presentation
Cool tricks and combos
Great platforming design
Have fun graffiti around
Epic rival battles
Excellent visuals and performance
Decent soundtrack
Disadvantages
Map screen display is flat
Lacks full voice dialogue
Missing out create your own graffiti mode
Final Verdict
Presentation 8.5/10 - good story, decent characters, and incredible art presentation.
Gameplay 8.5/10 - great controls, cool tricks and combos system, great platforming design, and of course shares with epic rivalry battles and fun graffiti job.
Graphics 9/10 - excellent cel-shaded design, large open-world areas, and smooth performance.
Music and Sounds 8/10 - decent soundtrack and wicked sound design.
Special Features 6/10 - missed out one important mode, but has nice collectables and DLCs playable characters.
Overall 8.5/10 - Bomb Rush Cyberfunk is a true love letter for those who grew up with SEGA's own funky classic adventure back in the Dreamcast's days are likely to enjoy this indie title does the job right done.
I am happy to see an indie developer team had made the game come true in which we been begging SEGA for the new Jet Set Radio sequel that didn't really happen till it finally revealed at Game Awards 2023 that they are still working on the new game alongside with other classic franchise from the 90's.
So going back to the review, this game delivers an true homage to the classic game that we liked it back then, so it offers an amazing visuals choices just really lives up to today standards in terms of cel-shaded techniques are very bold and colourful just makes the game very appealing, and I also enjoyed the whole single-player campaign where you get to do something really awesome things like have fun skating around with tricks and stunts, doing graffiti on the wall, getting chased after by the police, and of course participating the challenge against the rivalry gangs is what made the game quite fun to play.
The physical copy is cost between £20 and £25 for PS5 and Switch, where as the XSX/S are slightly tad expensive up to £35.
The digital release on all platforms including both the PCs and consoles are cost around between £33 to £36.
Is it worth to play this game? absolutely because it's a really great indie title that the fans of the SEGA's Jet Set Radio series will able to get a hands on with this kind of game does everything so great that I can highly recommended to play it on your available PCs or console platform.
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