Listen up. We are the BOMB RUSH CREW, in this world, it's about getting up and having fun.
Do you want a new Jet Set Radio game? Well unfortunately Sega forgot about that series until recently because they just announced a new game. Although Team Reptile decided to make their own game called Bomb Ruch Cyberfunk (BCR), a very interesting game that takes a lot of inspiration from the Jet Set Radio series.
I should add that I have only played a small bit of Jet Set Radio, so I know little on how this game compares to that title but did see enough gameplay of Jet Set Radio to easily spot out some comparisons between both games.
Pros and Cons
Pros
Simple but extremely fun gameplay
Lots of collectibles to go out and find
Fantastic soundtrack that is nice to listen to
Very beautiful cel-shaded style and graffiti signs
Cons
The game is very vague in teaching you how to play
Combat is rough around the edges
Some of the levels are linear
Story
The story starts out with Faux, who is locked up in a cell and woken up by Tryce who is trying to escape. Faux agrees to escape and to help Tryce become All City until Faux is killed by DJ Cyber who cuts his head off. However, the body did not die and Faux assumes a new identity called Red but does not know anything about his past and must find out more about himself by becoming All City.
I don’t know how to necessarily describe the story fully for this game as there is just too much to talk about. BRC is pretty thick on its storytelling as it will have these moments that will probably confuse you, until later. That’s not to say that the story is bad in any way, it has some moments that are generally good and enjoyable. I do enjoy the characters and the rival gangs are all charming and have their own personalities to them.
Now if I am in any way being vague or confusing about what I am trying to talk about, well that’s the kind of story you're getting yourself into. While it may have some issues when you are playing the game when you are done with it all, it starts to make sense, but it will still have these issues. I do feel that Team Reptile made something to appreciate in the game but there is just something missing from it.
Gameplay
Now the gameplay for BRC is the best aspect of the game as it blends in this nice feel-good kind of gameplay that is more of a relaxed experience. You will be going around the levels in an open-world setting. You aren’t forced into the missions immediately and instead; you can complete the game at your own pace by exploring the areas of the game. In each area, you will see a set of graffiti that you need to paint over and put your graffiti on it. You want to do this so you can challenge the main gang of that area and you do this by getting rep you also need to complete these mini-challenges to get access to the Crew Battle.
Crew Battles involve you scoring more points than the rival gang and you have to do it on a two-minute timer. Now to get points, you have to grind on rails and do tricks, you can also go on some walls and such as well, you have to do tricks on the grind rail to get your points up. You will also have to build up this multiplier and to do this, you have to bounce off the corners of the rails. This builds up a multiplier that you can score more points in, you can keep a certain rhythm loop by tricking in a small circle. However, the game does encourage you to seek out more corners to build up a higher score and this is something that I love. The game wants you to explore its levels, which can lead you to find some of the game's secrets.
Now BRC is an extreme sport and a platformer and I say platformer very loosey. As there are these mini-platform levels you have to go through at the last part of every chapter. They are pretty fun to do and at times I wish there were more of them, although the developers would have to make more levels and the game would end up being longer. You also have access to a superpowered backpack, which can be used for your boost meter. You build boost by doing tricks on rails or collecting these small ball canister things called Boost Chargers.
There are also three different Movestyles in the game, there is a skateboard, inline skates, and BMX. Skateboards can be used on fire hydrants by jumping on them to make them extend vertically. Inline Skates can be used to break patterned glass on floors by sliding on them, and BMX’s can be used to weigh down panels in front of doors with its symbol. None of these features will ever really come up, or they never came up to me, so really, you are only changing what you are using and the tricks you can pull off. Although riding a BMX is the fastest way to travel on the level without going on rails, skateboards, and inline skates are slow for traversal although, they are faster than walking but not by much. Any character can ride any of these, so if you want to play as a certain character and ride a BMX, you can.
Speaking of characters, there are ways to unlock new crew members in the game, although the game itself is vague on telling you this. This is fine, you can unlock several other crew members, but you have to complete their respective challenges to unlock them. You also need a certain number of rep to even trigger the challenge. There are also a ton of collectibles you can find, like graffiti, cosmetics for your characters, and music. This adds some flare to the game as you can go look at every nook and cranny for a secret.
Although BRC does have a few issues with the game that I did find throughout my time playing. The game is vague about teaching you how to play, it can give you the basics, but it won’t teach you certain stuff on it. A good example is in the very first mission of the game, where you are thrown into a combat segment, although the game never teaches you how to attack enemies. On top of that, combat is also one of the game's weakest aspects, due to it not having anything special to it. The mechanical enemies are where combat can get interesting, but you need to get a high wanted level for that to happen, and there isn’t much of a point in getting one, as there is no reward or feeling of getting one.
Some of the levels are also linear, when you are playing this game for the first time, this is not an issue. Although you may notice it on your next playthrough or while you are playing the game, Millennium Mall and Mataan are the two worst offenders for liner levels. There isn’t much to explore in those levels, my favorite level though is Pyramid Island, as it had a lot of twists, turns, and alternative routes to get to areas.
Graphics and Performance
The art style for BRC is absolutely beautiful! I love the game's art style and the direction it chose, the cel-shaded art style and the mix of graffiti art blend perfectly together. I tested the game on an NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1060 3GB, AMD Ryzen 5 1500X Quad-Core Processor 3.50, and 16 GB of RAM, I experienced no issues while playing and the game should be able to run on low-end PCs
The soundtrack is another thing I want to praise. The songs are composed of real-life music from actual artists and the composer for Jet Set Radio Hideki Naganuma also worked on some of the music as well. You can find all the music the game has on Spotify, although a few songs are not included yet.
Final Verdict
Bomb Rush Cyberfunk is a very fun game that I really enjoyed playing. Despite a few issues I had with the story, I still loved my time with this title, but the gameplay is where it shines the most. The game takes around eight hours to beat, if you don’t focus on the other objectives the game has. I would wait for a sale for the game though, as 51.99 is a lot of money for content offered unless you are a fan of Jet Set Radio or any extreme sports games, then you could feel good about picking it up at full price. There is even a mod scene out there for you to enjoy so the game has a few other things for you to appreciate.