Bomb Rush Cyberfunk

Bomb Rush Cyberfunk obviously draws massive inspiration from Jet Set Radio and Jet Set Radio Future. This review spends a lot of time comparing Bomb Rush to the Jet Set Radio games, so if you know nothing about Jet Set Radio its probably better to read other reviews. The emphasis builds on Future, but is slightly different. Jet Set Radio was more of an arcade game, with time limits and scores, and the point being to achieve the task of covering the area in Graffiti within the time limit with the highest score. Future removed the time limits, and instead made the levels larger and the task more difficult to spray Graffiti in all the right places. You can do tricks in Future, and you do need to get a good score for unlocking specific items, but the main task is a bit more like a platformer, which is reaching the correct locations. Bomb Rush Cyberfunk pushes more into the score aspect. You still lack a time limit, and still spend your time trying to reach all the spots. But you also have more tricks to perform. You score gets multiplied by a range of specific actions, like spraying graffiti, riding walls etc. So you want to chain actions together. You gain access to the manual technique, where you can land on flat land and keep your trick counter going for a short period, which allows you to cross some gaps between sections. However, while I say the score is important, in terms of completing the story, the task of getting a higher score is separate from the task of spraying graffiti everywhere. So you don’t have to worry about it getting to complicated. As in, after you have sprayed everything you can then spend time integrating spraying with tricks. BombRush also heads further into combat. I personally found the bosses in Future to be quite frustrating most of the time. They are nowhere near as frustrating in Bomb Rush. But maybe still a bit frustrating. The police are a more constant threat, with the strength of the force increasing like GTA. I think the concept makes sense and works in some circumstances, but can also be quite annoying. You can remove your wanted level, but the safe spaces you use to remove wanted levels get used up while in the space. So to reset them you need to leave. It is a bit frustrating having to leave and come back multiple times, if you want a low level of police. They can get in your way a lot, and you don’t really get points of taking them out, I don’t think, so they aren’t a risk reward type situation. You also are able to change between riding and walking. So if you wanted a bit more traction on the ground, you can just do that whenever you want. You now have a double jump. This does give you more flexibility. The change this produces compared to Future is a bit subtle, and difficult to explain. In Future, you needed to line things up well, because the angle you jump off cannot be changed. This makes things a bit more frustrating, but it also means things like momentum and such are a bit more important. Future, in its turn, was a bit more free than the original. My point isn’t that it got worse, but that small things, like little restrictions, can be a source of frustration, but can also give a sense of mastery and uniqueness. Due to the double jump and manual techniques, the emphasis of Bomb Rush level design is slightly different, in that keeping the tricks going is the challenge. Whereas Jet Set Radio series, the tricks were more to feel cool and quickly move across the environment. This point is just a really specific detail about small changes in how games feel. There are small quality of life things, like how you don’t need to pick up spray cans to be able to spray tags. Also, you boost meter is built with tricks, not spray cans. So that aspect of finding spray cans, which could sometimes be annoying, no longer exists. Bomb Rush has collectables to get, and a new mission type, where you have to hit into a number of mascots while on the same combo. As in, you have to keep the tricks rolling and hit each of these things in one go. This is a cool idea that works well with the new mechanics. On the music front, I personally think the music isn’t quite as good as the Jet Set Radio games. It is still very good most of the time, but not quite to the same level. But Jet Set Radio is such a high bar that this would always be very difficult. I mention the story for the fact that it is a reasonable story that works pretty well. It is more involved, with quite a lot of cutscenes. But more than that, it has some ‘dream’ like levels that are very trippy and interesting to see and ride across. I just want to mention a move here. As far as I can tell you are never told this, maybe I missed it, but this move was really important in a few places. After you perform an attack, if you press the jump button at the end of the animation, with the right timing, you will perform an extra big jump which also knocks enemies up into the air. Overall, Bomb Rush Cyberfunk is a fun game that is certainly worth playing if you liked the Jet Set Radio series. It has its own little differences that make it a bit different as well.