Bomb Rush CyberFunk Review on Xbox

Bomb Rush Cyberfunk is a 3D skateboarding game with an 90’s aesthetics art style.

The premise is you take control of Red, who recently lost his head and is now trying to get it back.

Battle rival crews and dispatch militarized police to conquer the five boroughs of New Amsterdam. Become All City.

The game boasts 5 main boroughs of the city to explore, hit graffiti spots and get REP. Recruit new members to your crew, get outfit colours and music to play on your flip phone. Whilst using skateboarding, inline skating or BMX style tricks to create large combos.

Accessibility

With regards to accessibility, there is a Few options here for those with motor, hearing or visual issues to amend to help play the game. There is controller re-mapping and camera sensitivity, but nothing else. Subtitles are on by default, but again there are no options to change the size. Until options are patched in, those with disabilities will struggle to play the game, which we hope some will come in on with a patch.

Gameplay

I’m someone who wanted to love skateboarding games like Tony Hawk, but it never clicked for some reason, no matter how hard I tried to get into them. I’m glad to say though, this was finally put to bed by Bomb Rush Cyberfunk. Touted as a blend of Tony Hawk Pro Skater and Jet Set Radio, the game shows its inspirations in full view for everyone to enjoy. Whilst the Jet Set Radio and its sequel Jet Set Radio Future, are truly Japanese in their approach, Team Reptile have gone fully New Amsterdam in this games current setting. Now I must point out that this is not a sequel to that series, but you’d be forgiven for thinking this was anything but that.

You start the game as a character called ‘’Faux’’ who escapes a police precinct after the system shuts down. Quickly you find another inmate called Tryce, and both make their way to escape being re-captured. This is effectively the games tutorial zone, where you learn to fight, skate, do graffiti, slide and perform tricks. After a bit of battle you manage to get to the roof top with your new friend and just when it looks like your free, a mysterious Character known as DJ Cyber, promptly cuts your head off with some sharp vinyl.

In any other game, this would be the end, but here, you wake up with a Cyberhead for a replacement and are promptly nicknamed ‘’Red’’. Its here that you agree with your new crew agree to get your head back to your body, which is currently being kept safe by your killer. There is a catch though, it soon transpires that DJ Cyber isn’t going to just hand it back, and so, you need to conquer five boroughs in abid to get an audience with DJ Cyber.

Conquering boroughs involve gaining REP, which is primarily done by spray painting or tagging over existing broughs graffiti, with your own. Sounds simple, but getting to these will take some fun obstacles to traverse, towers to climb, and rooftops to jump, before you can tag over them. Each tag requires you to put in a directional combo which then dictates a different tag of your choice. 

Once done, the new tag then provides you with rep, which once at a certain level, can then be used to challenge the current boroughs crew to stand-offs and also open up hidden areas. Hidden tags will also provide you with different graffiti you can choose from when tagging others. These can be brought up at anytime using your flip phone, should you forget the movement combination to create them.

Whilst you can run around these boroughs, its clear the best was is to use your skateboard. However, this is still a little slow, so you will need to boost your speed using your jetpack. The catch here is that you have a limited amount of boost available and the only way to increase said boost, is by doing tricks. Performing tricks and combinations thereof also increase the player's score, hence the Tony Hawk reference.

Why a players score? Well alongside doing minor challenges the current crews set you like combos to match, the end battle is beating the current crews score within two minutes. Through rail grinding, a variety of tricks, making use of boost, air dashes, and so on, you can rack up large points for a high score. Combine this with making hard turns on rails, going up ramps, and jumping on billboards, your score will then multiply.

If you finish this off with your manual movement, it will allow you to slide across the ground and gain points, so you can hit your next rail or wall to bounce on and keep that combo going. However, your combo will end if you hit a set of stairs, run out of stamina, or hit a wall that kills your forward movement to stop, so being aware of your surroundings is paramount. All of this sounds complicated but really isn’t with its beginner-friendly controller set-up that can evolve as much as you want it too.

Red, then gets lost inside a surreal cybernetic dream world when connecting to his rivals’ crews subconsciousness. Here you need to get to the end of this challenging level in order to progress. Once done the borough is yours and you learn a new dance move, for your trouble.

You start off with a crew of 3, but as you make your way through the game, more people will be added to your crew, and you can even find hidden ones scattered about the boroughs. These provide a much more diverse list of characters to play with, and are a superb touch. It also helps that each member has a different way of getting around. You see, your hero crew don’t just skateboard, they also have a wider selection to choose from, like rocket-powered rollerblades and bicycles to use. Each of the three choices shake up the tricks with different animations and even different hidden skills for use in the boroughs themselves.

Hidden skills like the skateboards pole raise, the rollerblades glass shatter or bicycles hidden doors often open up more graffiti options, clothing, music, and equipment item alternatives if you can find them. They are well hidden, and will often need to accumulate a good amount of boost, to get too. Should you wish to go quickly from borough to borough, you can use a taxi to fast travel, but only once you have activated the taxi post in each the area you wish to travel too.

Alternative equipment and clothing options, can then be swapped regardless of character at your hideout. You can also choose to swap characters in the boroughs themselves using a chequered dance mat found in each location. Whilst doing all this, you might think this is easy, however taken straight out of GTA, once you tag over another crews graffiti, you get a wanted star. This then calls the cops on you, who will try to hinder your progress. The more you tag, the more stars you accumulate and the tougher cop enemies come out to play from mechs, turrets, drones and riot officers.

Combat is probably the weakest aspect of the game, as the enemies themselves are more a nuisance and a hindrance, as you are trying to make your way to out of reach tag. However, at later stars, they can easily take down your health pretty quickly, and even fighting them wont do much to stop their attacks. 

What will stop them is a number of changing cubicles found around each area, which allows you to transform your current characters clothing to a different colour palette. This then resets the star counter and allows you to have a breather before continuing tagging. But so it cant be abused, once a cubicle is used, it will remain locked until another different one has been activated. This prevents spamming the cubicles to reset the wanted stars, and ensures you shall always need to be on the lookout for a cubicle. 

The story for me was entertaining enough, and a surprise near the end, was actually a surprise. The tone of a futuristic 90’s was enjoyable, with plenty of references to its inspirations. And whilst I’m not 100% sure, the ‘’can you dig it’’ comments from certain characters could easily be a easter egg to another beloved game / film, The Warriors.

Graphics

Much like the blocky cel-shaded aesthetic of the Jet Set Radio, the game has taken this inspiration and upgraded it to modern tastes whilst keeping the retro aesthetics that inspired it. The comic-like cel shading is crisp, blocky and visually bright. The Hard colours invigorate the environments and each borough is a joy to traverse regardless of its location. This is because no one gang is ever similarly clothed, everything is unique right down to their graffiti, and even their animations. Each crew dances with swagger, but the always to a different rhythm and style. Combine this with the character designs being angular and sharp, and it only showcases the differences further.

The level design themselves are intricate, and using the variety of different obstacles on show like hanging fish with grind rails for fins, or art statues as jump of points, there is a sense of a never-ending personal highway for you to rack up your score. Even within the big sprawling areas, there are a number of secrets to find, like upper ledges that appear out of reach or tunnels that tease you to explore.

The best however is the flip phone you can call up at any point, even mid combo, to check your progress, take a picture, play a different track and even remind yourself of the combination needed for your favourite graffiti. This simple, clean way to engage the AI is wonderful and showcases of the clever design in how to interact with the world around it, and personalise it at the same time.

Sound

The general music for this game is out of this world and benefits from a terrific soundtrack, including a nice entry from one of the Jet Set team members, Hideki Naganuma. Generally there is little to no voice work, with only inspired voice samples and sound effects when a cutscene activates. But this really isn’t an issue as you can make your way through the city listening to the funkiest jams from great DJs like 2Mello, and Skyblew.

Most of the songs are pre-compiled in CDs that seamlessly transition from one tune to the next, but if I want to pick my favourite song from the bunch and have it on repeat, that’s also an option. Collecting said CDs soon became my favourite thing to find, with each new soundtrack being a joy to open up and play. When there were times that the tracks repeated a little bit, the groove that they deliver, never not got me down from my hype.

My recommendation here would be pump these tunes at full settings on a good soundbar or surround system as you trick, grind and slide your way into ‘’All City’’.

Verdict

This leads me onto the rating of the game:-
Now I rate games in order of, avoid, on sale, great purchase and must own. My rating for Bomb Rush Cyberfunk is a "Must Own’’.

Playing the game is an absolute joy, and pushes the player to hit bit combos, search for all the hidden collectibles and generally enjoy what is on offer without little restrictions. The freedom, the movement and sound just oozes a franchise that needs to continue.

The game is currently priced on Xbox at £34.49 or approx. $40 and depending on skill and patience would give you about 10+ hours worth of gameplay. Due to number of collectibles, extra characters and achievements for high combo scores, this will add another 10+hours. There is also game + content in the game in the form of harder challenges and even new characters to unlock, with the hint of dlc coming soon.

If you starting to look into the skateboarding game genre, or a fan of the original Jet Set Radio franchise, this is perfect for your collection. Whilst some may see this as nostalgia bait, Team Reptile has created something fresh that pays homage to its inspirations and gives newer players a chance to have its own fandom grow.