Bomb Rush Cyberfunk

Bomb Rush Cyberfunk is the kind of game I’ve been waiting to play for two decades. Jet Set Radio Future was a truly formative game for me, and I’ve been waiting for years to play something that truly gets what made it work. While I typically find an attachment to nostalgia to be damaging to any work of art, Team Reptile has not let it bog them down. This is one of the freshest games you’ll play all year, and with its quality of life improvements and new modern flair, I think it has surpassed the games it was inspired by.

It’s easy to glance at Bomb Rush Cyberfunk and see a cheap imitation. A work whose value is found in what it takes rather than what it creates. But Team Reptile has proven that derivative art can surpass its inspirations. I can recall nearly half a dozen instances of me starting Jet Set Radio with the hope that it would finally click, that I could finally enjoy moving in that world as much as I enjoyed being in it, only to never make it past the second level. In a year chock full of landmark releases, I’m booting up Bomb Rush Cyberfunk again to make up for all the lost time, to play the game that I always hoped existed. Now that I have it, I simply just can’t get enough.

If you enjoyed Jet Set Radio, Bomb Rush Cyberfunk is the game for you. I wish it did a bit more to stand out, but we don’t really get many games like this, and Bomb Rush Cyberfunk is a polished and straight up fun experience with an amazing vibe and superb soundtrack. It is held back by some technical issues on Switch though.

Eerie and loving by turn, Bomb Rush Cyberpunk is a gloriously haunted video game.

Bomb Rush Cyberfunk is fresh, funky and full of incredible, yet slightly frustrating nostalgia.

The soundtrack and visuals are beyond reproach, and the mostly fun skate gameplay sees Bomb Rush Cyberfunk grappling with repetition and really annoying cops.

Bomb Rush Cyberfunk is the perfect spiritual successor to Jet Set Radio. Not only does it capture the idea of cruising the streets, but the intuitive controls and simple mechanics allow anyone to pull off impressive-looking tricks. Unfortunately, the combat is weak, and segments where this is at the forefront hinder the overall quality of the product. However, when you hurdle this bump, you’ll fall in love with the banging beats and addictive gameplay loop.

The visuals are too determined to mimic the past than impress in the present, the plot is awful fan fiction guff, and world feels utterly drab and lifeless. None of the areas I explored were memorable, and I had no desire to return to any of them once I’d moved on. The result is a game that clearly wants to be Jet Set Radio 3, and because we’re all so starved for more, we’ll lap it up like it is. But, ultimately, it’s not up to the same standards. I’d definitely back Sega giving Team Reptile the opportunity to make a genuine stab at a Jet Set Radio 3, as the love for the series oozes in every screen, but it needs the big budget that the series deserves. And, a vastly superior writing team.

No matter how excellent its soundtrack or sense of momentum may be, there’s no shaking the sense that Bomb Rush Cyberfunk is in a race against its own sense of nostalgia. The game rips, but more often than not it feels like that's because Jet Set Radio ran before it. That’s not to say it’s bad, but part of what makes Jet Set Radio so fun and unique is its raw originality. Bomb Rush Cyberfunk feels like a sequel in everything but name—for better and for worse. For every banger in its soundtrack, there’s a moment of jank or a feeling that this game hasn’t left 2000. Again, it’s still a great time, but it’s lacking that lightning-in-a-bottle feel that JSR had. That’s totally fine, and for people who missed out on it, this will feel much fresher.

It captures the soul of Jet Set Radio perfectly but with only a limited attempt to evolve the formula for modern times this feels uncomfortably trapped in the early 2000s.