Bomb Rush Cyberfunk, a game released to much anticipation from Jet Set Radio fans, is an insane experience filled with style and substance. Read our review to see if the game is worth your time and money.
Bomb Rush Cyberfunk Review and Score Explanation
Bomb Rush Cyberfunk Review Video
Bomb Rush Cyberfunk Score Explanation
| Overall | Bomb Rush Cyberfunk is an amazing product of love and nostalgia, considered as the spiritual successor of Jet Set Radio. But despite emulating the cult classic, it still manages to set itself apart with its theme and much better gameplay experience compared to the original. It's easily one of the best indie games this year. |
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| Story | Despite its gameplay being predominantly about performing tricks and committing urban vandalism, Bomb Rush Cyberfunk has a surprisingly, if not strangely profound, story. The game has a lot of strange, futuristic existential crises, which is quite jarring considering its heavy 90s theme. |
| Gameplay | Rarely does a game that isn't open-world present its players with the kind of freedom BRC does. Players can easily lose track of time simply traversing the map and filling the streets with graffiti. However, its combat system leaves a lot to be desired. |
| Visuals | The game is visually designed to take you back to the late 90s. The character designs, color palettes, cel-shading, and even the number of polygons on the models are a throwback to the classics we used to play on the Dreamcast. Of course, its quirky appearance was done on purpose as the game still renders at very high resolutions just fine, with crisp models and beautiful landscapes. It's an amazing achievement to get a product that looks so modern and so vintage all at the same time. |
| Audio | Bomb Rush Cyberfunk features incredible tunes as you grind on every rail in sight. However, it does lack many things you would expect from such a game, especially at its $39.99 price point. For one, the voice acting is limited to character vocalizations. There's also a complete lack of any engaging sound effects for combat. And its music, though wonderful, isn't numerous enough to encompass more than just scenario themes. |
| Value for Money | If you're a fan of these games, then BRC's $39.99 price tag is definitely worth it. Having a decent story on top of great gameplay, audio, and amazing visuals shouldn't be worth considering otherwise. However, if you're entirely new to these, perhaps waiting for a discount might serve you better. |
Bomb Rush Cyberfunk Review: This Game Earns Its Rep
When I heard that Bomb Rush Cyberfunk (BRC) was basically Jet Set Radio (JSR), I was immediately hesitant to review the game. I just didn't think I would do it justice as someone who has only heard of the game. But after a bit of thinking, I realized that my lack of experience with BRC's source material meant that I could give an opinion without having rose-colored glasses to pull its scores up.
While I have never played Jet Set Radio, I have played quite a lot of Tony Hawk's Pro Skater games (3 and TH Underground were my favorites, not so much the others). And with that meager credential to my name, my general verdict of BRC's gameplay is thus:
It's insanely good.
The story follows the lives of the Bomb Rush Crew as they attempt to conquer all of the boroughs and become the top crew of Amsterdam. To achieve this, the protagonists must gather enough reputation from each area to attract the attention of the resident rival crew and demonstrate their skills in roller sports. You, the player, must learn how to ride so that every action you make overflows with style and variety.
BRC's learning curve is steep. You can’t become complacent by just performing the same tricks in a row. To compete against the increasingly skilled crews in New Amsterdam, you have to learn to add variety to your routine by taking every opportunity to show something new. This means it’s not a game you can just press A and cruise through, but the payoff for mastering every trick of the trade is immensely satisfying, allowing you to flex on your opponents continuously without making each sequence stale.
The game, of course, isn’t without its faults. I found it jarring with how it forces you to perform tricks regardless of situation or context, such as automatically making you grind on rails even when you're barefoot and are just trying to go somewhere else.
The combat experience is also notably terrible, lacking variety as well as sufficient visual and auditory feedback. Many who are also into action games will quickly notice how lacking it all feels. But regardless, BRC is still a fantastic game that's made a lot of the right decisions.
Bomb Rush Cyberfunk Full Game Review
Pros of Bomb Rush Cyberfunk
| Things Bomb Rush Cyberfunk Got Right |
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 The Map Is Your Playground 90s Aesthetic Done Right A Cast of Wildly Relatable Folk |
The Map Is Your Playground
Recently, players have come to expect open-world games to deliver the most freedom regarding gameplay opportunities. An excellent example of this would be Skyrim's incredibly vast world allowing its players to do everything from scale mountains with their mounts to skydive off cliffs (to their deaths).
BRC isn't an open-world game. It is close to one, though, allowing you to go explore each area, all separated by our good old friend, the Loading Screen. These areas are laden with rails to grind, walls to ride, poles to scale, and wires to traverse. In fact, you could even grind on rails hanging upside-down. Weird, but okay!
You can basically spend the entire game racking up insane amounts of points without ever touching the ground normally, like the rest of the normies. To make the movement system even more dynamic, the game provides a jetpack that allows you to go blazing fast across rails or reach places an average jump would ordinarily never reach.
All of the tools provided to you are used for one thing: to earn Rep. In BRC, all of your urban tricks and graffiti are done to increase your reputation and challenge the rival crew in control of the area. Whether you play as Red with his skateboard, Bel with her rollerblades, or Tryce with his bike, the resulting experience is an enjoyable, though somewhat morally questionable, spree across a city, through police officers, and into rival territories.
Morally questionable because what they are doing is technically illegal. But that doesn’t mean we can’t beat up the police for doing it.
Wait, are we the bad guys?
90s Aesthetic Done Right
Playing BRC is a treat, not only for its non-stop styling action, but also for its visuals. The graphics, models, and the game's overall theme place you into an alternate version of the 90s where people can have their entire heads replaced with robots at the right price. Oh, and they still use flip phones with keypads despite that.
As with any 90s game, or at least any game that aims to look like one, the character models in BRC intentionally have very low polygon counts. In fact, their mouths don't move when they're talking at all, adding to the illusion of a vintage game in modern times. These characters roam a vibrant, cel-shaded city, replete with signs of human activity. It adds to the immersion and gives the game an excuse to place an abundance of rails to grind on and obstacles to overcome.
With such a convincing depiction of a colorful world of roller sports and breakdancing, mixed with some funky grooves, how can anybody doubt the game's creative direction?
A Cast of Wildly Relatable Folk
For most of the game, you can play as either Red, a man who quite literally lost his head but is a highly skilled skateboarder despite suffering from amnesia, Tryce, a man on a mission to fulfill his promise to conquer all rival crews, or Bel, the phone-addicted lady that's more than a match for any crew leader.
Of course, you can unlock more characters to play as you progress through the main campaign, such as Rave and Shine, for up to a staggering 20 different playable characters, and two extra ones unlocked via DLC. But the main crew of three are still the centerpieces of the story. And, oh boy, are they a bunch of lovable delinquents.
None of the main cast plays the part of an unrealistic idealist. Their thoughts are grounded by their experience on the streets. Most anybody could relate to how they strive to back each other up, despite being in such a hostile social environment. Rival crew leaders will even offer you thoughtful advice on how to succeed, and help you out during times of great distress. It’s an incredible depiction of how, regardless of where you’re from or which group you ride with, everybody here still strives to achieve a form of coexistence.
The compelling main antagonist is an amazing dude with heaps of character building. Learning about his history is anything but boring, and, in fact, adds to the character development of the main crew at the same time.
Cons of Bomb Rush Cyberfunk
| Things That Bomb Rush Cyberfunk Can Improve |
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Boring Combat |
Boring Combat
One thing that struck me as particularly disappointing with Bomb Rush Cyberfunk's gameplay is its combat. Although it does have its fun mechanics, such as allowing you to use your spray paint to momentarily faze enemies and even vandalize them at times, the vast majority of the game's combat is a dull beat 'em up with a severe lack of moves and sound effects.
While one could argue that combat isn't the point of a game like BRC, the fact of the matter is that it's there, it’s often, and it's not good.
Each playable character only has a minimal number of attacks they can perform, which often ends in a simple "get away from me" attack that ends up knocking the enemy far away. While this may give you some much-needed space to breathe, it also means that painting graffiti on your enemies (it’s just fun to do) becomes much harder, since the window of opportunity to do so is just a few frames. You could also "style" on your enemies by chaining combos, but there's not much point to it when the outcome doesn't actually change; your enemies will still end up getting knocked out regardless of whether you beat them up with paint on their uniforms or not.
Boss fights are even worse; they're mostly just a slog. Flying enemies, in particular, are a chore to defeat since you'll often have to grind on rails up a few floors just to reach them. And even then, you sometimes won't reach them since they can fly everywhere.
The game also has a police response system while you’re out of your hideout. You can think of it as the equivalent of GTA's Wanted Level, but instead of increasing due to repeatedly committing different crimes, it's only affected by you painting graffiti or resisting arrest. While the response to resisting arrest is understandable, since enforcement tends to increase when you avoid the law, the former is questionable. After all, they'll eventually resort to using stationary turrets, riot police, and even actual snipers to take you down. All for painting graffiti.
Note that you can get those to spawn even when you just run around painting walls. Like, really? Lethal response against a man with a paint can? While you would expect the game's story to make sense of all this, it doesn't. In fact, it just makes things more confusing.
Oh, and, as you can imagine, fighting snipers, who are always on high overlooking positions, suck. It’s such a hindrance that it might have been better to just remove the combat aspect entirely. Or maybe have the police challenge you to a skateboarding match instead, just to make the gameplay more engaging while keeping with the themes of the game.
Although, to be fair, that would probably require them to rethink the story a bit, as the plot does support the heightened response to vandalism. I still don’t believe it warrants lethal action, but there is technically a plot-based justification for it.
Bomb Rush Cyberfunk Overview & Premise
Bomb Rush Cyberfunk follows the story of Red, "just" a robot head attached to the body of a legendary graffiti artist. He goes on a journey to find his real head and learn about his past, perhaps even the meaning of life. To aid him in his journey are Tryce and Bel, who both aim to become the top crew in all of New Amsterdam. Due to their circumstances, their goals align, and they become a close-knit crew working together to achieve their goals.
Who Should Play Bomb Rush Cyberfunk?
Bomb Rush Cyberfunk is Recommended if You Enjoy:
• Jet Set Radio
• Hover
• Tony Hawk games
Bomb Rush Cyberfunk is a game that truly feels like it's the successor to Sega's Jet Set Radio (where's our sequel, Sonic?). Thus, anybody who has enjoyed the original game it was based on will surely not regret picking BRC up as their new game. Otherwise, those who like similar games, such as Hover and Tony Hawk, will also regret not getting BRC.
Is Bomb Rush Cyberfunk Worth It?
Quite Worth Spending Your Deck Money
At just $39.99, the game offers a dozen hours of replayable fun. However, its design lacks other aspects, such as a passable combat system, adequate voice acting, and more. If you're a fan of Jet Set Radio or other similar games, then it's well worth the full price. But for those new to the franchise, waiting for a sale might do you better.
Although, honestly, just getting the game because it's much better than many of the Tony Hawk's Pro Skater games is certainly a justifiable reason. If you’re looking for your next hit of an action or RPG title, maybe this time with a funky twist, this ain’t it. People who are looking for a more casual weekend pick up, this is probably a good purchase for you.
How Bomb Rush Cyberfunk Matches Up to Recently-Released Games
| Games That Came Out Recently | Why Get Bomb Rush Cyberfunk? | Why Get the Other Game? |
|---|---|---|
 HoloCure |
Bomb Rush Cyberfunk is a nostalgic trip through 90s gaming, but with modernized gameplay and controls that are both engaging and immersive. This game is an indie gem for anybody who likes roller sports, or really, anybody who wants to try a game with immense amounts of freedom. | For one, it's free. Second, HoloCure is an amazingly addictive game for those who enjoy top-down shooters and reverse bullet hell games like Vampire Survivors. It potentially offers dozens of hours of gameplay and an opportunity to immerse yourself in one of the most popular vtuber franchises in the world. |
 Remnant 2 |
Aside from lacking in its fighting mechanics, BRC offers a very polished and fast-paced gameplay that's both accessible and enjoyable for practically any and every audience. Its advantage is more towards how open the map is for every player to explore in their own, fun ways. | Those who desire a more challenging and action oriented experience should consider Remnant 2 more than the former. It has amazing gunplay, replayability, and customizability that any player can immerse themselves in for hours. |
 Baldur’s Gate 3 |
BRC is an incredible game about styling on your enemies' turf while being plagued by an existential crisis. Though the gameplay loop is repetitive, it sustains engagement by creating increasingly more challenging maps to explore and enemies to beat. | Baldur's Gate 3 is basically the best game for TTRP enthusiasts, or CRPG fans in general. It offers more than just an open area to explore, as the game tries to anticipate your every move to everything. It is considered by many as the peak of RPGs at the moment. |
How Bomb Rush Cyberfunk Matches Up to Similar Games
| Games Similar to Bomb Rush Cyberfunk | Why Get Bomb Rush Cyberfunk? | Why Get the Other Game? |
|---|---|---|
 Hover |
BRC's gameplay oozes style. In fact, that's basically the point of the game. Out-styling your opponents by pure skill results in such a wonderful satisfaction that it's hard to put the game down once you've got a grip on its controls. | If you desire a blatantly more futuristic depiction of parkour and roller sports, complete with gratuitous neon lights and bleak, gray walls, then Hover is definitely the game for you. |
 Tony Hawk: Shred |
Get BRC. It's far more polished, enjoyable, and wackier than this soulless product. | Well… if you have a Wii, already have the game with you, and can’t spare $39.99 to buy a much better game, then sure. Honestly though, just get BRC. |
 SkateBIRD |
Crew battles, where two groups fight for whoever can flex the hardest, is an extremely enjoyable climax to most of the game's chapters. On top of that, BRC offers some deep philosophical side that's enjoyable in its own right. | Skating as a small bird is hard to match (because you can’t be a bird). If you’re interested in this cute rendition of Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater, then do give the studio some support. |
Bomb Rush Cyberfunk Trailer
Game8 Reviews
Bomb Rush Cyberfunk Product Information
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| Title | BOMB RUSH CYBERFUNK |
|---|---|
| Release Date | August 18, 2023 |
| Developer | Team Reptile |
| Publisher | Team Reptile |
| Supported Platforms | Switch, PC, PS4, PS5, Xbox Series X|S, Xbox One |
| Genre | Action, Indie, Lifestyle, Platformer, Sports |
| Number of Players | 1 |
| ESRB Rating | T |
| Official Website | Bomb Rush Cyberfunk Website |
