Bomb Rush Cyberpunk is a spiritual successor to Jet Set Radio and Jet Set Radio Future, the latter of which is still sadly stuck on the Original Xbox, and now that Sega and Hideki Naganuma have a bad relationship will probably stay there banished for eternity sadly.

Bomb Rush Cyberfunk is a fantastic spiritual successor that provides exactly what fans of Jet Set Radio want, fun skating with funky DJ music, and awesome graffiti and races.

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While in terms of size, the game is small, in terms of how it consists of 6 locations in total:

- Bomb Rush Hideout: Hideout of the main characters, nice tutorial and hangout area.

- Versum Hill - Orangey hue city area with a train, mainly ran by the Franks gang.

- Millennium Square - City area with blue and white hue bright, and beautiful, connects to the Millennium mall mainly ran by the ECLIPSE gang.

- Brink Terminal - Green part of the city that contains an area that looks similar to SHIBUYA TERMINAL from JET SET RADIO/JET SET RADIO FUTURE. This area is also owned by the ECLIPSE gang.

- Millennium Mall - Huge mall with different levels in terms of the main entrance having 5 stories, as well as having a storage area, and the main huge mall area with hanging fish and rails. Mainly ran by DOT EXE gang.

- Pyramid Island - Industral Island shaped like a pyramid consisting of a Yellow hue, ran by the DEVIL THEORY gang.

- Mataan - Night time city, consisting of various colors, mainly dark blues, bright purples, greens, red hues, ran mainly by the FUTURISM gang
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The story is simple:

- You play as a strange guy named Faux who has been arrested by the New Amsterdam police station over information that will revealed later. You meat a cool dude named Tryce who wears a red jacket and uses a bike who agrees to help you out only if Faux joins his crew, he agrees. When escaping they encounter police jet pack operative named Riedvelt, who Faux fights and defeats. Afterwords when escaping Faux get's his head cut off by DJ CYBER who is apart of what is know as the BIG 3 in New Amsterdam of the most amazing "WRITERS" in the game.

-After getting his head cut off a robotic head is attached by a short dude named THE FLESH PRINCE, who grafts a robot head on FAUX's body. The robot's name is "RED" and he's not all as it seems. Red meets with Tryce who tells him what happened to the person who's head is missing and we learn that Faux is being held at the police force. However before Tryce and Red can go get the head, they need to own all of ALL CITY meaning taking overall the gang locations within ALL CITY. Red also meets a skater who's apart of the gang named Bel, who takes a liking to Red.

- Tryce tells Red about the 5 gangs they need to take out before they can go and confront the police. The 5 being:
1. THE FRANKS, 2. ECLIPSE, 3. DOT EXE, 4. DEVIL THEORY, 5. FUTURISM. Tryce also lets Red know the person who runs FUTURISM, DJ CYBER, is the one who cut off RED'S body original head.

- The Bomb Rush gang while on their way to face the FRANKS Red is trapped and forced to fight against Riedvelt and New Amsterdam police. After defeating her she flies off and Red reunites with Tryce and Bel and defeat and capture the Franks location. This is when DJ CYBER appears and sees that Faux's body has a new head, but realizes that "RED" is not as he seems, since Red contains memories of something of his past, associating it with him seeing Faux's memory with someone else.

- The gang go ahead and move on to conquer the ECLIPSE gang in Millennium Square and Brink Terminal. Red encounters a new type of police force, Snipers with main sniper Escher who is similar to Red in terms of his head, except instead of a Red robot head, his is white and he tells Red that they're similar with both of them having robot heads. Except something is off about Red, he isn't able to do robotic things like analyzing or anything of that sort.

- At Brink terminal they meet this weird claustrophobic masochist named Solace who has a connection with a man named "FELIX" and wants to help out the Bomb Rush Crew, though the gang ignores him over being weird.

- After defeating the Eclipse gang in Brink terminal, the Bomb rush gang celebrates, only for Red to see more context to the memory of his past, but is still unclear as to what he's remembering.

- After taking down ECLIPSE, the Bomb Rush Gang move on to try to defeat and capture Millennium Mall ran by the robot gang DOT EXE. Before entering Tryce, Bel, and Red see Solace hanging around the entrance letting them know what's up. Here they meet Vinyl who was seen hanging with DJ Cyber and the Futurism gang, and she decides to join the Bomb Rush Gang to help them out but also because she knows something about Red that Tryce and Bel don't.
After defeating DOT EXE gang, the gang is ambushed by New Amsterdam police using a MECH to try to capture and kill Red and co. After they defeat the police and later challenging and defeating DOT EXE, one the main DOT EXE gang member is killed by NEW AMSTERDAM police, and Red gains another memory of his past. However afterword, Red is attacked by ESCHER and is shot, only for it to be revealed that RED is not a robot at all, put someone elses head attaches on FAUX's body.

- We cut back to the gang hideout where they want to know who RED really is, and Vinyl explains what she knows but not everything. Tryce goes to find The Flesh Prince in order to have him save RED. After saving RED's Life, Tryce explains who's up next for the Bomb Rush Gang to overcome, that being DEVIL THEORY a gang wearing Red Armor with face masks that have Devil Mouths who are dirty when it comes to racing/scoring.

- After defeating Devil Theory at Pyramid Island, DJ CYBER reveals himself and captures VINYL and looks like he's about to kill her before RED decides to have a show down with Cyber, afterwords Cyber reveals the truth as to why he killed Faux and who Red is.

- We get the full memory of who Red is, Red is FELIX one of the Big Three members along with CYBER and FAUX. Faux was friends with Solace who saw what happened that day to Felix, while Felix was on a ladder graffitiing a billboard, Felix was there with him having a conversation, and how Felix was the "ALL CITY KING" out of jealous, Faux after asking Felix about his wing tattoo is told by Felix, it allows him to fly, not literally but metaphorically. Faux kicks the ladder from under Felix causing Felix to fall to his death into a fan decapitating him instantly. DJ CYBER sees Felix's head, and body and asks Flesh Prince who was there at the time, to save Felix.

- Red, now realizing who he is, is now pissed at the revelation that it was FAUX who killed him originally. Red is told by DJ CYBER and VINYL that Felix's head has been attached to the main server of the NEW AMSTERDAM police and he's going to sell out all the Writers and skaters, for the sake of being the All City King. Red, Tryce, Bel, Vinyl, and Solace all agree to head out to the final locations of ALL CITY MATAAN to defeat DJ CYBERS crew FUTURISM to run all city and later confront FAUX.

- After defeating FUTURISM Faux reveals himself in a Mech suit, later being by FELIX/RED and Co, only for Faux to upgrade himself into a giant snake like mechanical monster. Faux rips off Felix's/Red's head from Faux's old body and throws the body into the abyss. While Red/Felix on the brink of death, Faux decides to clear up loose ends and decides to take Solace since he was the final person who saw what he did to Felix.
Reidvelt shows up with a coffin and within it, is Felix's old body, the Bomb Rush gang attach Red/Felix's head to his original body and they go out to stop Faux for a final showdown.

- The gang defeat Faux with him pleading that "You betrayed me Felix, you knew I was the son of a police officer!"
With Felix headbutting his Red Robot head into Faux, shattering his robot head, revealing Felix's reattached and reformed self. Saying "You betrayed me first Faux" as Faux dies with his head falling into the Abyss.

- We cut to the end with Felix hanging out with the group with him rekindling his friendship with DJ CYBER who says, they're still rivals but he still has respect for Felix, however while Felix and the Bomb Rush Crew now own ALL CITY they won't be in charge for long, and that he'll be back as a rival. They're friendship and rivalry continues, as Felix goes back to dancing with Tryce, Vinyl, Bel, and Solace... the game ends :)

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The game has 3 unique styles of playing which essentially just means for the most part they all play the same but visually and stylistically play/look different:

- Skates: bringing that nostalgic trip with JET SET RADIO using skates

- Skateboards: a unique new way to play, best way I can describe it is it retains that JET SET RADIO style of play, mix with a bit of simplifies Tony Hawk gameplay.

- Bikes: bikes allowing for a unique way to play, while it doesn't change gameplay wise, is visually cool to see the difference in usage.

I do think it's cool that the game does has areas where if you want to obtain all collectibles, you need to use a specific type of traversal in order to unlock certain collectibles, I only wish the game allowed you to switch your skates/bicycles/skateboard from a menu or a inventory system for quick switches.

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The game has a total of 20 playable characters, 7 of which are in terms of main story, the other 11 being optional unlocks, and 2 being DLC characters:

- Red: Protagonist - Red Robot head on Faux's body and mainly uses a Skateboard [Story Protagonist and Main Character]

- Tryce: original leader of the Bomb Rush Crew wears a Red jacket and mainly uses a bike [Story]

- Bel: Ditzy blonde hair girl wearing a blue jacket and yellow boots, has a liking to Red. Uses skates primarily [Story]

- Vinyl: Wears a yellow onesie track suit with a blue jacket, has a side swept bluish/green afro, primarily uses a skateboard. [Story]

- Solace - Weirdo shirtless masochist wearing khakis and angel wings, has tattoos with crash test dummy symbols on his face and mainly has his eyes closed. He's a claustrophobic masochist and primarily uses skates. [Story]

Optional [During the Game]:

- Rave: Versum Hill - She wears orange jacket with a black tanktop with red pants and a headphones with a giant yellow diamond on her head. You meet her and she challenges you to tag the train, afterwords you meet her in the underground area where she has you try to beat her score, after which she joins your crew. She uses a BMX Bike as her primary ride.

- Mesh: Brink Terminal, wears a weird visor similar to VR GOGGLES, with a plain stripped shirt and brown shorts. and while in his side story you help him get his skateboard back, he primarily uses skates when you play as him.

- Shine: Millennium Mall - Meet her primarily in the biggest area in the Mall, you talk with her and she asks you to meet her at different locations, the final being at the warehouse area where she agrees to join your crew and mainly uses her BMX bike.

- Rise: Rise wears a giant snow jacket open with what looks like a black swimsuit underneath while wearing ski goggles. You meet her at the start of Pyramid Island during the story. She has you get 100 REP and later if you meet with her again she'll ask you to go to different locations on Pyramid island and take several pictures of her, afterword's she'll ask you to tag a specific graffiti spot and she'll join your crew.

Optional [Post-game]:

- Coil - Wears a weird ring on his back with an orange jacket, and a walkie-talkie like bluetooth on his right ear and has white hair. He wants you to do several things in terms of challenges, ending with him racing you, after words he joins your crew.

- FLESH PRINCE: Find him in the secret Franks hideout in Mataan and dance the same dance as him and he'll join your crew and be playable. Mainly uses skates.

- Reidvelt: meet with her a the same spot in Versum Hill where you fought her early on in the game, and there she will be ambushed by police and a cutscene will play, after defeating them, she will join your crew.

- Franks - Beat their highscore in Versum Hill Post game
- Eclipse - Beat their highscore in Brink Terminal Post game
- DOT EXE - Beat their highscore in Millennium Mall Post game
- DEVIL THEORY - - Beat their highscore in Pyramid Island Post game
- Futurism - Beat their highscore in Mataan Post game
- DJ CYBER - - Beat his highscore in Millennium Square Post game
- OLD HEADS - TAG ALL GRAFFITI SPOTS IN THE ENTIRE GAME and you unlock the OLD HEADs as playable characters.

DLC:
- Base - Robot wearing a Hat and red pants, uses mainly BMX Bike
- Jay - has long pig tails like Cammy from STREET FIGHTER, wears a light green midriff shirt with a light green face mask, and white pants. She uses mainly skates.

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The gameplay is simple, you go around essentially tagging the locations with unique graffiti in all locations, also while challenging against the other gangs after increasing your REPUTATION by tagging walls of unique style.
The game has 5 types of graffiti categories in which extra small is just a standard graffiti used by whichever character you're playing as, and is unique to them alone.
You then have Small, Medium, Large, and EXTRA LARGE graffiti's that allows to to create specific patterns of unique graffiti's you can collect throughout the game.
What's really cool as well is that you're allowed to stack the graffitis for cool combinations.

The game has these boost items that increase your boost. Unlike with JET SET RADIO where you have to collect spray cans, in this game you get infinite sprays. Some could see that as being easier than JET SET RADIO due to that game requiring you to collect spray cans in order to graffiti, I guess they wanted it so that it wasn't a hassle having to worry about both the amount of spray cans and boost you have. The blue and green balls are mainly used to keep your jet booster level up so you can use it to boost and be faster.

The game has a streak system that makes you want to continue your streak in order to get the high score in each location to unlock the achievement with a grind/ slide feature that allows for a bit of time to continue your streak incase you flubb a jump up, as well as the more tricks and traversal you do around the map, the more multipliers you can add on to your streak to increase the amount of total streak points you get in the location your in which is cool.

While each way of riding is not that unique apart from when used in very VERY Specific locations or requirements, having the option between a skateboard, a bike, and skates is awesome since while visually they're different, gameplay wise they aren't and while some could see that as bad, I think it's fine because it keeps up the high velocity and fun gameplay without a disadvantage as to which form of ride you decide to choose.

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The soundtrack is absolutely godly with so many amazing and great tracks to collect and listen through, the OST alone is fantastic and an amazing addition to HIDEKI NAGANUMA's history of JET SET RADIO and music as a DJ, along with the other additions in the game.

My Favorite songs from this soundtrack are [Star Indicates my most played and favorite ones]:

- GET ENUF [Main theme] - Hideki Naganuma⭐
- DA PEOPLE - Hideki Naganuma⭐
- I WANNA KNO - 2 Mello⭐
- STATE OF MIND - Charodey Jeddy⭐
- Condensed Milk - Cyber Milk
- Jack da Funk - Hideki Naganuma
- Big City Life ft OV - kidkanevil
- Two Days Off - Kilowatts
- Hwbouths - Knxwledge
- Plume - Legove
- Next to Me - Leopard Davinci & Louis 707⭐
- Funk Express - Proux⭐
- Feel the Funk - Sebastian Knight⭐
- Light Switch - SkyBlew
- You can say Hi! - Soia

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While the game can be seen as too short and have flaws and be made just to be a spiritual successor for the sake of memberberries, I think in general the game does a fantastic job of being a great spiritual successor that does thing to improve the franchise, a lot of people are hoping the game was bigger, but this is an INDIE company after all, and they're selling it at a reasonable price of $39.99.
While it does have flaws in terms of shortness and maybe gameplay being too simplified, I think it's fantastic for 3 reasons:

1. It gives fans of Jet Set Radio and Jet Set Radio Future a proper 3rd entry to some capacity
2. It introduces new fans to this and maybe going back to play JET SET RADIO and Emulating Jet Set Radio Future.
3. Provides another fantastic soundtrack in terms of Hideki Naganuma and others into the JET SET RADIO JET SET RADIO FUTURE CIRCLE
4. It's fun, thats the best a game can be, you can have a fantastic or bad story... but if the gameplays not fun that's where you lose people, and while the story here is fine, not amazing but simple... it helps the game since... the game knows we want awesome music with fun JSR/JSRF gameplay.

Call it bias, but based on everything I played, and the amount of enjoyment I got, I'm giving Bombrush Cyberfunk 5 out of 5, especially because of how much it brought me joy to replay something that pays homage and respect to Jet Set Radio and Jet Set Radio Future. Fantastic game, fantastic soundtrack, I highly recommend Bombrush Cyberfunk!

Reviewed on Sep 04, 2023


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