I was fully prepared to be a hater. Most times when people are like "they haven't made one of these games in forever so we're gonna make our own!" they kinda wind up falling completely flat on their face. Like the fanbase's idea of what makes a game special is so warped and different from what I would consider the actual game's strength. And no shade to Team Reptile, I love Lethal League, but going from a 2D pong game to a big open world 3D action/sports game seemed significantly harder to pull off.

But they did it! And they didn't just try to be Jet Set! And honestly, even though it's Jet Set aesthetically through and through, I think it's more akin gameplay wise to something like THUG! And I'm all for it!

The game oozes style, both visually and musically. Characters are animated, colors and bright, music is boppin. I have no notes honestly for what was done aesthetically. Like genuinely, the soundtrack speaks for itself. If I tried listing every song I loved I would just be copy-pasting the whole track listing. Actually no notes. Gameplay-wise, the zones are all varied and lively. New Amsterdam feels bustling with tons to do and explore. Mataan was my personal favorite zone, giving me big PSO Pioneer 2 vibes. Finding all of the nooks and crannies and getting to all the unlocks and bomb spots is a blast and I plan to go back and 100% everything. I especially love that all of the tags have artists directly credited in game. Graffiti is art!!

Game isn't perfect, though, and honestly, if I didn't prefer style over substance I think I would've been more severe in my criticism. The cutscenes are.... off. I don't know how else to describe it. They're janky and don't really flow and the music isn't really synched up as much as there's just music playing during them. They seem silent too, with little voice acting aside from grunts and barks, and now that I'm thinking about it, little to no sound effects? That might be the biggest issue. Actions in cutscenes feel like they lack weight. Camera cuts can be weird at points, but, again, small team going to a much more complex game than they've previously made so honestly I gave that a pass. It can be very jarring though.

My other biggest complaint is with combat in all forms. Cops in Jet Set Radio were invincible. You could spray them to get them off your tail long enough to bomb a spot that you needed or you could opt to just get to a location where they couldn't follow to shake them for a bit longer. Sure, some of the vehicles you could spray to put out of commission, but outside of the final boss, you could also just let them exist and avoid them. I like this use of cops more because it adds a lot to the routing you're doing mid-stage about how you can swerve and avoid and evade to get to where you need. (Maybe this was different in Future, I know Bomb Rush is more based on that than the original, but with Future being trapped on the original Xbox I haven't played it since I got rid of mine in, what, 17-ish years?) Obviously with Jet Set Radio being stage based however, that methodology wouldn't work for Bomb Rush, and for the normal cops, I didn't have a problem with them. I did as I would do in Jet Set and just skate and climb around them, doing a sick combo wallriding past where they could hit me and I felt cool. My issues arise with the multiple sections of forced combat. Beat up these cops, beat up these snipers, beat up this tank-bot, etc. I just don't think the game feels good when it comes to combat. It just feels like button mashing hoping you'll hit your enemy that you can't lock on to so when you do a sweep and they go flying you spend like 20 seconds trying to find them. It just isn't fun and not what the game excels at and I wish I wasn't forced to partake in a system that feels half-baked. The final boss was frustrating as well because for some reason they put you in a forced camera section? I don't understand the reasoning for this when you still have to swap between rails and are forced into freefall to land onto said rails that I struggled to land on because the camera it was locked to had NO sense of depth. Like I guess it was to try and show the scale of the boss? But the encounter would've been more enjoyable and just as awe-inspiring had I just been able to control the camera normally. Honestly, I probably would've even liked the fight. Instead the end of the game just leaves me with a sour taste in my mouth.

So even though I did find myself frequently going "this sucks" or "why did they do it like this" I still can't help but love the game. The parts they nailed, they NAILED. This game lives and dies by how hard it vibes, and it VIBES. If you look at any of my old reviews you'll see that strong style will ALWAYS trump substance for me and brother, Bomb Rush Cyberfunk IS style.