Bomb Rush Cyberfunk Review

I never played Jet Set Radio and I really think I should've because it felt like in order to full appreciate this game, I need to have an established connection to it. I played Bomb Rush Cyberfunk because I thought it would get me into this kind of game and well, not really. I don't think this game is outright terrible and I was able to get to the end after all but at the same time, I haven't played a game in such a long time that I geniunely wanted to give up playing at multiple points.

Anyways I'll start with what I liked, the game oozes style and is great to look at, the characters look vibrant and can be pretty expressive, the animations can look great both during cutscenes and gameplay. The fact that there is enough plot to get me through the game was nice, since my big issue with Tony Hawk Pro Skater games is the lack of plot and how much of the game's challenges can feel meaningless as a result. I do wish there was more voice acting but what is here is impressive from a presentation standpoint.

The game also has a very forgiving checkpoint system and for the most part isn't too hard to the point where I wanted to drop it. The Pyramid Island section and the DJ Cyber boss fight especially made me want to quit but I held on since the game never overly punished me upon dying. The music at times can be pretty good but it can also get infuriating to listen to after a certain point since the game to me can get very one note and the lack of different tracks especially that you have to find in the overworld only adds to that. Either there should've been more tracks composed without finding or just make generic ambient techno music.

Might as well get to the parts I am lukewarm on and wasn't big on. Like I said before, the game can get very one note, the game feels way too long, there's 5 boroughs when really there should've been 3-4 especially when the game reuses objectives and ideas so excessively

Every BRC chapter plays out like this, you tag some areas with graffiti, then challenge some of your rival gangs to do some platforming challengings or points battles, then fight a boss, fight the cops, get into a crew battle, then do a dream level, some of these will get mixed around but it plays out like I described. BRC loses steam pretty fast which is why there should've been 1 borough cut out since the game can get repetitive and not enough new is thrown to make the moment to moment gameplay interesting. If you enjoy this style of platforming then is probably going to be fine for you but this leads to my next issue:

The moment to moment platforming especially when the game forces you to be precise can make the game utterly infuriating to play. BRC in certain levels requires you to be more precise than a lot of 3D platformers. They are kind if something like OlliOllie World was made in 3D and while this sounds great on paper, in practice it leads to a lot of trial and error, for example there are moments where I jump and either there is a 50-50 chance I make the jump or fall to my death, half the time, I had so many problems just trying and hoping I can align my jumps right so I can land and not fall to my death. The dream levels are especially like this as well as Pyramid Island. Which requires a lot of precision platforming. A solution to this and this might be scoffed at is to have the grind magnetism be more forgiving and requires the player to be less precise and have it be less of a game of moving the left analog stick left and right and be a guessing game if you are going to make the grind or not. If your health didn't rengen after you fail a jump as well as the forgiving the checkpoint system, I would've dropped the game sooner.

Combat isn't very good either but at the same time, it's mostly easy and the regen health helps make it easier all though the police and combat could've been better like for example, why not grinding have you be harder to hit or build up a shield? Being good at grinding and chaining up points makes fighting the authorties easier or gives you more means to dispatch or avoid them. Felt like a missed opportunity.

Overall, BRC was a game I wanted to enjoy much more than I did, while it isn't terrible by any means, I wanted it to be good enough that I wanted to check out the Jet Set series but instead, I kind of don't even want to touch them now. Playing this game is an uphill battle if you never had an attachment towards Jet Set.