If I wanted to switch up my gear, I could head back to the hideout, where the bike, skates, and skateboard were all patiently waiting for me to take them out for a spin. I could grab CD collectibles spinning around each level to broaden the selection of tunes as I progressed through the demo. In the middle of a run, I was able to stop and pop open the navi-menu, which acts like a smartphone, to change outfits or music tracks. If I found any spots where I could spray a tag, all it took was getting close to the highlighted spot and moving the thumbstick around in a quick mini-game to cover the area. One time, I defied gravity by grinding up a pole, following the rail around sharp corners, jumping and boosting across a gap, wall-riding across a billboard, and then launching myself up a half-pipe. Whether I put on some inline skates, hopped onto a BMX-style bike, or rode a skateboard, I found tricky lines where I could grind rails and power lines while popping sick manuals and 360-degree tricks for long strings of stylish combos. "Humming The Baseline" Pop out that flip-phone to change your beats. A handy boost meter also lets me dash quickly around the map and connect tricks together that wouldn’t normally be feasible. Between the inside of a wide-open shopping mall and an adjacent lot that was pretty much a skate park where Red’s crew hangs out, I had plenty of space to shred. The demo I played didn’t go through much of the story at all, choosing instead to throw me straight into the deep end in what was essentially a free mode. If Red can spray graffiti all over the city - and look stylish while he does it of course - his crew will earn the Rep they need to gain control of the streets. Along with members Tryce and Bel, he hopes to tag the walls of New Amsterdam while discovering the one responsible for removing his head. It stars a graffiti writer named Red whose head is replaced by a robotic one, in perhaps a nod to Cantido Joseph Nandaba from the anime FLCL, and joins the Bomb Rush Crew in search of his roots. "Shape Da Future"Īs a refresher, Bomb Rush Cyberfunk plays pretty much exactly the way you expect a funky-fresh Jet Set Radio sequel would. Now slated for release on both Switch and PC via Steam, the game showed off a hands-on demo at the Day of the Devs booth at GDC 2023, where I had the chance to take it through its paces. It suffered a series of setbacks since then, being pushed out of its 2021 launch window as a timed Nintendo Switch exclusive in 2022, before being delayed once again in August 2022 to the vague window of summer 2023. Developer Team Reptile first announced this spiritual successor to the Jet Set Radio series (because for some reason Sega just won’t do it) back in July 2020. Literally and stylistically.After three long years, Bomb Rush Cyberfunk is finally nearing the finish line. We’ve seen gifs of this one floating around on social media for a little while and, now that it has officially popped its head over the parapet, we are pleased to say Bomb Rush Cyberfunk looks awesome.ĭon’t expect to see Bomb Rush Cyberfunk release this year – this year is “unlucky” according to the developer – but we’ll see it in the future. Now here’s where Bomb Rush Cyberfunk earns its spurs as a spiritual successor: the game is “set to the musical brainwaves of Hideki Naganuma”, composer of the Jet Set Radio and Jet Set Radio Future soundtracks. It’s all there, right? The chunky, funky visuals, the sliding and grinding, the graffiti tagging and, of course, the music. That being said… doesn’t Bomb Rush Cyberfunk look like a spiritual successor loving homage to Jet Set Radio? Beware anyone who uses it as their sole marketing gambit!) It’s often used as a simple elevator pitch for a concept, to ground it in something familiar, but can also be used to try and cling onto the coattails of what went before without any effort or legitimacy. There are always video games where you look back on them fondly and think, why hasn’t someone made another one of those yet? Sometimes you’ll get an official follow-up – like this year’s brilliant Streets of Rage 4, a sequel some 26-years coming – but more often than not, we have to make do with so-called “spiritual successors”, like Monster Boy or Two Point Hospital. But not Jet Set Radio Future – Bomb Rush Cyberfunk will thankfully feature tagging! (It’s a whole thing, don’t even worry about it.)
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