Bomb Rush Cyberfunk

I never had a Dreamcast, so only heard tales of of Jet Set Radio. And when the Xbox landed, it wasn't until my younger brother got one that I could get a taste of what it was. I was a Sega and PlayStation guy. My household holds that true today. Emulation is how I dabble in the stuff I missed.

And so when Steam recommended that I should wishlist Bomb Rush Cyberfunk, my interests were piqued. Because it looked an awful lot like a spiritual successor to Jet Set. But modern. Available on Steam. And working on Steam Deck (almost a must for any new PC game in my toddler-ridden household).

The primary archetype that this game follows that reminds you of yesteryear is the cel-shaded art style. This was super popular for a while, but died off as the technology got better. Mostly because cel-shading was artfully done (Killer7, Jet Set, etc.) or just a cheap way to get around technical limitations. The other, obviously, is that it's a skate, grind and challenge based game.

Hideki Naganuma even pops back to take on music duties for this one.

Mixing the art style, gameplay style, music and the near-future, kinda retro vibes, it's actually amazing that Team Reptile haven't received some snark from SEGA!

The game is set in New Amsterdam, which is wonderful as that's a city I adore and have been to a bunch of times for vacation and work recently. So all-in-all, with the entire package, I felt very at home. And despite this being "Cyberfunk," it gave me some much-needed respite from the heavy duty story and work I was doing in Cyberpunk.

The gameplay is as you'd imagine. Silky smooth grinding action mixed with challenging tasks to get to out-of-reach spots to collect items. Tony Hawk aficionados will be pleased. Though tricks, grinding, etc. might feel a little easy comparative to THPS die-hards.

This is a wonderful trip down memory lane on modern architecture. It's amazing SEGA never revived their own franchise, but honestly, with Bomb Rush, there's not much need. The team knocked it out of the park.