HYPERFUNK is set in a world where various “graffiti crews” are caught up trying to interpret the Hyper, an “online space.” Like Bomb Rush Cyberfunk, the Jet Set Radio-inspired cel-shading is on point, and you can choose between skateboards, BMX, rollerblades, and more to traverse the city.

However, you also have a boost pack, which is fueled by performing tricks. Higher trick combos equal faster boost speeds, but there’s also multiplayer support where crews can battle it out in real-time. There are four types of graffiti to choose from, but if you want to explore the city, unlocking new styles and music tracks, that’s also an option.

Stay tuned for more details in the future, and in the meantime, check out our review for Bomb Rush Cyberfunk. It’s not quite on the level of Sega’s classic franchise, but it still offers an enjoyable time.

"Story-wise, at least, Bomb Rush Cyberfunk does a lot to separate itself."

From almost every angle, Bomb Rush Cyberfunk is an homage to the adventures of Beat and the GGs. That’s more than enough for some players, who want to recapture that same magic that Jet Set Radio offered all those years ago. For those seeking a true-blue sequel or something that expands on the brilliance of its inspiration, it’s a tougher recommendation. At the end of the day, it ultimately depends on what you want from the experience.

Story-wise, at least, Bomb Rush Cyberfunk does a lot to separate itself. Yes, you’re in a crew that’s competing against others for territory, but you’re not just automatically the good guys. Instead, you start as Faux, a mysterious individual and member of the Big 3 in a police lockup. The Big 3 are a fairly big deal in New Amsterdam – they rule the five boroughs yet are each other’s biggest rivals.

After being set free by Tryce, Faux is decapitated by another member of the Big 3 – DJ Cyber, who heads Futurism, his own crew. He awakens in a hideout with Tryce and Bel present, inhabiting the same body but a brand new cyberhead, going by Red and seeking to recover his original head and memories. The Bomb Rush Crew set their sights on All City, hoping to compete with DJ Cyber while solving the mystery of the Big 3’s fall.

"Players start in their hideout and venture to a rival gang’s territory. You’ll explore the borough, tagging graffiti over the latter’s own to earn Rep and establish your presence."

It’s an interesting journey of self-discovery, digging through memories and discerning one’s identity, which ventures to some incredible strange places within Red’s mind. The story is told through extensive cutscenes with some well-rounded characterization. Tryce is laid back, but serious when it comes to getting the job done. Bel may seem preoccupied with her phone yet otherwise enthusiastic with her crew. Meanwhile, Red is an enigma, trying to sort out his new life.

The rival crews are also brimming with personality, whether it’s the intimidating Eclipse or the toxic Eclipse. I’m somewhat partial to the Oldheads – an ageing crew that touts itself as “old school” (don’t judge me) while mediating Crew Battles. DJ Cyber fills the role of an over-the-top villain quite well, though it’s clear there’s more going on than meets the eye.

As prominent as Bomb Rush Cyberfunk’s story is, it’s shockingly simple in the execution. Players start in their hideout and venture to a rival gang’s territory. You’ll explore the borough, tagging graffiti over the latter’s own to earn Rep and establish your presence. They’ll blow you off at first, but complete individual tasks for different crew members – from earning a 5x multiplier to reaching a set score within the time limit and a Crew Battle begins.

"Compared to Jet Set Radio, the controls in Bomb Rush Cyberfunk make it extremely easy to jump in. Everything, from grinding to performing tricks, feels fluid and responsive."

This is where your crew must score more points than the other in two minutes. It’s somewhat of a test of your knowledge of a level, but considering the game’s overall challenge, leaning corners and riding walls during grinds makes it easy to rack up the multipliers necessary for success.

Of course, you have some run-ins with the police here and there, but that’s more or less the same formula. It can feel monotonous, though levels are fun, whether it’s exploring downtown and grinding on tram tracks or bouncing off cars and navigating bus depots. They become more intriguing as time goes on with a decent sense of scale, as you mentally map out the best ways to reach certain spots for graffiti. You also have little signposts to hit consecutively to unlock different outfits for characters, different graffiti designs to unlock.

Compared to Jet Set Radio, the controls in Bomb Rush Cyberfunk make it extremely easy to jump in. Everything, from grinding to performing tricks, feels fluid and responsive. It does take away somewhat from the challenge, but it’s not the worst trade-off, and unique moves for each character – from Red performing a Manual on his skateboard to Bel sliding to keep a combo going – add a bit more flavor. There’s also the Boost Pack, which allows for mid-air dashes and quick boosting on the ground. Performing tricks or collecting specific items restores Boost, and overall, it adds some much-needed bursts of speed when exploring the environment.

"It’s not trying to break the mould so much as to cater to those who love Jet Set Radio, which I can respect."

The tagging could have been more involved – there’s no fail condition when starting one. Move the right stick to each point on-screen to make a design, and you’re done, to the point where I randomly wiggled it around to get it done quicker. The so-called combat can also feel a bit awkward at times. Kicking off enemies and spraying them looks neat, but awkwardly kicking around when surrounded less so.

At least the cops offer some interesting challenges, like turrets that can chain you down, necessitating different tricks to get free. There are larger bosses to tackle, and while few and far between, they do spice things up further.

Overall, Bomb Rush Cyberfunk more or less achieves what it sets out to be. It’s not trying to break the mould so much as to cater to those who love Jet Set Radio, which I can respect. Some more variety to the gameplay and additional content would have been nice, though.

If Bomb Rush Cyberfunk achieves anything, it’s in proving that there’s truly no such thing as “The End” on the streets. It’s a story that will live on, hopefully creating as many interpretations of Jet Set Radio’s legacy as it does glorious homages. Maybe it could serve as a base for Team Reptile to flesh out its ambitions and flex its design muscles. For now, I’m content in basking in the nostalgia, even if it doesn’t outright transport me back to the glory days of the Dreamcast.

This game was reviewed on the PlayStation 5.

The release trailer for Bomb Rush Cyberfunk does a great job of showing off the general vibe that the game is going for, giving us a look at its gameplay and customisation options. The trailer also shows off that, unlike Jet Set Radio, players aren’t limited to using roller blades in Bomb Rush Cyberfunk. Players can instead choose between skates, a skateboard, or even a bicycle.

Bomb Rush Cyberfunk was announced back in 2021, where it was also revealed that the game would be a timed console exclusive for the Nintendo Switch. The game is slated to get a release on PS4, PS5, Xbox One, and Xbox Series X/S on September 1.

For more details about the cel-shaded game about skating, doing tricks, and spraying graffiti, here’s everything you need to know about Bomb Rush Cyberfunk.

Bomb Rush Cyberfunk is inspired by Jet Set Radio, from the cel-shaded style to the soundtrack by composer Hideki Naganuma. It sees players choosing a crew member, exploring the streets, tagging areas and earning rep to challenge whoever controls that territory. Inline skating is only one mode of transport, as you also have BMX and skateboarding.

A robust trick system with wall-running, grinding and more are also included, and successfully stringing tricks and graffiti earns a higher score. Combos also provide a boost to your speed, and there’s even Bomb Rush Mode for unlimited amounts of boosting.

Check out our feature for more details on the game. You can also view more gameplay here.

Story

While Bomb Rush Cyberfunk’s story might not be the reason you would want to pick up this game, the developers seem to have done a mostly good job of crafting a tale that will guide you through this adventure with reasonable motivations and conflicts. You will be stepping into the shoes of Red who used to spray graffiti on walls across the city, but now he has a replacement AI head in place of his face for some reason. The story revolves around trying to find the culprit who took Red’s head in the first place, which will take you through different districts of the city as you spray graffiti and grind on rails to get to the bottom of it all. Again, it’s not a story that’s going to win any awards – but it just might be interesting enough to keep you going through to the end credits.

Art Style & Inspirations

Bomb Rush Cyberfunk is heavily inspired by SEGA’s work on the Jet Set franchise, and the complete absence of that franchise for decades at this point makes this the perfect remedy for those wanting to quench the thirst for similar games. And much like Jet Set Radio, Bomb Rush Cyberfunk also uses a cel-shaded art style to depict its funky world – complete with all the popping colours and cartoony character models that come together to make for some absolutely gorgeous visuals. While it might not compare to many current-gen releases in terms of raw fidelity, it certainly has an inherent charm that makes it stand out against the crowd.

Grinding Mechanics

As you can already gauge from the trailers and gameplay footage, the moment-to-moment gameplay revolves around grinding on rails as you try to build momentum and perform all sorts of tricks by chaining acrobatic moves with one another. Furthermore, you can also run alongside walls, slide for great distances, or even do a swift dash in the air to cover large gaps. Suffice it to say it looks absolutely slick, and Team Reptile has done a great job of nailing the game feel in this aspect – and everything from the animations to the feedback works in cohesion to create a smooth-flowing gameplay loop that’s just enjoyable at its core.

Gameplay Variety

Of course, just grinding on rails whilst wearing your regular inline skates is bound to get boring after a while. Thankfully, Bomb Rush Cyberfunk features 3 different modes of movement – namely inline skates, skateboards, and BMX-style bikes. You can use any of the three options to glide across the environments, and stunts for each will be different with unique animations that should help keep things interesting and induce a level of variety in the gameplay as well.

The REP System

As fun as just grinding through environments and spraying graffiti on walls might be, doing it over and over again wouldn’t make much sense unless you are working towards a larger goal. And that’s where the REP system kicks in. As you keep on furthering your influence in the game by spraying graffiti and making swift escapes thereafter, your REP score will increase accordingly. And once it reaches a certain threshold, you will be able to challenge rival crews to a Crew Battle which will be climactic fights that will move the story forwards.

Bomb Rush Mode

As mentioned previously, the main goal of the movement system is to let players go haywire with all sorts of tricks and chain combos. And once you get down with the basics and start performing long combos, you will soon gain the ability to enter Bomb Rush Mode. This is a power-up that gives you an infinite boost for a short amount of time, and you can use it to cover great distances in a short span of time or help out with a last-ditch escape in a finicky situation.

Environments

The game is set against the backdrop of New Amsterdam, which is divided into five distinct zones or as the game calls them “boroughs”. Each of these boroughs presents new opportunities to cash and obstacles to cross, and you can expect major differences between these zones on a visual front as well. The environments themselves look to be pretty open-ended, which should allow you to freely grind your way as you try to reach the objective or just perform some cool-looking combos.

Collectibles

Exploration will play an important role in the game, and player progression is largely tied to how thoroughly players check out every nook and cranny of each borough. You can find new pieces of clothing, and graffiti pieces all across the city – and collecting these will help you express yourself better. And if you’re going for 100% completion, collecting these goodies will be a quintessential part of the experience.

Recruiting New Members

Another thing that you can collect during your exploration is new crewmates who will help you join your cause and make your quest a bit easier. Once you spot any skater NPC who looks like a good fit for your crew, you just need to go up to them and have a short interaction following which they will become an integral part of your ever-growing Bomb Rush Crew.

Police Response System

Since tagging walls with graffiti isn’t a legal activity, it’s only obvious that players will eventually attract heat as they go about this business. Of course, you will have to be swift in your moves and evade the police by breaking their line of sight and creating some distance between you and the opposition. But Bomb Rush Cyberfunk will also have a dynamic police response system, which basically means that the strength of the opposition will directly correlate with the amount of vandalism you cause to the city environment. So continually spraying graffiti will result in stronger military units being deployed to stop you, or maybe the cooldown period might get increased.

PC requirements

Those wondering what it will take to run Bomb Rush Cyberfunk on PC would be relieved to know that it’s a game that’s pretty light on requirements. The Steam page for the game states that you need to have at least a Core i3 running at 2.5 GHz, 4 GB of RAM, and an Nvidia Geforce GTX 460 to run this game at comfortable framerates. This means that hopefully even entry-level desktops and handhelds like Steam Deck can easily run the game without any compromises in terms of fidelity or framerates.

Release Date And Platforms

Over on the release front, Bomb Rush Cyberfunk is slated to release on 18 August, 2023 for Nintendo Switch and PC. It’s a digital-only release, and there’s only a standard edition of the game available to purchase at the moment. It’s quite possible that the game ends up being ported to PlayStation and Xbox consoles if it manages to garner some critical and commercial acclaim, but that’s more of a hopeful assumption than a concrete opinion backed by actual facts – so keep your expectations in check accordingly.

Inspired by Jet Set Radio, Bomb Rush Cyberfunk offers a similar premise. As part of the Bomb Rush Crew in New Amsterdam, you battle rival groups and rebel against the police for supremacy. You play as Red, who’s lost his head and rediscovers his humanity while working with Tryce and Bel. There are five boroughs to explore and rep to earn en route to challenging a rival crew.

New members are recruited across the city, and along with inline skating, there’s BMX and skateboarding. Executing combos and tricks, like manuals, generates boost power, so it’s a good idea to keep styling. Stay tuned for more details and gameplay en route to its release.

In a new tweet, the developer said, “We are convinced that releasing the game this year will not take it to a level where we would be personally satisfied. To create a fulfilling and unique game we are extending the development time of Bomb Rush Cyberfunk to summer 2023.” In the meantime, it will be “dumping a lot more visuals” this week, and showcase just how the experience is shaping up.

Inspired by Jet Set Radio (with composer Hideki Naganuma scoring the soundtrack), the 3D platformer sees players traversing a stylized city, performing tricks and challenging other crews for their turf. Along with inline skating, players can indulge in BMX and skateboarding, executing combos and even transitioning to regular movement on two feet.

Bomb Rush Cyberfunk launches first for Nintendo Switch and PC via Steam. It will launch a week later for other platforms, though these have yet to be revealed. Stay tuned for more details in the meantime.

About the release: We are convinced that releasing the game this year will not take it to a level where we would be personally satisfied with. To create a fulfilling and unique game we are extending the development time of Bomb Rush Cyberfunk to summer 2023.

— Team Reptile (@ReptileGames) August 31, 2022

But we will be dumping a lot more visuals this week to show how it is shaping up.

— Team Reptile (@ReptileGames) August 31, 2022

In a separate blog post, the developer talked more about the movement and how style “is not only about appearance. Many secrets can be found by getting points and doing combos throughout the stage. You will be outstyling the other crews after you bombed their turf to take what’s theirs.” Players can execute real life tricks for all three sports and following some stylish combos, they can transition back to “regular ol’ feet” at any point in time.

Though Bomb Rush Cyberfunk doesn’t have a release date, it is releasing this year for Nintendo Switch and PC via Steam. Team Reptile is currently working hard to finish it and thanked fans for their patience. There’s no word yet on the other platforms that it will be coming to a week after launch so stay tuned for more information in the coming months.

The set-up will be very familiar to fans of Sega’s franchise. As a crew with boostpacks, players will explore an alternate future city, tagging the environment with graffiti and avoiding the cops. Wall-running, grinding and various tricks will provide an edge in movement, adding on to your boost power and eventually enabling Bomb Rush Mode for infinite boost.

Once you’ve tagged enough spots, you can go up against a rival crew for supremacy. Along with Switch, Bomb Rush Cyberfunk is also in development for PC and will launch at the same time next year. “Other platforms” will arrive a week later. Stay tuned for more details and gameplay in the coming months.

Team Reptile’s Lethal League Blaze, the follow-up to the original high-octane ball whacker, is now available on Steam. PS4, Xbox One, and Nintendo Switch players will have to wait until 2019 for their fix. However, for now, the sequel can be experienced in all of its gorgeous glory on PC for just $19.99.

Continuing the chronicle of the Lethal League, Lethal League Blaze features the same concept of hitting your opponent’s ball back at dimension-tearing speeds. Manipulate the angle of the ball, choose different playable characters with their own unique moves, and try to keep up. Four player local and online play are supported, so it’s easy to experience with friends.

Lethal League Blaze also has a single-player mode to tear through, with players exploring the hijinks of Shine City. There’s a range of characters, outfits, modes, stages, and songs to unlock as you play. The soundtrack even has artists like Hideki Naganuma (of Jet Set Radio fame), Frank Klepacki, and Klaus Keen on board for that extra bit of funk.