Probably the funkiest game I have played in years, Bomb Rush Cyberfunk is a real indie treat among all the other big releases surrounding it. It is not often we get games full of soul like this, so I was definitely excited jumping into it.
So I know a lot of people are making comparisons to Jet Set Radio since that is the obvious inspiration here, but as someone that has never played the game, I will not be doing so. Maybe that will make this a unique perspective? I don’t know.
Anyways, for a game built around skating and cycling, the devs really did a great job with the movement here. It’s fluid, it’s exciting once the speed picks up, and it doesn’t take long to get the hang of – courtesy of the well-placed and helpful tutorials. Skating around, wallriding, grinding, it’s all relatively simple to pull off and the ease of movement here lends itself well to building combos.
A big part of the gameplay is building up those combos by doing tricks and getting multipliers to make that combo grow. The tricks are just a simple button press and that’s the first of my complaints here. You get your little handful of tricks and that’s literally it. There’s no special inputs here, nothing more complex than your simple kickflip or whatnot. Maybe that’s a side effect of having the movement be so easy is that the moves are as well, but I would have liked at least a little bit more complexity there. As it stands, it’s really just a lot of button mashing.
Fortunately, this is made up for elsewhere. The level design, for one. In fact, that might just be my favorite part of the game. Every time I entered a new area it was like I was given this entire skater’s wishlist full of things shoved into one package. Grinding rails going everywhere, tubes to skate and slide through, half-pipes to allow me to reach higher areas – the game does an outstanding job giving you these environments to work in and it is never not fun to skate around, doing combos, finding all the graffiti spots, and there’s also a bunch of collectibles too – usually just new color schemes, but it’s oddly nostalgic in a way.
I kinda miss when games had simple, yet effective level design like this. Not only do they look cool, but they’re fun to move around in and explore and I don’t know, the devs just really nailed that feeling I got playing 3D platformers back when I was a kid. As I said at the beginning, the game has soul and the level design really allows that to shine.
It’s not all great though – because for some reason this game also has combat. Like, you will have the police chasing you around the map for vandalism. That aspect is fine, honestly, it’s the actual combat that isn’t. And to be blunt – it’s awful. There is no impact, no sense of weight, the hitboxes are ridiculous, and just like the tricks, it mostly devolves into button mashing. I cannot believe that the tutorial ends with a mini boss battle that showcases this awful combat right off the bat. You literally run around in circles, hitting the boss once, running over to them again, hitting them again – it is so bad and not a good first impression.
That said, the combat is not a main player here. You do get occasional segments where you need to wipe out a small police squad or take down a sniper, but you hardly ever need to utilize the combat in its most basic form. The bosses usually have some clever design to them that encourage skating and graffiti and the devs actually did a pretty good in that department – special shoutout to the insanity that is the final boss. So while it is just a small part of the experience, it is so blatantly awful that it does need to be mentioned.
As for the difficulty – I felt like the game may have been a bit too easy. I don’t think I ever failed a single challenge, the combo multiplier on rails trivializes the crew battles, and I only died a few times against the bosses. Given the simplistic nature of the combat, the tricks, and the movement – this is likely intended and I think it might be better to view the game as some laidback dumb fun. That’s not even a bad thing, just something to keep in mind if you’re expecting more.
Something I did not expect was the story. It actually tackles some pretty mature themes and draws similarities to Ghost in the Shell and even Psycho-Pass in some areas. I was pleasantly surprised with how much I enjoyed it. It was paced well, had nice cutscenes, and just had this energy that kinda reminded me of a Suda51 game.
Content-wise, I managed to complete the game in just under six hours. It’s not a long game by any means, but I wouldn’t say it was too short. For completionists, there is quite a bit more to do. I may have completed the game, but I had less than 20% of the achievements, for example. I can’t say it’s the most replayable experience, but you can definitely squeeze more time out of a single playthrough than I did.
And then there’s the music. Off the top of my head, I can’t think of a better soundtrack to come out this year. It was so good here that I literally went and pre-ordered the vinyl release within an hour of playing. There’s an excellent blend of funky hip-hop, jazzy tunes, bass-heavy beats, and it’s just such a great mix of styles for the type of gameplay here. There is just under two hours of music to enjoy on the soundtrack and I can’t think of a single song that I outright disliked. It all kinda slaps. The visuals too. Not quite as noteworthy, but serviceable enough for a cel-shaded experience like this, with fun character designs and excellent use of color to bring this world to life.
As for performance, I had the game crash on me once, but the rest of the experience went by without issue running at 4k 144fps on my 3080 Ti. It is not a demanding game by any means, but there are quite a few video settings to change if needed. I also played the game fine on both controller and keyboard and mouse without feeling the need to remap any buttons on either. Plays well, runs well. Just how it should be.
Bomb Rush Cyberfunk is a real indie treat. Fun gameplay, stellar level design, an absolute bop of a soundtrack, a compelling story – the whole experience just has a lot of soul behind it even if it may falter in areas like its complexity, difficulty, and combat. I grew to like it quite a bit by the time I finished and would recommend it to those that miss the feeling of 3D platformers of old.
Quote: Bomb Rush Cyberfunk is a real indie treat. Fun gameplay, stellar level design, an absolute bop of a soundtrack, a compelling story – the whole experience just has a lot of soul behind it.
Bomb Rush Cyberfunk retails for $40 USD on Steam. It is also available through GOG and on PS4, PS5, Xbox One, Xbox Series X|S, and Switch.
I was provided a review copy of the game in order to write this review. Read more about how I do my game reviews here.
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