Bomb Rush Cyberfunk is a futuristic time capsule that bursts with sonic and ocular swag. There’s a primordial videogame joy in these sick combos and great tunes, which pulled me through 25 hours of skating off walls, dodging cops and spray-painting labyrinthine levels. It’s rare to play a game with such a fervent sense of self, even when it’s channeling such clear Y2K-era inspirations. Bomb Rush Cyberfunk is so fun.
In the first 20 minutes, an evil DJ decapitates my protagonist with a vinyl record, my friends rebuild me into a cyborg, and I’m off on a revenge mission to overthrow this tyrant and ‘Go All City’ becoming the definitive spray painting crew.
Before I gush about the great stuff, which there is a lot of, I have to say that this wild conceit is funny, and generally lithe on its feet. But it also feeds into one of my few issues with Cyberfunk: the writing doesn’t deliver convincing motivations or personalities for its characters. I love that it attempts to flesh out the world with a twisty turny narrative, but little of that storytelling bleeds into the physical environment where I could’ve absorbed it while doing backflips on a bike.