The Sega Dreamcast was home to many groundbreaking titles, none of them more visually dazzling than Jet Set Radio (originally known as Jet Grind Radio in the US). The cel-shaded rollerblading graffiti masterpiece caught the hearts of many via Sega’s console, which then transferred to its Xbox sequel Jet Set Radio Future. Sadly, however, we’ve been experiencing a large drought of similar games ever since JSR’s HD remaster for the PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360 from 2012 — up until now, that is.
Bomb Rush Cyberfunk just came out to quench our Jet Set Radio thirst. It tells the story of gangs of cool-ass rollerbladers who do graffiti battles to see who gets to control their city. This Utopian landscape seems to capture the gameplay, the look, and the vibe of JSR, so what is that all about? Are they family or just gorgeous lookalikes?
Well first off, what really matters is that the hype is real. Bomb Rush Cyberfunk rocks and therefore deserves your time regardless of its origin point. Still, if you’re curious about its DNA, you’ve come to the right place.
What’s Bomb Rush Cyberfunk‘s connection to Jet Set Radio?
Bomb Rush Cyberfunk isn’t an official sequel to Jet Set Radio. It looks like it could take place in the same city, maybe even feature the same characters, but both take place in their own separate universes. Still, none of it is accidental, nor a soulless copy — it’s clear that its developers wanted to pay homage to the never-forgotten classic.
Despite the clear visual similarities and shared gameplay elements, they both have almost completely different teams behind them. Whereas JSR is the work of Smilebit, a Sega AM2 company, Cyberfunk is the work of Team Reptile, a Dutch studio known for Lethal League. The only common thread in their DNA? Well, Cyberfunk also features many musical tracks by Hideki Naganuma, the man responsible for producing the soundtrack for JSR, so that’s another obvious plus.
Interestingly, if you care to take a glance at Lethal League, you’ll easily recognize similarities to JSR. It’s likely that the entire studio has been drawing heavy inspiration from JSR from the very start and is merely coming full circle.
The clues were there all along.
You can now play Bomb Rush Cyberfunk on PC and Switch. Team Reptile says that the game will arrive on PlayStation and Xbox platforms soon.
