Jet Set Radio spiritual successor Bomb Rush Cyberfunk looks so damn fresh

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Featuring a soundtrack from the original Jet Set Radio composer

(Image credit: Reptile Games)

The funky beat of Jet Set Radio lives on in Bomb Rush Cyberfunk, a newly announced game made of style, attitude, and freshness.

Team Reptile, the developers behind Lethal League Blaze, revealed Bomb Rush Cyberfunk as their next project with a brief teaser trailer and a new Steam listing today. Everything about the trailer screams "this is a spiritual successor to Jet Set Radio", including the music, which the Steam listing confirms is scored by original composer Hideki Naganuma.

Lethal League Blaze already had some heavy JSR vibes, including a special track from Naganuma. Bomb Rush Cyberfunk goes all-in on the source material, but it looks like the developers aren't just trying to clone the old-school skating-and-tagging gameplay. For starters, nobody has skates! The characters must be wearing their Soap grinding shoes though, because we see them flying down rails, and they can also use "personal boostpacks" to slide, jump, and airdash through the streets.

It sounds like a smart way to expand on the movement system that made Jet Set Radio at turns so fun and frustrating to play: fun when you got a nice, long combo going, frustrating when you mistimed a jump and had to slowly and piteously scoot your way back to the start of the set to try again. Oh, and I think the "bomb" in the title is referring to "bombing" as in laying down graffiti, so you will probably only blow things up figuratively.

Lethal League Blaze eventually made its way to consoles after its PC-exclusive debut, so there's a good chance BRC will follow the same path. Even though I'm breathlessly excited for this game, Bomb Rush Cyberfunk's release date is only set for "not this year, it's unlucky", which is honestly the truest statement I've read all week.

Find even more to get excited about with our guide to the best upcoming games of 2020 and beyond.

Connor Sheridan
Connor Sheridan

I got a BA in journalism from Central Michigan University - though the best education I received there was from CM Life, its student-run newspaper. Long before that, I started pursuing my degree in video games by bugging my older brother to let me play Zelda on the Super Nintendo. I've previously been a news intern for GameSpot, a news writer for CVG, and was formerly a staff writer at GamesRadar.