Bomb Rush Cyberfunk is a funk-style skating game, taking a ton of inspiration from Sega's Jet Set Radio series and having its own flair. It's also my first introduction into the skating genre. (Important to note as I've heard mixed bags on the game being too simple)

• The world of New Amsterdam is fantastic and is mostly a one of one of Jet Set Radio Future in majority of the districts and areas you travel to. I watched a comparison and didn't realise how much inspiration Team Reptile really took from that game in particular. The environments are distinct, there's always new obstacles and things to cling onto and and the setting is always different, never feeling the same, as further illustrated by the game's many rival crews as well
  
  
• The cel-shaded, retro art style was the one thing I was drawn to outside of the game itself, reminding me of the bygone era of the Dreamcast and consoles during this time. It's nice to be able to retain this and have it run smoothly on modern systems as well
  
  
• Gameplay is incredibly simple and easy to learn. I went into the game thinking it'd be hard and I'd have to put the time in to get good at it, but by the time you hit the second hour, you'll be racking up high scores in no time. The trick system is also very forgiving, so it isn't as punishing as other skaters, like Pro Skater or Skate, giving you plenty of room for "failure" if you will
  
  
• The premise is simple. Well, there's actually two premises - One, taking over all of New Amsterdam and becoming All City by battling the crews in each of the 5 districts, and the game's protagonist, Red, trying to figure out who his real identity is. I actually found the story to be quite interesting, despite having no plot twists or character development like you'd expect in a good story, mostly because of the character designs and their motives
  
  
• OST is an absolute banger, so good in fact that they brought Hideki Naganuma, composer for the Jet Set Radio games to make a good amount of tracks on this thing. The music just fits the aesthetic so well. huge shoutout to Team Reptile for making majority of the revenue from those who buy the soundtrack on Steam go to the artists!
  
  
• If you love collectables, BRC's got you covered, with plenty of graffiti sprays, outfits, and music to obtain for your own enjoyment! They're also really fun to hunt and look out for too
  
• BRC is more of a sandbox game, so you're not forced to progress through the campaign in a linear fashion, but instead are given the freedom to do whatever you want when you reach a new district. It makes Jet Set Radio look like a faucet in comparison, given how linear those games were. This was awesome and I always found myself exploring and spraying every wall I could before continuing on. This gets even better when you get to post-game, as new challenges open up and more characters become available to unlock!
  
  
• There's actually more to the game than meets the eye, and Team Reptile hid a good amount of movement tech and things that players had to go looking for themselves. I know this because I saw a movement guide on YouTube, which talked about tech that the game doesn't tell you about through messages, so it can definitely be more complicated if you want it to be
  
  
• MODS!!! I've been seeing some of the crazy mods that the community's put out so far and they're pretty epic to say the least. Consider downloading MovementPlus if you want to go super fast and ride to your hearts content

• The combat leaves a lot to be desired. It's pretty lackluster at best, as the encounters are mostly the same and the only cool things you do are spraying the engines of police mechs. Didn't really find it enjoyable, but it's okay enough to where I can tolerate with it whenever it's needed
  
  
• I don't really find this to be a negative personally, but wanted to mention it anyway again - The game is more chill, casual and arguably cozy with its gameplay systems, which can leave Tony Hawk and Skaters disappointed with this purchase if that's what you're looking for in a skater game. You won't find the complexity here, and that's okay.
  
  
• Game can feel a bit repetitive at times, but as long as you're traversing through the campaign and learning the mechanics, this shouldn't be too much of a problem

BRC appeals to a gamer like me who's never played skating games before, and I freaking loved every minute of it. Great for casuals too thanks to its simple, easy to learn and understand mechanics, whilst also having the amazing cel-shaded art style, a goated soundtrack might I add and an interesting story that kept me interested, even if it gets weird in some places. JSR was the reason we got this, and I want this game to be the reason why BRC 2 gets made, should it ever become a thing.

Ghostwire: Tokyo is a first-person horror game, developed by Tango Gameworks from the mind of Shinji Mikami, and what an experience this was.

• The world of Tokyo is fantastic! They nailed the accuracy, architecture and city of Shibuya perfectly, from the many alleyways, to the many buildings and shops and even the city square! I spent moments in the game just taking it all in and the occasional rain that would come whilst playing was also a nice touch, really adds to this disappearing, "dead" world that they're showing off here. They nailed it with TEW 1 and 2, and they did it once again. Hats off
  
  
• The story, while basic and nothing too special, was actually decent enough that I was able to follow with what's going on. To sum it up, you play as Akito, a man who gets into a bike accident on the way to see his sister, and gets brought back to life by a wraith known as KK, who you develop a relationship with and try to figure out what's happening to Tokyo and why everyone's disappeared. Oh, and also getting Akito's sister back from the bad guys. Some good moments, okay boss fights and an interesting ending that made me think for a minute on how hard it can be to face the truth
  
  
• Akito and KK's relationship is something that shouldn't be underestimated. In fact, this is one of the strongest parts of the game, seeing the two banter, make jokes and open up to each other about their own personal lives and experiences. KK is this, hard hitting, rough and elderly person who is serious about everything and hard working to where his family became forgotten to him, and Akito is a young, courageous and caring man who struggles to deal with the death of his parents and doesn't want his sister to die. This became more apparent as I was completing side quests and completing activities, particularly the school quest, which opened my mind to their dynamic being well executed
  
  
• Enemy designs are amazing, some of the coolest enemies I've seen, being based off of Japanese folklore, specifically yokai. Each had different attacks and moves, never felt too bland or boring to fight
  
  
• Combat consists of "Eternal Weavings" or spells, making use of 3 elements: Wind, Fire and Water. Think karate but with magic. Each element has light and heavy attacks, which you get by charging an element up, alongside a special attack that unleashes the elements further. Some are better than others, like Fire being able to turn into a flamethrower and stunning packs of enemies, whilst Wind can be used to rapid fire and shred enemies within a few seconds. Pretty enjoyable and something different. Reminded me of Bioshock a bit with plasmids
  
  
• FREE CONTENT! A while back, Ghostwire: Tokyo actually got a content update, expanding the world of Tokyo with new locations, an amazing side quest storyline which felt right at home with TEW, new attacks, a rogue-like game mode and many more. I didn't notice it until I looked the content up myself, so it felt natural, and that's a good thing!
  
  
• Side activities were similar but different, with the highlights being praying to statues, hunting different yokai and collecting spirits, which you take over to a payphone and get rewards. The similar ones would be finding collectibles and cleaning these tori gates, much like outposts in Ubi games to introduce more content, and ofc, the side quests
  
  
• The game... Looks great! I thought it was going to look a bit dull, given the low game size of 22gb and lack of graphical settings, but no, the game looks good and runs like butter, didn't have any issues at all
  
  
• VFX, sound and music - levels, especially the VFX when using different spells
  
  
• On a side note, collecting spirits in this game... WAS SO ADDICTING! I loved gathering these and could not help myself to go for them as I was making my way to different areas, so much so that I decided to stop using fast travel!

• The side quests are so boring. Monotonous, boring tasks where you're basically helping spirits out with their problems because they can't seem to do it themselves. I was interested to hear the dialogue for each of these quests at first, but then I got so bored that I just started skipping them halfway through, wanting to get them done and keep the game going
  
  
• The most common negative is that the game is repetitive, and I agree. Combat can start feeling the same, enemies will feel familiar and the aforementioned side quests, like many of the game's activities, can get pretty boring. You can fix this by just changing what activities you do and spells you use and such to help remove this feeling, but you won't be able to escape this feeling after 5 or so hours
  
  
• Shallow progression system - They pretty much took the system from TEW2 and put it into this game. Wish there was a bit more to it
  
  
• The game's main antagonist, Hannya, is underdeveloped and is more or less a menace than an actual threat. The game's way of giving you obstacles is just fighting his family, and outside of his talks, he's nothing special or interesting. He just exists for the sake of the story
  
  
• A bit expensive for the amount of content you get, even with the free content best to buy this game on a sale and not full price

Ghostwire: Tokyo may be one of the most bizarre games I've played from recent memory, expecting a linear-horror game and instead getting something entirely different. With a great art style, amazing representation of Tokyo and interesting combat, there's no other game I can think of that is quite like it.