Hover

You run around and do parkour and tag stuff and break-dance in sci-fi cities/slums/sewers. It's fun to play in short bursts, probably better for longer if you're in a group. It's compared to Jet Set Radio which it obviously takes inspiration from but it does it's own thing well enough I think to be worth a play even if you're not here for the Jet Set vibes this game has. Definitely a game to give a shot if you like open-world exploration or are lookin for something more "chill" or relaxing.

Throughout this entire game, I could really summarize it as "Jet Set Radio ran so that this game could walk". Sometimes, a peaceful walk is what you want though.

It is odd. I feel like I should absolutely adore this game. It really just is ok though. The music ranges from alright to Hideki Naganuma, which is really cool that he did songs for this indie game. Movement is... fine. It is like half of the game, but it really is just fine. I guess it never clicked with me, which is odd since Jet Set Radio clicked with me extremely fast. It is very simple to control. Trick / Grind and then movement with a jump button. There is also a scanner to find where to go next and hack things. Very simple.

Movement feels like it should be better. The gameplay looks amazing, but actually playing it feels very floaty and odd. Wall slides cancel downwards momentum which feels odd. Grinding can slow you down depending on your build (huge issue that will be covered soon). Jumping feels like you're on the moon. It is really just... fine. It is nothing atrocious, but I felt I could never really do cool stuff with it. It is fun to just free style some combos, just don't try anything precise. Speaking of, combos are not earned here. They just never stop. Sliding pretty much made combos impossible to drop. That and wall runs / jumps.

So the big issue. Progression. This game is semi-MMO. So they have a stat based upgrade system. I hate this system. Like a LOT.

Major issues:
-Most upgrades are deleted if you unequip them. This punishes experimentation
-You have to start from scratch to try a new DNA kit (character)
-Lower tier upgrades have zero purpose compared to higher tier ones. Higher tier are objectively the best with no reason to keep the lower tier ones or to even win them
-High tier upgrades can be won extremely fast by getting a fuzzy metal at any mission
-Leveling up feels slow and pointless
-Varying builds completely destroy any form of cohesive level design

This is a Jet Set Radio styled game. Because of that, all of the characters should be roughly the same so that levels can be designed around how they move, accelerate, jump, etc. Because of this progression system, the world cannot be designed around that. This does not destroy the game, but it greatly limited its ability to be better than it is. Combos / Tricks that you use to get through the worlds feel slapped together. There does not feel like there are many purposeful paths to take.

I know that it sounds like I am absolutely dogging on this game, but I did have fun with it. Gameball matches were amazing, races felt fun, and the worlds were incomprehensibly large. There was just so much more this game could have been if they removed the progression system.

Speaking of the worlds, there are 2. Haven district and Administrative District. Both of these are absolutely huge. Like, both could be their own game huge. That is probably my favorite part of this game. It is just so big. Just exploring felt really dwarfing to me.

Overall, it is alright. It is nothing deep, but it is fun enough for what it is. Don't go into this expecting a thrilling run, expect a little walk. 7/10

A pleasant & zen parkour playground where you stunt around a bunch of interconnected jungle gyms.
You can even make your own races up to 19 checkpoints & more in the mission editor.
Can be <$6 sometimes so definitely grab it if you have a chance.

genuinely love this game, it's simple yet challenging, the open world is fun to run around in and explore, and I enjoy specializing specific members of my team for specific tasks :)
There are 3 camera modes but i don't recommend first person. you can do flips and it screws with my brain when that happens, that said if you want to do it in first person that's fine by me, I just prefer the third person camera myself. :)

Honestly i expected very little of this game but i was blown away by just how fun and fresh it felt. I cant vouch for how good it is as an mmo because i played offline only but the game functions great in singleplayer, the movement systems are incredible, the missions are fun, the environment design is incredible and its just so fun to pop in and start flipping and grinding around the city. I have never in my life played jet set radio so i am not blinded by nostalgia, its really just that fun of a game.
I think a lot of people complain about the movement not feeling powerful or intuitive enough but thats my favourite thing about the game - you have to really learn all your movement options and find your own tech for getting around, and by the end of the game even though your character isnt that much better than the start you're exponentially better at getting around the same areas you used to struggle with because you both know the environment better and know your own tools better. Its also worth noting that the game is NOT a skating game like jetset radio, where your movement tools do most of the work for you and your character automatically snaps onto every grindpoint from a mile away. It is a parkour and freerunning game, and so most of your movement comes not from your op movement tools but from knowing the city and using it to your advantage.
The core of the game is a racing game where you improve your times not by taking corners tighter or by learning when to put on the breaks like in most other racing games, but by learning every corner of the city and every grind point, useful wall jump area and jump pad. You do 3 laps of every race, which feels useless at first but it quickly becomes obvious that this is totally nessecary because every lap you learn more about the route and discover a new more efficient way to get over a gap or obstacle, which is incredibly gratifying and fun. The open world collectathon stuff like catching spy drones, covering up graffiti with propaganda or collecting gameboys around the world makes you learn the city in the progress letting you have new ideas for how to go through all future missions that go through that section of the city in the process.
Easily one of the most fun parkour games ive ever played, could not reccomend more if you like the look of it. there are a few minor gripes about some minor bugs or having to do the tutorial every time for every new character, but it all pales compared to just how fun the damn game is. If you are on the fence get this game and have a great time!!!

This is a hard review to write because I must admit, I'm quite bias towards anything with Jet Set Radio influence in (and Hideki Naganuma's music in it). This game is full of bugs that have been around since it released into (hopefully) early access, the optimization is apparently much better than it used to be, but it's still quite bad in some areas, the map in the free roam areas is next to useless because it's top-down 2D but the game is extremely vertical. Some of the missions are extremely unbalanced, some of them don't really tell you what to do, unlocking more characters can be extremely tedious and nebulous about what you need to do to unlock them. Some of the missions are just outright badly designed and the difficulty is insane for no reason, even with a fully leveled character. There's also specific builds that are clearly better than others and it's less free-form than it initially seems. I've also never heard the Hideki Naganuma songs play in the game even once as of my current playtime. It's absolutely NOT worth $20.
And yet, I love the game anyway. I can't stop playing it, I love the freeroam, I love Gameball (when playing against players), I love the movement, I love the Jet Set Radio influences, I love they got Hideki Naganuma to do 2 songs for the game, I love the setting, I like most of the character designs, I like how you can level up and build your characters, I love how it's multiplayer and up to 64 players for no reason at all. I got the game for 4-5 of my friends to play with for $4 each during the winter sale and it's totally worth it for that price point.
TLDR: This game isn't Jet Set Radio at all. If you want that, buy Bomb Rush Cyberfunk instead.
I bought the soundtrack as well, but it's not that great, it's not AWFUL but it's not what I was expecting, and doesn't include a lossless format. I've been muting the music and putting on the Bomb Rush Cyberfunk OST in the background instead, it works so much better for the environment.

You can mash grind/trick to charge Hover mode. I don't think it says that anywhere in the tutorial, but it really helps getting around. Comboing tricks and picking up small, pink collectibles (gamegirls) are an easy way to get early rank, just hold grind and jump around. The missions are primarily run through hoops and put ball in hoop (sometimes through a course, sometimes like basket ball). Sometimes you have to hit something three times. It's very easy to fall down, but the rewind mechanic really helps you correct mistakes (at the cost of your speedrun time.)

It's a nice little sandbox to jump around in. Walls are easy to climb, and there are lots of nooks and crannies to look around in. Haven is visually interesting and each layer feels different enough, however there's only a few landmarks and everything is hidden behind the mass of buildings so it's easy to forget where you are. The map seems to be broken for me and only displays the road around the edge and some "!"s.? The sewers aren't amazing, but I guess that's the point? I feel like all issues would be solved by having a mini-map that is easy to pull up or always on display. Going into the map in the menu sucks with a controller, but it's functional. The upgrades feel like they work, though you only get 10 and a pet. Don't worry about tossing old upgrades, you'll get plenty if you get above a shiny medal.

Multiplayer still seems to have people popping in sometimes, though I wouldn't really call this a co-op game. There's a chatbox, but I've never seen someone talk. Probably hard with a controller in hand. It seems like you're more likely to step on toes or get stepped on while playing. Someone seemed to find it amusing to run up and graffiti my screen while I was in menus. Single player feels a lot more chill, and you can drop in and out at any time so you could always look for others to race if you want.

It does feel like it's missing just a little something, but I couldn't say what that is. Maybe just needed a little more polish somewhere. Probably get it on sale, but if you like running and jumping in a cyberpunk dystopia then give this a try.