B-Boy

I came across B-Boy in a retro video game store and I was reading the back of the box and just could not believe that one, someone decided to make this game, and two, people actually bought it. This is a PS2 game and one that I have never heard of before and I decided that as I was in the mood for something new and something kind of weird, I thought that I would give it a try and see what it had to offer. Keep in mind, I know nothing about the world of break dancing so I was going into this blind.

Livin Da’ Life

There is a “story” mode in B-Boy, but it is very, very basic. We play as a guy that we create and we want to make it to the top of the breaking dancing world, one battle at a time. There is pretty much zero story or depth to things here and I think that this is a missed opportunity. This game takes itself way too seriously and is trying too hard to be cool and street. I think had they really leaned into this and had some fun, Livin Da’ Life could have been a fun story mode.

Hip Hop Rocking Beats!

The idea of B-Boy is that it is basically a rhythm game. However, at its core, there is far more depth here than a standard just press the buttons to the time of the music style rhythm game. The face buttons do basic moves, but then these open up more moves. So just pressing triangle will have you swinging your arms in, but pressing up, up triangle will do an actual move. It is quite deep and takes a while to get used to, but it does make it more challenging and more of a “game” than your standard rhythm game. It is kind of fun and once you get into it, it can be more addictive than you would think.

Just Let Me Move!

I would say that B-Boy is at its best when you are just screwing around outside of the Livin Da Life mode. You can pick an already established breaker (what we cool kids call people who break dance) and they have a series of movies that you can pull off as you try and our score your opponent in the different categories. However, in Livin Da Life, in an attempt to add some progression to the game, you unlock moves as you progress, but rather than adding depth, it feels like it is holding you back for no reason at all.

Just Like A Smooth Criminal

Ok, so I am not sure a Michael Jackson track is the kind of music you would associate with a game like B-Boy, but hear me out. On the surface and if you were to just see a screenshot of the game, you may think that it looks like a low budget and rather rough PlayStation 2 game and you would be right! However, I have to say that the animation here is awesome, and all of the athletic moves and cool stuff that these breakers are doing looks to me like it was motion captured and it looks awesome. It has a very hip hop and cool soundtrack that I thought was pretty badass and super fitting for the style of the game.

Pros:

• I enjoyed the cool hip hop style soundtrack
• The gameplay has a lot of depth for a rhythm game
• It is fun to screw around with or play with a friend
• How many games about “breakers” are there?

Cons:

• The Livin Da Life single player mode sucks big time
• While the animation is great, the game looks kind of rough