B-Boy Review

By Matt Martin Published 18 October, 2006

Busted groove.

Version tested: PSP

For a game built on looking your most stylish, B-Boy is as slick as it should be. Like Atari's Marc Ecko's Getting Up: Contents Under Pressure, the presentation and sheer justice it does to the culture it's emulating is tremendous. With the soundtrack, the Montana paint scrawls and the motion capture of Crazy Legs and other legendary rockers, this is one of the best examples of hip hop culture captured for a game we've ever seen.

Where something like Saints Row stole from rap like a wannabe pimp that couldn't get no ass, B-Boy is the real deal, sporting its shelltoes with authenticity and giving as much back to the culture as it takes. It's genuine, like very few other titles. Compare it to the extreme sports trend from a few years back, where numerous Tony Hawk imitators shamed themselves with a poor understanding of the of the culture as much as shoddy controls. We can file B-Boy next to Ecko and the Def Jam fighting series as perfectly understanding and reproducing the influences of pop culture.

Which is a real treat for hip hop heads, but no matter how far rap is stretching into the mainstream, if you're not a fiend for beats and rhymes, B-Boy isn't going to capture your imagination. It's not gripping, it's not essential, even for those that spend weekends flipping hamster switch on their 1210's, digging the crates, racking paint or laughing at Ice-T in Breakin' 2: Electric Boogaloo.

Players dance off against one another like a beat-'em-up without any connections - players take it in turns to prove themselves with their best moves. Pulling the slickest and most accomplished moves, linked with well-placed timing, is rewarded with medals that can unlock more moves and combos for later battles. Each throwdown lasts around 45 seconds with four buttons assigned to Toprock, Freeze, Windmill and Sixstep. They may not mean a lot to you, but tapping the buttons and watching the motion capture soon makes it easy to understand how you link these moves into combos. Balancing on your swede, or any limb, is done with the left and right shoulder buttons.

'B-Boy' Screenshot 1

"Let me see you take 'em right off. C'mon, squeal".

Which is fun while it lasts, but watching your opponent throwdown in front of you quickly becomes frustrating. It's like watching someone else play a game. Turn-based dancing just isn't compelling enough. This stop-start nature never feels like a full game where the player is progressing. It's more a case of going one-on-one for a few cocky rewards, making it feel like a practice session rather than the real thing. It suits the handheld nature of the system, but it's not something I want to keep switching my PSP on for in the first place.

Another big problem I have with B-Boy is that I'm a fussy consumer. With so much media to entertain me, I can afford to be fussy. So with a game like B-Boy I want it built around my soundtrack. The gameplay is fine, but it never feels much more than a stretched out mini-game. A customisable soundtrack could have given it a much longer lease of life, adding a little more interactivity to my personal music collection.

'B-Boy' Screenshot 2

Banana skins: fatal in any dance-off.

Don't get it twisted - I'm down with hip hop (if that doesn't make me sound like David Cameron campaigning at a youth club). But any game that's built around music needs to be able to handle customisation as far as I'm concerned. We've had the option to import our own soundtrack for long enough now that we pretty much expect it as standard. And it's no excuse if the hardware can't support the feature - if that's the case I question the reason for creating a game with music as its central appeal.

Guitar Hero got away with it because there was the novelty of a big plastic guitar to pose with while banging along to The Ramones. But for the next-generation sequels we'll be able to buy specific tracks to download and play along to. No more filler from Franz Ferdinand. Sony knows this with the PS3 version of SingStar too. Microtransations are good for me when I don't have to put up with some one else's' Madonna choice and can instead opt for Gina G, no matter how naff. I don't want some marketing committee on the other side of the world deciding for me what's cool. I don't even want to be cool, I just want to sing Ooh Ahh, Just a Little Bit. Like I said, I'm a fussy consumer. And games have been about customisation and choice for long enough now.

'B-Boy' Screenshot 3

I see TK Maxx has got a sale on.

So with B-Boy, no matter how much I dig Eric B & Rakim's Don't Sweat the Technique - and believe me it is a stone-cold classic - it still gets old too quickly. I want a change, that's why I've got 3,000 plus songs on my MP3 player. In B-Boy I'd like the option to throwdown to Aspects, Booty Bouncers and Celph Titled. And I'm not being a smart-arse by name-checking obscure hip hop. It's the digital age, don't give me a soundtrack of 20-plus tunes. No matter how banging they are, it's not going to be enough in the long run.

Ranting about music? Well, I'm passionate about it, as I am about games. And I suspect anyone reading this far is as well. The B-Boy soundtrack is good, but it's not enough. It's like the Beatmasters and Betty Boo sang, "I can't dance to the music you're playing". And I say that without fear of ridicule for loving '80s pop. B-Boy has limited itself, partly by playing on Sony hardware and partly by gameplay that's not inclusive enough; it's so stylish it's for poseurs not players. Not into hip hop culture? No reason to pick this up, no matter how pretty and slick the dancing is.

6 / 10

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About Matt Martin

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Comments (28) Latest comment 3 years ago

Comments threads automatically close after 30 days, but please feel free to continue chatting on the forum!

  • penhalion #1 5 years ago

    A Year on and I have exactly one game on my PSP. Ultimate Ghosts and Goblins. On my DS I have Phoenix Wright, Mario DS, Megaman X, Lost in Blue etc. etc.

    Sony's attitude to innovation has made the PSP a console with little to recommend it.

  • Salvia #2 5 years ago

    Don't blame the PSP, blame the 'tards who thought that such a niche product would be a good idea. It wouldn't surprise me if this was a marketing-led title ('poseurs not players').
    Note to marketing people; Just because you personally like something and you think you're 'cutting edge' doesn't mean to say everyone will like it.

  • Gori #3 5 years ago

    There's actually quite a lot of good PSP games now, no need to buy this.

  • Moonprince #4 5 years ago

    You think Sony doesn't have any influence over what games are produced on their platform?

  • mingster #5 5 years ago

    Its a shame cos the actual breakdance moves you can do and the reponsivesness are very good.

    But totally agree with the limited soundtrack.. gets old very quickly.

    And can you stop going on about how theres no PSP games its be4en done to death and everyone knows its not true:

    quick list for the hundredth time:

    Monster Hunter
    Katamari
    Retro Anthologies (Capcom, Taito, Midway)
    Gitaroo Man
    Ghost and Goblins
    LocoRoco
    Lego Starwars
    Daxter
    Metal Gear Ac!d 1&2
    Mercury 2
    Exit
    Tekken
    Valkyrie Lenneth
    Syphon Filter
    DJ Max
    Spectral Souls
    Gurumin
    Lumines

    coming soon
    Metal Gear Solid
    Powerstone
    Gta Vice City Stories

    plus emulators
    CPS1 & 2
    Megadrive
    Snesu
    Scumm
    GBA



  • mingster #6 5 years ago

    Its longer than a decent DS list and i could add more...

    Gradius collection
    Star Soldier
    vartious pokers
    tiger woods
    yu-gi-oh
    wipeout

    all off the top of my head..

    can't be bothered to do more.

  • haowan #7 5 years ago

    Half the review spent on the lack of a feature the game was never purported to have? Blimey.

    I applaud games like this though, at least they're trying to reach out to different people.

  • mingster #8 5 years ago

    Yup well done (you could have named them with the scores next to them though)

    as most of them are 9/10 scores..

    please show me an equivalent DS list with such high scores..

  • lemon #9 5 years ago

    More lists!

    http://ww w.metacritic.com/games/psp/scor...

    For comparison: http://www .metacritic.com/games/ds/scores/
    Edited by 2 at 18/10/06 @ 11:37

  • mingster #10 5 years ago

    what do you mean it shouldnt be opn the list yellowtruck it was reviewed here and got 9/10 what are you saying?

  • mingster #11 5 years ago

    Outrun 2006 is a wicked game..

    plus running it at 333mhz mode so no slowdoen makes it even better.

    The review is correct excellent game.

    Its you who made the error yellowtruck.

  • mingster #12 5 years ago

    Yup forgot Every Extend.. good game had it for ages already Jap import.

  • haowan #13 5 years ago

    I don't like the idea of watching the computer play for 50% of the play time. Otherwise the game sounds good to me.

  • Skeletor #14 5 years ago

    After reading the review it seems to me that the makers of B-Boy did manage to recreate the style and maybe even a little bit of the feeling of an oldschool hiphop jam BUT they clearly didn't get the spirit and the idea behind it.
    Hiphop culture, when experienced beyond the hyperstylish and twodimensional MTV world, is about experimentation. First you learn the basics, then you expand them with experimentation - you basically customize the whole time in order to develop your own style, whether you're a graffiti writer, a breakdancer, rapper or a dj. It's not just about pulling off some nice moves but about developing and then perfecting them. Sure, the B-Boy game is nice because it represents hiphop culture in a positive and original way but at the end of the day it's just like an advertisement for something much bigger. Style but no substance, just like MTV.

  • Darkedge #15 5 years ago

    "Don't get it twisted - I'm down with hip hop"

    and for a change this is REAL hip hop not that R&B shite that uses the name made by diddy and the rest.
    Edited by 1 at 18/10/06 @ 12:39

  • mrsquare #16 5 years ago

    So....er....y'know.....how does the game actually play then?

    All I gathered from that review is that there is no custom sountrack... :\

  • mingster #17 5 years ago

    must admit the review didnt explain gameplay...

    basically in time to the music a circle spins round your character.. you have to press one of the buttons to activate a move.. then to keep the move going you press L or R in time with a beat marker... you can then combo in other types of moves after you unlock them by pressing either up/down/left/right and a button ... to keep the freeze moves going you have to press L or R to balance a little bar in the middle and stop your bloke falling over.

    The actual controls and moves are all really good to be honest for an original concept like this.

    There are lots of new moves you unlock as you progress as well.
    Edited by 1 at 18/10/06 @ 12:35

  • #18 5 years ago

    Outrun 2006 is a wicked game..

    Outrun 2006 works really well on the PSP - 'cept for the loading times. It's basic game structure of five courses and no laps means its ideally suited to a handheld format. And, as far as I can tell, it's graphics on the PSP widescreen are at least as good as those on the PS2 version.

    Generally speaking, imo the PSP is an excellent handheld format let down by some fairly obvious issues.

    It fits in the hand like a glove and the weight balance is perfect. Unlike the DS's boxey screens (never understood that after the GBA widescreen), the PSP's widescreen is a lot easier on the eyes. And the quality of the controls (minus the square button) are at least as good as a those on a standard controller.

    The PSP may not be selling at the level of the DS lite but it is doing steady sales. In Japan, GBA/SP/Micro sales have all but collapsed - they used to sell in the 30,000 units a week range but now sell only a couple-of-thousand units a week. The PSP has now replaced the GBA in sales (in Japan at least) - typically selling 28 to 30,000 units a week.

    Personally, I'd like to see a smaller PSP - perhaps a Playstation Pocket. ie a smaller, solid-state unit that loads games off Memory stick (thereby eliminating loading times and improving battery performance at a stroke).

  • tiddles #19 5 years ago

    Another vote for the "DS gathering dust" crowd from me... but then I'm biased

  • RedPanda #20 5 years ago

    Post deleted at 14:31:59 28-01-2012

  • gerald #21 5 years ago

    Yep. Lack of third party support. There is not much good software on DS besides Nintendo's, they want to do it all by themself.

    Nintendo supports innovation - as long as it's their own.

  • kangarootoo #22 5 years ago

    @Salvia

    "blame the 'tards who thought that such a niche product would be a good idea."

    Good games don't depend on people being fans of the real world activity. Selling them does, but thats not the issue at hand is it? Otherwise I think Eg might have said "great game, but it won't sell, so we're giving it a six".

    If the gameplay is weak then that is an issue of its own. What you are talking about is a marketing issue, not a quality of product issue. Sounds to me like the game has quality issues of the normal kind, regardless of the breakdancing basis (which could have potentially acted as the foudation of a great rhythm action game).

  • nickthegun #23 5 years ago

    ZOMFGWTFBBQ!?!? A PSP Vs DS E-penis waving competition in a PSP review thread? I am shocked! SHOCKED AND APPALLED!!

    Ive said it before and I'll say it again, in terms of quality, the top 10 or so PSP games can stand shoulder to shoulder with the top 10 DS games

    Outside that, you are getting into bizzarre reverse psychology world where Nintendo fanboys decry the 'Chavstation' as having a bad 'quality to quantity' ratio compared to the gamecube, yet the DS has a 'Huge range of diverse software' and the PSP has no games.

    Theres no worse hypocrite than a fanboy hypocrite....and Nintendo ones at that.......

    But then, where would the games industry be without retards slagging off the platforms they dont own? EG would have half the number of threads it has now..............

  • gaselite #24 5 years ago

    God, as all the DS owners that go around trolling saying how the PSP is shit make me dislike my DS more than is necessary :/ You give your company a terrible name, fanboys.

  • #25 5 years ago

    ZOMFGWTFBBQ!?!? A PSP Vs DS E-penis waving competition in a PSP review thread? I am shocked! SHOCKED AND APPALLED!!

    Ive said it before and I'll say it again, in terms of quality, the top 10 or so PSP games can stand shoulder to shoulder with the top 10 DS games

    Outside that, you are getting into bizzarre reverse psychology world where Nintendo fanboys decry the 'Chavstation' as having a bad 'quality to quantity' ratio compared to the gamecube, yet the DS has a 'Huge range of diverse software' and the PSP has no games.

    Theres no worse hypocrite than a fanboy hypocrite....and Nintendo ones at that.......

    But then, where would the games industry be without retards slagging off the platforms they dont own? EG would have half the number of threads it has now..............

    Do you copy & paste this comment everytime your precious Sony is "attacked"? Your comment makes you out to be the worst zealot - even more than Nintendo "fanboys" as you call them.

    I can think of much, much worse hypocrites than console geeks - like hacks & politicos.

    So just calm down eh?

  • haowan #26 5 years ago

    I count about one proper "DS has better games than PSP" comment on this thread. the rest is lists of good PSP games and yellowtruck doing a bit of trolling, alongside some discussion of how the DS has had a bit of a quiet period.

    You know it's people who start yelling "why won't you fanboys shut the hell up" that actually bring these threads down? I know as I'm guilty of it myself in the past.

    Take this for example:

    "God, as all the DS owners that go around trolling saying how the PSP is shit make me dislike my DS more than is necessary :/ You give your company a terrible name, fanboys."

    Who? Penhalion? OK, give you that one. Who else? Nobody.

  • ukslim #27 5 years ago

    Limited tracks / tracks you don't want.

    The thing is, although auto-generation of rhythm-action patterns is possible (see Vib Ribbon), a GOOD rhythm action pattern has to be hand-made. So as nice as it would be to put your Gina G MP3 (if that's what you want!) into a game, you can't expect a great game from it.

    What you want in a rhythm action game is:
    - well chosen tracks
    - artfully composed patterns to match the tracks

    Rhythm Action DLC is a great idea, as long as the people composing the patterns keep the quality up. You need talented people doing this stuff. You can't just get trainees to churn it out.

  • Dubkutter #28 3 years ago

    Not a bad game at all...

    Yeah although I did hear some tracks in it that I have never heard before....
    They did kinda get old quick.

    Hey this title belongs to a new genre now.

    Labour of love.

    Simply put if you are into Breakin then you will endure the same track over and over again while your fingers take on
    some mystical synchronising to the music.

    Its been done by the Hardcore Breakers back in the day difference is that its a screen now.

    You know some days I still sit staring into the distant nothingness wondering.

    "How hard would it be to bust some swipes?"
    "Could I honestly improve on my floorwork?"
    "Never did get round to doing those windmills to backspin to headspin to freeze."

    Now I can do all those things and more considering I am over the hill now its better to practice all these moves in a safe controlled
    environment.
    Nice inclusion of Crazy Legs I haven't unlocked him yet but cant wait.

    Defiantly one of those Labour of Love titles.


    PEACE