Next up in the PAX East tour was a stop at the Midwest Games booth where I was taking a look at an interesting title, Ra Ra Boom. Ra Ra Boom is a four-player co-op beat em up starring cheerleaders from space trying to save the world. Who knew cheerleading was so pivotal to our survival? The version of the game shown at PAX East was played on an old-school arcade cabinet that we would play Turtles in Time or the Simpsons Arcade game on when we were kids. That being said Ra Ra Boom looks like an interesting entry into the beat em up genre.
It’s always interesting when beat em up games have a deep story and it appears that Ra Ra Boom has that in spades. Our four cheerleader heroine each has a different style of play. Aris feels like the leader the group and the most well rounded character. Saida is a faster character and at the same time has more ranged attacks. She also roller blades everywhere so how could you not like her? Vee is a tank that is slower than the other girls but can take a beating as well as dish it out. Lastly, Ren has a sword to fight with but also can use ranged moves too. Like more beat em ups, all players get a grade at the end of the level for bragging rights over your friends.
The demo also had a boss fight but it wasn’t a traditional boss fight. It looks like levels take place on a grid system where the characters move forward and can move freely between the four columns on the stage. The boss fight was an auto scroller level where the girls needed to escape a collapsing building. The cause was a giant robot but we couldn’t attack said robot. We needed to attack the underlings that the giant robot dropped and in turn knock them back into it.
During the demo, I played as Saida who is pretty cool because she skates all over the place. Each girl has special moves and with Saida, she has a move that digs her daggers into the ground and throws the enemies upward. You can juggle enemies this way and attacking enemies is a way to refill your special meter. I was having slight issues with the controls during the demo but I’m chalking that up to it being a special arcade cabinet made for PAX East. That being said, it was hard to tell where your character was onscreen sometimes and the jumping felt floaty at times.
Ra Ra Boom is an interesting take on the beat em up formula. I really like that the game has these girls grouped together, not knowing the ropes of saving the world yet. They were going to rely on their boss and friend who pooled them all together to do this mission but can because the demo ends on a cliffhanger where she appears to sacrifice herself for their safety. I love beat em ups and Ra Ra Boom has the structure to be something fun if they straighten out the controls.