As Jet Set Radio Future is one of my all-time favourites, any game that draws inspiration from it is going to get my attention. Despite its low-budget indie status, Hover manages to evolve the formula and create an exceedingly fun experience that I won’t soon forget.

The year: the future. One of many space colonies is being stifled under the totalitarian grip of the Great Administrator. Fun is banned. A band of plucky young upstarts called the Gamers decide to rebel, using rampant cloning (to create player characters) and supersuits (to jump high, run fast, grind, walljump, etc.) to fight back against the heavily policed state. Nice setup, although it doesn’t get satisfactorily resolved until you get the 100% collectibles ending, which I did not do.

The game is very free-form and open, with two city hubs to explore and roam plus a few other self-contained areas. It’s designed to be both a huge playground for the excellent movement system and a setting for the various missions you can do, which range from races and obstacle courses, to delivering packages, to competitive ball games. The game is intended as a kind of MMO, with other player characters in the same world that can take part in missions with you. Since I don’t have PS Plus I played solo, and had a perfectly cromulent game experience.

Now about that movement system. Yes there are story and side missions to do, but I had the most fun just tootling around the city, chaining grinds, climbing buildings, making massive leaps, all the while performing the small tasks that the hubs are stuffed with. I recommend at least following the Gamers’ mission lines enough to get their DNA, as you can add more clones to your “team” and I had an even more amazing time just traversing when I made a Greendy clone with her improved acceleration and jumping.

The Gamers team themselves have some fun designs, and individual personalities that come through in their dialogue. They will often all contribute some text chatter before and after missions, with other randoms and supporting characters pitching in as well. It gives depth and life to this world, despite the constant spelling and grammatical mistakes (I can forgive this, as the dev team was tiny and also French). Your PC is unfortunately silent, and starts as a generic hoodied cyberish punk but you can adjust the colours, and as I said create new clones, then tailor their abilities with the mod chips the game showers on you.

Ah, I just love this game a lot. I love the setting, with the colourful future city; the hubs have subzones that feel different and it’s highly vertically stratified, which also aids the gameplay. I love the laid-back structure, and the effortless way you can get around. It’s not alway easy to traverse, and your suit has limited energy for wall jumps and such, but there’s a friendly and ever-present rewind feature to reverse your movement. The music is nice, weighted more towards chill techno than a JSR soundtrack but with higher energy situational tracks including two songs contributed by Hideki Naganuma himself. Sure it’s a little rough at times; it’s a low-budget Kickstarter game and it shows. But Hover is a totally joyful gem, very much worth your time. Just don’t use the first-person mode if you get motion sick!