Slap Happy Rhythm Busters

What a ridiculous name. The easiest way to describe Slap Happy Rhythm Busters (or Srap Happy Rhythm Busters, based off the English spine label on the CD) is "Jet Set Radio: The Fighting Game". It draws from the same hip youth oriented Shibuya aesthetics. It has a hip, electronic soundtrack. It even uses a similar style of cel-shaded graphics, a true rarity for PSOne games. (The only other notable one is the dreaded Simpsons Wrestling.) It is not a ripoff, because it was released in Japan at approximately the same time. It's also a surprisingly decent game from a company not exactly synonymous with quality. Polygon Magic was most known (if one could say "known" at all) for the Galerians series, but they also made a few forgettable fighters - Fighters' Impact for the arcades, Lord of Fist and Vs. for the PSOne, and later went on to do Bleach: Shattered Blade for the Wii. In that context, it's surprising that Slap Happy Rhythm Busters manages to couple a pretty decent game along with its brightly attractive visuals. Slap Happy Rhythm Busters is largely about style. The visuals are fantastic and the cel-shaded characters look phenomenal. The solid color designs make it easy to hit their low polygon count, one of the biggest problems with PSOne-era 3D fighters. Most of the characters are also quite imaginative, although a couple are obvious homages to other fighters.