Ra Ra Boom opens with a high-energy anthem letting you know these cheerleaders from outer space, who may or may not be ninjas as well, are all out of bubble gum. A rogue learning AI named Zoi, whose directive was to protect Earth from climate change, discovered the best way to do this was to excise humanity. This disaster caused humans to leave Earth over 20 years ago, and humanity has spent its remaining days preparing for Zoi’s attack on orbital space stations. During a normal training exercise, the day finally came when Nezz and Station 26 cheer team found themselves under attack by Zoi, and their directive was not to barricade themselves in the safe room, but to head to Earth. In this journey, you’ll discover Zoi has been recreating much of Earth, and the struggle may be against the extinction of humanity, but it also causes our heroines to confront deep-seated issues. While this plot would be just at home in a B Movie, the infectious energy and zany premise let players dive right into CPU-smashing action.
Ra Ra Boom’s Battle-Hardened Cheerleaders Bring the Pain to Rogue AI Robots
As you journey into Ra Ra Boom‘s AI-controlled world, you’ll pick between four cheerleaders: Aris, who finds herself thrust into leadership and wielding a scythe, Ren, full of youthful energy and a student of the blade and shuriken, Vee, a loner and shield-carrying combatant, and Saida, the big sister of the group and a cyborg packing energy blades. While these characters don’t play radically differently, they do seem to have some minor differences, like speed. There are some concrete differences between the four young ladies, with Vee most notably being able to shield herself from projectiles when firing her gun. You read that right — these cheerleaders traded their pom-poms for firearms, or shuriken in Ren’s case. While ranged abilities aren’t unheard of in beat ‘em ups of yore, it is a distinct and interesting choice to make them always available to players instead of as a power-up or environmental weapon that can be thrown like a trash can or wooden box. With what I’ve experienced in this preview build of Ra Ra Boom, I think you’ll need them.
The first level of Ra Ra Boom starts as a training simulation for the squad, but if it is kept as is, you’ll feel the pain. You’ll encounter enemies that get a second wind and attack relentlessly, only to explode if not taken care of, and proper self-destructing enemies. Not much later, enemies who reverse your controls become frequent. I admit I haven’t played too many beat ‘em ups since Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Turtles in Time, but this ramp up seems a bit extreme. While I understand how a basic thug who throws a punch occasionally might not be the most exciting foe to face, Mario faces goombas before moving onto more elaborate enemies for a reason. Especially since Ra Ra Boom starts the player with no defensive abilities, it seems a bit much. While I’m sure a group of four could have fun like this, and there doesn’t seem to be much of a penalty to dying beyond going back a checkpoint, it’s worth pointing out. Speaking of dying, Ra Ra Boom has an interesting feature in which when a player comes back from the dead, they’re given an invulnerability shield similar to the one when a player dashes or air dashes. I don’t know if Gylee Games considers this an accessibility feature, but this period lasts a while and, most importantly, delivers any damage you’d receive back to the enemies who dealt it (even bosses!). This is a great way to get past any particular enemies who would give you trouble as you turn their targeted robotic fury against them, and because it’s a result of dying, it can’t be overly exploited.
Ra Ra Boom also has a series of upgrades for the things you’d expect, like Run Speed, Attack Power, and Rate of Fire, as well as abilities like Dashing, Dodging, and an Uppercut. There are also some upgrades which are a bit stranger, like Recoil Dampening, which lessens gun recoil, but because recoil puts more distance between you and the enemy, this may be an optional or even “downgrade” of a power-up. I was also able to fully upgrade everything, which let me see that there is a bit of stiffness in the combat. I oftentimes had to end my beatdowns prematurely to actually dodge, and when you jump, you’re stuck facing that direction. I found myself jumping a number of times and facing the wrong direction to pepper my robotic enemies with ammo.
There is some destructibility, though I have a feeling groups are going to have a better chance at finding ice or poison ammo in that manner, with how long it took me solo to destroy a cart. On defeating enemies, they drop scrap that you’re able to buy upgrades with. I hope that between now and launch, Gylee Games will make it so that currency doesn’t disappear before you have the chance to get it mid-battle, and it won’t be put in inaccessible areas any longer.
Though it was not implemented in the build I played, in each level, you were assigned “homework”, which I’m assuming is an extra objective that may give players something else to shoot for besides beating the bolts out of robots and finishing the level. Done right, this mechanic could give the nine levels of Ra Ra Boom great replayability.
Ra Ra Boom saves the cheerleaders to save the world, coming August 12, 2025 on Steam, Epic Games Store, Xbox Series X|S, and PlayStation 4/5.
Check out our interview of Chris Bergman, CEO and Founder of Gylee Games on Ra Ra Boom and Gylee Games in general: https://monstervine.com/2025/07/gylee-games-ceo-interview-ra-ra-boom/
