Ra Ra BOOM’s sci‑fi cheerleaders are stylish — but thin hitboxes turn combat into a chore

Ra Ra BOOM is a four-player couch co-op beat-’em-up from Gylee Games that stars a team of futuristic ninja-cheerleaders who fight using melee weapons and firearms, and it’s out now on PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X, and PC. For more details and to find the game, see the store page: https://store.steampowered.com/app/2335060/Ra_Ra_BOOM/

– What the game is and where to buy it
– Visuals, presentation, and dialogue notes
– Gameplay, controls, and co-op tracking issues
– Progression, Scrap Metal economy, and final scores
– Difficulty options, Homework Assignments, and endgame

What Ra Ra BOOM is

Ra Ra BOOM puts four distinct characters — Aris, Saida, Ren, and Vee — in a sci-fi setting where they aim to avenge a fallen friend and stop an evil AI. Aris uses a scythe, Saida is a cyborg on rollerblades, Ren fights with a katana, and Vee acts as the shielded tank. The game supports up to four players in local couch co-op and combines melee combat with firearms.

Visuals and presentation

The game’s environments are colorful and striking, and the character designs are distinct, which helps signal playstyle at a glance. However, the cheerleader theme isn’t always obvious from the outfits alone, and the team only says the chant “Ra ra BOOM!” a couple of times. Cutscenes are fully voiced but not fully animated, and there is no option to speed up text in dialogue boxes, so NPC conversations that happen outside cutscenes can feel long.

Gameplay and controls

Ra Ra BOOM plays like a traditional beat-’em-up with modern additions. Each character can use melee moves and firearms, and players collect Scrap Metal during levels. Notably:
– Characters have very thin sprites and hitboxes, which makes landing hits inconsistent.
– Enemies also struggle to hit players, so fights can last longer than expected.
– Light attacks and other moves cannot be canceled.
– Each character can pick up and use a gun, but aiming and lining up shots can still be difficult.
– When a player dies and has an extra life, they can respawn as any character not currently played; however, the game provides no floating player markers, which makes tracking who is who in co-op harder.

Progression and balance

Players spend Scrap Metal at the Scrap Shop, which contains three skill trees: Stunts, Melee, and Ranged. The trees offer health and speed boosts, new movement options (dodge, dash, double jump), melee and ranged stat upgrades, and special moves like aerial attacks and pistol-whips. In practice, players can unlock most upgrades quickly; it’s possible to buy all skills before reaching the halfway point of the game. Scrap Metal heavily affects end-of-level grades: in one run the final score was 404,450, where 61,000 points were from damage, 0 from Time Bonus, 0 from Lives Bonus, and 343,450 from the Scrap Bonus. Gylee Games has said it is working to balance Scrap depending on the number of players.

Difficulty, replay, and endgame

Each level has a Homework Assignment that changes objectives on replay — for example, replaying a level using melee-only. However, there are no options to change overall difficulty, and the final boss and main villain have been described as underwhelming by players who have finished the game. Overall, Scrap Metal collection is the largest factor in end-of-level grading, and some players may finish progression trees early.