Ra Ra Boom will be a must play this Summer

At PAX East 2025, there were a lot of indie games for us to check out. We saw games like Pizza Bandit, Demon Tides, Tire Boy, Fresh Tracks, and Ra Ra Boom from Gylee Games. I had the chance to play two levels of Ra Ra Boom alongside Senior Producer, Kim Edwards.

The first part of the gameplay was the prologue, which essentially is a fun tutorial for the game and how the mechanics work. If you played beat ’em up games in the past, like the old TMNT games or even most recently, TMNT Shredder’s Revenge, this will be right up your alley!

What Is Ra Ra Boom?

Ra Ra Boom is a 4-player co-op kickass action sidescroller adventure with a modern twist. The game is set in the future of Earth, which is overrun by Rogue AI. You and your friends will have to battle waves of enemies and upgrade your ninja cheerleader’s skills as you smash, shoot, and beat up all kinds of enemies.

The main characters featured in the game are Aris, Saida, Ren, and Vee. They have their own abilities and weapons. When I played the game at PAX East last weekend, I used Vee mainly but also switched to Saida briefly. Something that I wasn’t used to right away was the gunplay on top of your regular beat ’em up style.

Gylee Games didn’t just provide fun gameplay with Ra Ra Boom. It features a story that has 2D cinematic cutscenes and voice acting. It’s an all-female-led cast, and throughout my brief playthrough, I got a glimpse of it, and it’s exciting to see. I can’t wait to learn the background of each hero and their experiences.

Fun Gameplay

I found the gameplay of Ra Ra Boom to be entertaining throughout the levels I played. The second world was an amusement park level inspired by a Six Flags-owned theme park in Ohio, which is near the developers’ origin. All of the enemies within the level were themed after rides and other elements you’d see at amusement parks.

One of my favorite mini bosses was on the roller coaster, where essentially there is this angry cart that is trying to kill you, and there are multiple lanes it can go after you on.

Ra Ra Boom was one of my favorite games that I played at PAX East 2025. It has everything you’d want in a beat ’em up game, but it offers so much more. Gylee Games hasn’t announced a release date yet; aside from that, it’s releasing in August on Xbox Series X|S, PlayStation 5, and PC via Steam.

Keep Ra Ra Boom on your Radar this Summer.