Action Adventure Review

Star Wars: Bounty Hunter Remaster – Review

Star Wars has always been big business, not just in film but also in video games. The franchise had some iconic titles with the likes of Knights of the Old Republic and the X-Wing series. Around the release of the second prequel movie, one of its characters Jango Fett the badass bounty hunter (father of cult favorite character Boba Fett) began growing in popularity as a character. Around this time, LucasArts decided to make a prequel game to this second movie, starring Jango as our player character, giving us Star Wars: Bounty Hunter on the PS2 & Gamecube. Today we are looking at the latest remaster of the game by Aspyr, releasing on modern platforms.

Back view of Jango Fett

Don’t Have a Fett!

Star Wars: Bounty Hunter is set around 10 years before Episode II – Attack of the Clones. The titular bounty hunter Jango Fett finds himself at the center of a plot that involves the evil Sith and the reason why Jango was chosen for the Clone Trooper project. This all gives a little more backstory to a character that didn’t have a whole lot of screen time when he debuted in the film.

Given that Jango is a bounty hunter, his role in the game is a little morally gray, unlike the clean-cut Jedi. This allows the player to interact with the Sith and even the criminal underworld, giving gamers a better glimpse into the world surrounded by The Force and space samurai. 

The story in Bounty Hunter is quite a fun little side story for the franchise. It manages to make itself important enough not to be a complete throwaway and is written in a way that what initially seems like regular bounty targets eventually tie into a much grander narrative that leads into Attack of the Clones. It’s great for any Star Wars fan, even the less hardcore crowd like myself who engages with more of the games than the films. It’s engaging enough to keep your interest.

Star Wars: Bounty Hunter Remaster - Jango Fett on a platform

Bounty of Arsenal

Star Wars: Bounty Hunter is a third-person action-adventure game with a healthy dose of platforming and even more shooting. Being a bounty hunter you initially need to earn your rent by tracking down bounties and taking them down. As the plot thickens, your motives do change somewhat. 

You explore some quite well-designed famous Star Wars locales with a behind-the-character camera. Thankfully, this has been massively improved from the camera in the original release, which had an almost sweeping effect should you dare to move it to a different perspective. It is hard to explain, but trust me, Aspyr have done God’s work improving the camera controls here.

The main selling point of this game lies within the combat. Nothing was cooler in Attack of the Clones than seeing Jango jetpacking around the place, firing off his two blasters while making full use of his arsenal. Thankfully, you can do all of that here in a reasonably playable way.

The game uses a lock-on system that allows you to continually aim at an enemy while moving around, either on the ground or up in the air with the jetpack. It is so fun to use in combat and move around the stage and is the star of the show allowing for such vertical discovery, but it does only have a small amount of fuel. Weapons on offer are the traditional laser blaster, a flamethrower, darts, a heavy laser rifle, and the whipcord. That last one is something you’ll need to switch to a lot if you want to get all the additional bounties available throughout the levels.

Star Wars: Bounty Hunter Remaster - Scanning for a bounty

Just Trying To Make My Way In The Universe

Unfortunately, the game’s secondary bounty system drags the game down. You have to scan every NPC to see if they have a bounty, and if they do you have to tag them and then take them in dead or alive. The problem is that you have to do this during combat, which turns you into a target and just makes it too easy to either kill your bounty or forget to tag them, making the whole process moot. Fortunately this only ties into the extra unlockable bonus content, but it still damages the flow of the game and breaks the immersion.

There is quite a lot to unlock, including a full comic book. Successfully capturing bounties or finding the hidden Mandalorian Feathers in stages allows you to view plenty of concept art and backstory. There is even a cheeky easter egg from the original release, you can now unlock Boba Fett as a playable character if you get 100%. It’s a nice nod to the original game and a fantastic incentive to suffer through the bounty system.

Star Wars: Bounty Hunter takes place across 18 levels. It’s well-paced, though starting the game in a sewer area is a bold choice. The game wasn’t exactly groundbreaking even when it was released, but it does scratch an itch for the AA market. It isn’t special but it sufficiently captures the gameplay of being a bounty hunter in the Star Wars universe.

Cutscene in Star Wars: Bounty Hunter Remaster

That’s A Nice Looking Suit

You can tell Star Wars: Bounty Hunter is originally from the PS2 era as the visuals have that distinctive blocky yet somewhat detailed look. Aspyr has worked some magic and enhanced the textures however, and it does look nice in some points, but sadly the areas and characters that weren’t given as much attention stand out like the sorest of thumbs.

Cutscenes are a little jarring as they don’t appear to have had any work done to them as far as I can tell. Conversely, the stages look fantastic as they really lean into the source material. The inclusion of lighting effects and particles helps to draw you in and makes it much easier to ignore the rather stiff animations on both man and machine.

The soundtrack is exactly what you’d expect, John Williams-esque tunes blaring out most of the time before it gets drowned out by the sounds of laser fire and both alien and human speech as your prey shouts stuff at you from across the way.

Voice acting is superb across the board, even if the only returning actor from the movie to the game is Jango’s. The additional casting for characters like Dooku, Sidious, and Jabba are close enough to what you’d expect of the characters that it doesn’t detract from the experience.

Jango standing next to another character

Verdict

Aspyr’s remaster is the best way to play Star Wars: Bounty Hunter, an average but charming game, if just for the simple fact they fixed the horrid camera system. Outside of the great combat, the gameplay is nothing special, but the Star Wars atmosphere helps to carry the experience. You can choose to ignore the iffy bounty system too if you just want to plod on through this 7 to 10-hour romp as the original Mandalorian badass. 

STAR WARS: BOUNTY HUNTER IS RECOMMENDED

Platforms: Nintendo Switch, PlayStation 4, Xbox, PC

If you find yourself wanting more Star Wars games, check out our review of Lego Star Wars: The Skywalker Saga.

Many thanks go to Aspyr who provided a Nintendo Switch review code for this title.

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