Welcome to EXPlay, (Explain & Play) the review series where we care not for scores but tell it how it is when it comes to every game we get our hands on, whilst also taking the time to include some lengthy gameplay, to give you the reader, the chance to shape your own impressions and views whilst watching and reading. In this installment, we’re covering Star Wars: Bounty Hunter by developer Aspyr.
Star Wars: Bounty Hunter: (The Explanation)
Star Wars: Bounty Hunter is a 3rd-person action adventure game by LucasArts. It originally released on platforms like the Nintendo Gamecube and PS2 back in 2002. It takes place before the events of Star Wars: Episode II – Attack of the Clones and follows Mandalorian Bounty Hunter Jango Fett and how he came to ally himself with Lord Tyranus, AKA Count Dooku.
With Aspyr owning the licensing to pretty much every Star Wars game developed by LucasArts, including Bounty Hunter, they have made it their latest title to be given a release on modern gaming platforms. As this is another title that I missed out on the first time around, I am more than happy to jump into the world of pre-Disney Star Wars once again and learn how the Mandalorian came to be the Clone Donor who helped create the formidable Clone Army.
So, let’s get down to gameplay. Players take control of Jango Fett who is armed with an arsenal of weapons. He has dual blasters, a flamethrower, detonators, darts, and binding cord. If you like to get up close and personal, Jango can also use his fists with the occasional kick here and there when doing combos (just press the ZR button multiple times in a row). Later in the game you will be able to fire rockets from Jango’s jetpack which work well with crowd control and taking out multiple enemies at once.
The object of the game is to work your way through each level and complete a series of objectives. Objectives are rather linear and essentially a means to get you from point A to Point B, like “Chase this person, Go to X, Blow up Y.” That sort of thing. To hinder your progress, there will be enemies that will open fire on you once they spot you. Sometimes, they can be in small groups but oftentimes, they can become a small army so you may feel the pressure to use every trick in the Mandalorian handbook to come up top and lay waste to your foes.
As a bounty hunter, you will also be able to take on bounties by scanning NPC’s and enemies to see who has a contract out on them. Some of these contracts can be brought in dead or alive, while others will pay out more for the mark to be terminated or in one piece.
To see which characters are bounties or not, you can use the scan feature which when you have found a potential bounty, you will then be notified on the price on live capture or termination. You will then need to mark the bounty and then proceed to either kill them and then press the action button on their dead body or string them up with your binding cable and then press the action button.
There are six chapters overall with three missions per chapter and story cutscenes usually at the beginning and the end of each chapter. These help to build up the story of the game and the world around Jango Fett, as well as help the player learn more about the bounty hunter himself. That said, the cutscenes are not exactly the prettiest but then again, Star Wars: Bounty Hunter is not a remaster and so, has not been given a graphical overhaul for modern consoles.
That said, the controls and camera have been tweaked and there is the option available for players to use either classic (legacy) or modern controls. For anyone wondering what the difference between the two control schemes are, basically it is different button mapping for actions like the ZR button being used to fire weapons with modern controls but firing your weapon with legacy controls requires pressing the Y button. As for the camera, it has been refined and you can rotate the camera easily with the right joystick and you can adjust its sensitivity in the control options.
For me, I am glad that I got to experience Star Wars: Bounty Hunter on Nintendo Switch. I can understand that this game may not be everyone’s cup of tea. The gameplay is rather linear but it is pretty enjoyable and there are a few challenging moments (usually with tricky platforming over pitfalls or being overwhelmed by enemies), but if you are willing to look past the dated visuals and the fps drops (yeah, that’s a thing too), you may get a kick out of this game too.
Star Wars: Bounty Hunter: (The Gameplay)
Game Specifications:
Developer: Aspyr
Publisher: Aspyr
Platform: Nintendo Switch (eShop)
Category: Action, Adventure
No. of Players: 1 player (Offline)
Release Date: March 14, 2024 (EU & NA)
Price: $19.99
File Size: 9.7 GB
Nintendo.com Listing
