In 2002 the shooter genre was in a pretty good place. We’d just had a double-whammy of Halo and Metroid Prime, while the PS2’s Medal of Honor: Frontline set the foundations for a new wave of WWII based titles. Over on PC, the influences of 1998’s Half-Life were still being felt. The PlayStation 2 was selling gangbusters around this time too, with developers finally up to speed with programming for the initially perplexing polygon pushing beast.
One thing that wasn’t performing too well at the time was the notorious movie tie-in; not a thing of the past just yet, but still something to be wary of. Wisely, Lucasarts chose not to create 1:1 videogame adaptations of Star Wars: Episode II but rather three titles(!) that lead up to the movie’s events, using characters, vehicles, and locations from its silver screen counterpart.
2002’s Star Wars: Bounty Hunter – originally released on PS2 and GameCube – reflected much of this. It wasn’t a straight-laced movie tie-in, and consequently doesn’t look nor play like one, and it’s also a pretty contemporary example of a shooter from the era. The stages are reasonably long and varied, our hero Jango Fett gains new equipment throughout the storyline, and the enemies aren’t completely brainless. Just like in Halo, some will even flee if outnumbered. An attempt was also made here to make stages feel like living cities, with the streets often featuring wandering citizens and droids. Problem is, this is the PS2 era – the first city reached in Bounty Hunter closer resembles a cardboard box factory’s warehouse.
Neither does it have the casual gung-ho gameplay usually associated with a movie tie-in. Star Wars: Bounty Hunter remains quite challenging, although this is mostly for the wrong reasons. Enemies often group together, draining Jango’s health in seconds with their incoming fire. The controls also are fiddly, especially when it comes to scanning for bounties – with each stage having targets to find in return for extra credits, providing you can take them alive – and aiming can feel cackhanded. The flamethrower can kill several enemies at once, making it essential to use, but the third-person viewpoint makes it unwieldy. There’s Jango’s jetpack to become accustomed to as well, allowing for short bursts of flight – enough to propel ol’ bucket head to far away or higher platforms, but not enough to skip entire areas. This remaster also introduces a torch that’s useful during the second half where darker areas are common.
There’s another reason for the game’s difficulty, and it’s one that highlights Bounty Hunter’s age. Just five continues (lives) are given per stage. Once that stockpile is depleted, you’re thrown back to the start – with some stages lasting close to 25 minutes. Losing your last life during a boss fight is frustrating, making it an archaic way to experience something in 2024. A later stage also begins with a tricky descent – with fall damage complicating things further – and if you screw up too many times, chances are you won’t have enough lives left to see it through until the end. You may as well hit restart and try again with all five lives intact.
While this review has been damning so far, Bounty Hunter isn’t all that bad. It obviously had a reasonable budget (at least for 2002 standards) with effort going into the visuals, soundtrack, storyline, and general presentation. It’s leaps and bounds over the Star Wars games from the previous era, such as Jedi Power Battles and the Phantom Menace tie-in. I was even a bit nostalgic over the extras, which include an unlockable Marvel comic book, scans of trading cards, and over 100 pieces of concept art. On the subject of nostalgia, cheat codes still work, including a level select. The effort put into this remaster is respectable too. It feels well optimised for modern consoles, with textures and lighting enhanced. The upped resolution makes it closer resemble an early Xbox 360/PS3 game.
If you’re going into Bounty Hunter as a newcomer, you’ll likely find it finicky and frustrating, yet may still be able to appreciate the variety of the stages and find some enjoyment in the bounty hunting aspect. I was surprised by how long it is, with eighteen stages to complete and a boss for each chapter. If you owned the original back in 2002, it may additionally offer nostalgic value. Don’t make the mistake of thinking this is a hidden gem or a classic though; even at the time of release, many critics found it less than great. Nowadays, it’s barely above average – a blast from the past that, much like a Stormtrooper, only occasionally hits the mark.
Aspyr’s Star Wars: Bounty Hunter is out now on all formats. Originally developed by Lucasarts.