Stop trying to make Fett happen.
With the failure of this year's Battlefront Collection, Aspyr would have to deliver with Bounty Hunter, a remaster of the 2002 original starring the short-lived Jango Fett. While the remaster does what it said it was going to do with cleaning up the visuals and providing a “better” control scheme, a remaster should only preserve the original so closely if the game was actually fun to begin with.
There has often been a blurred line between that of a remake and that of a remaster. Many consider a remake to bring a completely modern spin on the original, often changing much of its design to suit the era. However, some remakes are glorified remasters, swapping new visuals and animations over the design of the original. Spongebob Squarepants: Battle for Bikini Bottom - Rehydrated was such a game. It released with brand new visuals and felt modern, yet clung to its old-school design to make it feel like how we remembered. When you remaster a game that old, steps should be taken to ensure the finished product is the best it could be. It’s a shame Bounty Hunter didn’t get such a treatment.
I will break down Star Wars: Bounty Hunter remaster into two camps; the first is the execution of the remaster, and then the game itself, since both require discussions of their own. Given that not every single consumer will have played the original, it’s good to get an idea of what you are expecting when you purchase the game, especially one built as a ‘remaster’ of a 22-year-old game.
Star Wars: Bounty Hunter is a remaster that preserves the original in much of its 2002 glory. While changes have been made to the game, they are not immediately noticeable, apart from the graphical facelift that greatly cleans up the texture work, and adds dynamic lighting effects, bloom, and a general polish to a game that didn’t really look too great even back then. Rest assured, this is a simple cleanup and not a complete reinvention of what came before, as is noticeable with shadows often casting through platforms and various other glitches that are still present. It’s seen a slight overhaul to its camera system and a more modern control scheme, even if it still makes things like using the scanner or your other tools a clunky process. It also adds a flashlight, but I rarely saw a point in why it was added.
From a remaster point of view, Aspyr did what it set out to do; remaster Star Wars: Bounty Hunter. This effort preserves the original release and certainly makes it the definitive way to play the game. The visual cleanup was needed, and the ability to use the triggers to fire your gun was a welcome and much-needed addition. However, the game itself needed so much more to allow those additions to actually pay off.
A great number of games of that era were built on the limitations of their hardware. This often meant that textures were constantly reused, and levels were built to accommodate the tech, often repeating the same designs constantly. This is on top of limited animations, bad controls, the camera, and several more issues that would plague games for well over a decade and beyond. I’ve stated time and time again that while I enjoy remasters and remakes, the primary goal of any such endeavor should be that it results in a fun experience.
Star Wars: Bounty Hunter is never really fun as you’ll constantly fight against the controls, get lost in the labyrinth of its frustrating level design, and feel powerless as your beskar armor does nothing to stop the most average pistol blasts fired in a galaxy far, far away. This is on top of gameplay audio that is two to three times louder than its cutscenes, enemies constantly dying via the Wilhelm scream, and an outdated and bizarre lives system that simply has no place here. Sure, you can skip frustrating levels due to the password system returning here, but that’s not a catch-all for such bad design in the first place.
Bounty Hunter is set between the events of The Phantom Menace and Attack of the Clones. Jango was a standout in the films, largely since the original Bounty Hunter, Boba Fett, was a very underused character in the originals. This story, while no longer canon, sees Jango taking a job from Count Dooku, one that sees him set to assassinate Komari Vosa, a Dark Jedi and the leader of the Bando Gora cult. The game then explains how he comes across the iconic Slave I ship, and his relationship with Zam Wesell, a fellow Bounty Hunter who also made an appearance in Attack of the Clones. It also works in the story arc of the clone army, one that saw Jengo given an unaltered one to raise as his son, Boba.
From a story perspective, Bounty Hunter offers quite a bit to chew on. It also sets up a good rivalry against Montross, a character that would be mentioned later on in the Zam Wesell comic series and the Legacy of the Force: Sacrifice novel. Given the era and his popularity at the time, Montross is voiced by Clancy Brown, an actor’s portrayal that works fine for video games and cartoons and does a fine job here as Fett’s foil. Temuera Morrison may not be so beloved now due to the painful Boba Fett Disney+ series, but his role as Jango at the time was considered to be rather good and his return here as the character does the role justice, I just wish the audio mixing was better so I could have enjoyed it more. His voice direction is also a tad bland in a few of the game’s many cutscenes, but for the most part, he performs the assignment admirably.
Across its six chapters, you’ll guide Jango Fett as you run and gun, as well as use your jet pack to put down numerous guards, creatures, tuskan raiders, and cultists as you attempt to make it out alive. This is on top of a bounty system that requires that you stop engaging in combat and use a scanning tool to then scan the nearest NPC to determine if they are a bounty target or not. This system only rewards the unlocking of concept art and bonus material in the game’s menu. If this system had any gameplay rewards, such as outfits or bonus weaponry, or even gaining one of your five lives back, then it could have been something worthwhile to take on. Instead, it is something you’ll likely never want to engage with.
Jango will be equipped with his dual blasters, a flamethrower, poison darts, and a lasso. While you’ll get a lot of work out of the blasters and the flamethrower, the other tools are largely there to aid in taking some of your bounty targets in alive. Some levels will provide bonus weaponry, such as rocket launchers and high-powered rifles, but these moments are rare and usually in areas with a high amount of enemies. The biggest issue with these tools is that you have to put away your blasters to use any of them, making you pretty vulnerable if you are attempting to capture a bounty in the middle of a fight, or accidentally switch to your fists and bring that into a gun fight.
Apart from his blasters, the most used tool in Jango’s kit is in jetpack. The jetpack has a limited fuel supply, but it does recharge when not using it. Most levels are built around the jetpack, making you really learn how to use it properly, or suffer the fate of falling into various pits or hazards that make up the bulk of how the levels are designed. The jetpack works differently based on how you move while starting your boost. Move even slightly to one side and you won’t ascend high enough, and the same can be said for the long-distance gaps you’ll need to make on a regular basis. While I eventually got the hang of it, especially given how the camera will constantly want to work against you, it is the platforming apart from the jetpack that constantly got on my nerves, especially when the camera will flip around or move above you in mid-jump. These are the types of things that should have been addressed when taking on this remaster.
The game also sees a huge shift in difficulty in some of the later levels, especially with the use of snipers and some creatures that once they hit you, they will strike at your body before you can get back up, killing you instantly. Given the clunkiness to your aiming on the Switch’s Joycons, trying to target snipers is often a guess, making you duck out of cover and fire off a few blind shots, and then repeat. While you do get a sniper rifle from to time, it only feels more janky the more you zoom in, making it very unreliable, especially when you are covering an ally as they attempt to sneak through an enemy base.
Enemies will also respawn if you spend too long in an area attempting to decipher where it wants you to go next. Levels have no signposting or way to communicate to the player where to go. From platforms that are barely decipherable to the player since they share the same texture as the wall, to small doors that look the same as those that do not open. You’ll constantly feel like you are getting lost because the game simply doesn’t do anything to assist you. And, since enemies constantly respawn, you’ll feel penalized for your time trying to navigate its levels with enemies that simply appear out of nowhere and blast you from behind.
Star Wars: Bounty Hunter’s big positive is that it preserves the integrity of the original, a game that many enjoyed in their youth. So if you simply wanted a better looking version of this game, then that is what you get. While that is admirable and speaks to the restraint the team likely had to fix many of its issues, I still feel that making the game fun and functional should have been the bigger intent. If I had to score this simply on the execution of the remaster, then I would likely be looking at about a 7/10, which is what we consider “good”. However, the game attached to it has other plans in store for you.
The controls, camera, and audio, are painfully executed here and create moments of frustration that could have been addressed, especially the audio. Honestly, I probably heard the Wilhelm scream at least a hundred times each level. The presentation of the story, and the story itself is fine for what it is, but so much of that fades from your view the moment many of the game’s issues present themselves. Bounty Hunter is a game that should have benefitted from the same remake sensibilities of others around that era that are recently being reintroduced to a modern audience, instead of showing new players just how clunky games of that era used to be.
Developer - Aspyr. Publisher - Aspyr. Released - August 1st, 2024. Available On - Xbox One/Series X/S, PS4/PS5, Nintendo Switch, PC. Rated - (T) - Violence. Platform Reviewed - Nintendo Switch. Review Access - A review code was provided by the publisher for the purpose of this review.
Jeff is the original founder of Analog Stick Gaming. His favorite games include The Witcher III, the Mass Effect Trilogy, Hi-Fi Rush, Stellar Blade, Hellbade: Senua’s Sacrifice, and the Legend of Heroes series, especially Trails of Cold Steel III & IV.