Star Wars: Bounty Hunter Review

LucasArts strategy for Star Wars games back in the early 2000s was wild and varied. With the prequel trilogy underway, the former publisher aimed its sights at not only developing movie tie-ins, but also on projects meant to enhance the films. This meant games focused on moments and characters only briefly touched upon in the three films. One such game wasStar Wars: Bounty Hunter, a third-person action-adventure title focused onEpisode II: Attack of the Clones’Jango Fett. Attempting to answer how Jango Fett ended up as the base for the Clone Army,Bounty Hunterreceived middling reviews back in 2002 thanks to numerous technical issues that plagued the ambitious title. Now, Aspyr has resurrected the game to give it new life on modern hardware. DoesStar Wars: Bounty Hunter’sreturn merit a healthy bounty of credits or is this another botched port alaStar Wars: Battlefront Classic Collection?

A long time ago in a galaxy far, far away…

Star Wars: Bounty Hunterpicks up shortly after the Battle of Naboo. Seeking to eliminate a fallen Jedi and find a worthy genetic template for the Clone Army, Darth Tyranus issues a challenge to the galaxy’s greatest bounty hunters. Jango Fett, having been personally invited, gladly accepts. Equipped with his dual blasters, flamethrower and other tools of the trade, Jango sets out to capture the fallen Jedi and unknowingly cement his place in galactic history.

Despite being relegated to Legends continuity,Star Wars: Bounty Hunter’sstory does a surprisingly good job fleshing out the character.Bounty Huntersuccessfully explores Jango’s backstory, trauma from his past and his relationships with several other bounty hunters. There’s a lot to enjoy about the story, even if the cinematics are too compressed.

There’s also great banter between several characters. The mysterious Zam Wesell gets an important role, fleshing out her relationship to Jango prior to her death inAttack of the Clones. Meanwhile, rival Montross serves as an excellent foil to Jango by forcing him to confront his past. It’s only the Bando Gora’s leader Komari Vosa who fails to leave a mark. With little connection to Jango, Vosa feels more like a goal than a proper antagonist for the protagonist.

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Star Wars: Bounty Hunterhas a surprisingly good story to tell. Jango Fett is a likable protagonist with original actor Temuera Morrison bringing him to life, and the events of the story do an excellent job fleshing him out. It’s unfortunate that the tale is relegated to Legends, but it is still one worth exploring if you’re a fan of the Fetts.

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Bounty hunting like it was 2002 all over again

Like all of Aspyr’s Star Wars output over the past couple of years,Star Wars: Bounty Hunterisn’t a remaster or a remake. Instead, it’s a faithful, native port of the original GameCube game with a series of quality-of-life improvements. Other than that, it’s a 1:1 conversion with all the same levels (18), assets, weapons and quirks of the original release. This includes the sometimes-confusing level design, the decision to only provide five lives per level, vague mission objectives and the awful bounty hunting mechanics. It would have been wonderful to see a proper remaster or remake that addressed these issues.

As a port, though,Star Wars: Bounty Hunteris one of Aspyr’s better conversions, especially after the abysmal stateStar Wars: Battlefront Classic Collectionreleased earlier this year. Thankfully, the game runs and performs exceptionally well on modern hardware. While it may have many of the same warts as the original release, players can at least jump in knowing that it functions properly.

Still a port, but with some worthwhile updates

That’s not to say Aspyr didn’t updateStar Wars: Bounty Hunterin any meaningful way. Gameplay has been touched up for greater fluidity and accessibility, making it feel more modern. Aspyr has built a new control scheme that makes it easier to fire weapons, access the flashlight and scanner and lock-onto enemies. For those on PC, they’ve built mouse and keyboard controls from the ground-up to provide enhanced aiming and movement. Overall, it’s an excellent update that may not fix every issue with the original control scheme (i.e. it’s still a pain to switch between all the gadgets and weapons), but does successfully modernize the gameplay. Aspyr did go the extra mile and preserved the legacy controls as an option for those that want to experience how the game played back in 2002.

Aspyr also took a stab at updating the camera by giving the player complete control over it, which goes a long way in helping smooth out the original release’s camera issues. Still, the camera remains heavily troublesome, and t’s still easy for it to get stuck in the environment. What the developers didn’t touch is the dreadful AI, which remains as incompetent as it was in the original release. Be prepared for truly boring battles against these enemies before you get to the better segments of the game.Star Wars: Bounty Hunteris fun to play, especially with the updated controls, but its age is showing elsewhere.

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As previously stated,Star Wars: Bounty Hunteris a native port based off the original GameCube source code. While Aspyr has managed to increase the visual fidelity and the resolution, and preserve the unique visual flourishes, this is still a GameCube game. Some assets are muddy and lack detail, enemy models are repeated ad nauseam, and the compressed pre-rendered cutscenes look bad. Still, there’s enough touches in the game to create a decent presentation, including a still good-looking Jango Fett model. It also helps that the performance is rock-solid, a major improvement from GameCube, and especially, PS2.

Closing Comments

LucasArts released a decent Star Wars game back in 2002 that, despite a great story, suffered from its control scheme and ambitious technical visuals. Fast-forward to 2024 and Aspyr has managed to clean upStar Wars: Bounty Hunterinto the product it was always meant to be. Despite its Legends status, the story remains a strong aspect of the game, diving deep into Jango Fett’s character and further fleshing him out after his all-too brief appearance in Attack of the Clones. The updates to gameplay makeBounty Hunterfeel modern, fluid and accessible, though the legacy controls are still there for purists. It would have been nice to see a remaster or remake that fixed additional quirks and greatly improved the presentation, but as a $19.99 port, Aspyr has delivered enough changes and updates to makeStar Wars: Bounty Hunterfeel like the game it always should have been at launch.Star Wars: Bounty Hunteris one bounty you’ll want to bring in alive.