Game Review: Star Wars: Bounty Hunter Remastered (Xbox Series X)

Originally released in 2002, Star Wars: Bounty Hunter came at a time when Stars Wars was looking backwards. Episode I: The Phantom Menace had come out in 1999 and Episode II: Attack of the Clones came out in 2002. Looking to put more focus on characters introduced in the original trilogy and the new prequel series, LucasArts created a game based around bounty hunting. Specifically, Jango Fett (the father of fan favourite Boba Fett), a character who was certainly ripe for more focus.

The game put players in the shoes (and jetpack) of the bounty hunter in an original story set between the events of Episode I and Episode II. A story that sets out to explain how Jango’s DNA ended up being the ‘base’ for the clone army, how he became a father, and even how he got Boba’s future famous ship.

A story that is completely non-cannon as of the time of Aspyr Media’s remastered version, although considering it’s based around a fairly dull drug trafficking conspiracy, that’s not a bad thing.

Yes, of all the aspects of Star Wars: Bounty Hunter that fails to excite the most, it’s the over-arching story. Although it’s also fair to say that the subplots around things like Count Dooku, a rival bounty hunter, the clones, and the ship are less interesting in 2024 than they might have been 2002. After all, not only has the story of the Fetts been explored in other media, Star Wars continues to be a mine Disney are more than happy to keep digging into, seemingly regardless of quality.

This isn’t Aspyr Media’s first remastering of a Star Wars property and they were also responsible for Star Wars Battlefront: Classic Collection. The lack of effort and polish put into that game was notable and the fan response, harsh, so it’s very disappointing to find that Star Wars: Bounty Hunter isn’t much better.

The issues are really simple, this isn’t anything but a graphical update with some minor tweaks here and there. A game like this needs a overhaul in the gameplay department, but that’s not what we get here.

A third-person 3D platformer/shooter that involves the player exploring levels, shooting bad guys, and collecting bounties. Levels that range from asteroid prisons, the streets of Coruscant, deep jungles and ancient caves. Across eight to ten hours, players will explore a lot of the galaxy and find plenty of challenge along the way.

Challenge born from an archaic checkpoint system and limited continues. Challenge born from clumsy auto-targeting and unwieldy gunplay. Challenge born from a bounty system that is exceptionally stupid. Star Wars: Bounty Hunter is an experience that just leaves you feeling so frustrated, regardless of the good things it does.

It is fun to play as Jango Fett and explore the levels shooting enemies as you jetpack around. The worlds and their designs feel suitably Star Wars, and this remaster looks decent. All of this would have been more than enough in 2002, but in 2024, so much more effort was needed.

Nowhere does the lack of effort within this remaster become more obvious than when it comes to switching items and weapons. Done via a clunky onscreen list that you have to scroll through, which, if you’re bounty hunting and the like, is going to happen a lot.

Speaking of bounty hunting. What should have been so much fun, scanning targets and attempting to take them dead or alive is, arguably, the worst part of the game. Not only is it so unwieldly to have to scroll to your scanner then scan an enemy and determine if they have a bounty or not. Then you need to switch to your rope if you’re going to take them alive and get close enough to capture them. It can be a nightmare to do during gunfights resulting in accidental deaths and/or lots of damage taken.

If all of that wasn’t bad enough, some bounties think nothing of throwing themselves to their doom, making their capture impossible. Which, if you’re going for the completion is very annoying. Made even worse by the terrible checkpoint system that records what you did, but puts you back at a specific point. So that bounty that ran off a cliff? Still dead. In levels that can go on for 40+ minutes and have upwards of 15 bounties, this is simply not ok.

These are things that this remaster should have fixed/improved upon. Yet, it seems as though the most minor of tweaks were done to make this passable instead.

There’s a good game here, it appears in flashes, and in better and more committed hands, this could have been the remaster to put the Fetts back on the map. Alas, what we have is something most will concede belongs in the era it came from.