Star Wars: Bounty Hunter | Switch Review

The prequel era was a treasure trove for Star Wars fans. Endless books, comics, and video games brought young minds deeper into that expansive world. And for me, in particular, Star Wars: Bounty Hunter was the closest I was ever going to get to a Boba Fett game. Turns out Jango would have to do.

You Can Run

Aspyr returns us to this Jango Fett prequel story in much the same fashion as their other myriad Star Wars rereleases. This isn’t a full remaster or remake at all, but rather a newly native port for the various modern consoles out there. Personally, I love that approach and I wish more developers and publishers would follow suit. I adore getting to play a game as close to its original version as possible, and it avoids the many artistic missteps many remasters often make.

That’s not to say there aren’t improvements with this new version of Star Wars: Bounty Hunter. The camera works a whole lot better than the original release, for one thing. There’s also a flashlight added to Jango’s repertoire, as well as some vastly improved lighting. Rest assured fans of the original release, you actually can unlock Boba Fett’s armor this time. All you need to do is beat the game once, and the biggest badass in the galaxy is yours to use. No more chasing false schoolyard leads.

But You’ll Only Die Tired

If you’re unfamiliar with Star Wars: Bounty Hunter, you play as father of the year Jango Fett in a story that sets the scene for Star Wars Episode II: Attack of the Clones. In a fortuitous few weeks for the elder Fett, you’ll see him claim Slave I, begin his partnership with Zam Wesell, and become the foundation for an entire clone army. Hell of a few days working for Count Dooku. As silly as it is that this all happens in one adventure for Jango, it’s nonetheless a fun bounty hunting tale. You even get some insight into his past from an old foe. You’ll also get plenty of cool one-liners from Fett along the way, and honestly, what else could you need?

The gunplay is some very simple lock-on blasting. You get access to the ridiculous amounts of weapons any good Mandalorian carries: flamethrower, missile pack, poison darts, and much more. The shame is that you’ll never really need to use any of these. The smartest course of action is to use Jango’s unlimited ammo dual blasters and let the lock-on take care of things. It’s nice the additional weapons are there to fulfill your fantasies, but the game never puts you in a position to need them until the final chapter.

The Art of the Hunt

What makes the firefights fun in Star Wars: Bounty Hunter is your jetpack. You can fly around wherever you want for almost the entire game, and it makes all the difference. The jetpack’s fuel only gets you a few seconds of airtime before needing to recharge, but it’s so much fun. You can easily use it as a dodge from melee attackers, hovering over them as you rain death from above, or make a quick dash backwards to buy yourself some time. It makes for some interesting platforming challenges as well.

The biggest disappointment is with bounty hunting itself, unfortunately. While the story has you tracking down particular targets, there are also optional bounties in every mission. Unfortunately, this simply isn’t fun. You have to use a scanner (which thankfully puts the game into slow motion for this rerelease) on enemy targets and hope one of them comes up as a bounty. It turns what should be a massive thrill into an agonizingly tedious collectible. There is another off-putting aspect of Star Wars: Bounty Hunter in that you only have five lives per level. It’s unlikely you’ll need them, but it was weirdly archaic even in 2002.

I’ll Call You Dead

As long as you know what you’re in for, Star Wars: Bounty Hunter is some classic Star Wars fun. It’s not amongst the best Star Wars games ever made, but it does stand up as one of the good ones. It’s still a heartbreaker after all these years that bounty hunting, the very name of the game, is so outrageously boring, but otherwise you’re in for a good time. Maybe this is why we need a proper Boba Fett game: let the real Fett show us how bounty hunting is done.

To hear me talk more about Star Wars: Bounty Hunter, be sure listen to the August 2nd, 2024 podcast episode.

This review is based on a Nintendo Switch copy of Star Wars: Bounty Hunter provided by Sandbox Strategies for review purposes. When it releases on August 1st, it will also be available on Xbox and PC.