N-Philes

Star Wars Bounty Hunter

Posted by Archived.

Since the beginning of time, or rather 1980, it has been every kid's (at heart or in actual stature) dream to be Boba Fett. Boba Fett was a seemingly insignificant character in the original Star Wars trilogy that somehow achieved cult status. In hopes of capitalizing on the popularity of Boba Fett, George Lucas and company decided to throw Jango Fett (Boba's father) into the mix for the latest installment in the prequel trilogy, who, quite coincidentally, was one of the better parts of Attack of the Clones. Seeing as the recent games based on the prequel trilogy have been somewhat lackluster, Lucasarts came up with the conclusion that everybody loves Boba and Jango Fett and would most likely love to play as them in a videogame. The answer, my friends, is Star Wars: Bounty Hunter.

Story

The events in Bounty Hunter transpire before those of Attack of the Clones, and chronicle just how Jango found himself being one of the major players in the Star Wars saga. Tyranus (Count Dooku, for those of you not paying attention during the movie), and his master Darth Sidious, are growing increasingly annoyed by a cult Jedi-group called the Bando Gora. At the same time, Sidious is also looking for a prime DNA specimen for his cloning operation on Kamino. Tyranus decides it's best to kill two birds with one stone, by deciding that whoever is capable of destroying the Bando Gora is more than qualified to be the genetic father of an army of killers. Tyranus scours the galaxy looking for skilled assassins prepared for the job. One of these bounty hunters is none other than our good friend Jango Fett. His buddy/aide Rozatta advises against it, but Jango decides that the bounty (five million credits) is something too large to merely avoid and sets the events that would forever change the Star Wars universe...

Gameplay

Bounty Hunter plays very similar to that perennial N64 classic, Shadows of the Empire, as they are both third-person shooters/platformers. I was quite surprised at the multitude of platforming involved. There was one wicked hard level where you had to jump from moving transport units to each other, jumping down about ten stories. All I can say is that I'm happy Jango has a jetpack. As of late, I've noticed that most platforming characters now come equipped with some form of levitation/hovering mechanism (Super Mario Sunshine, Dragon's Lair 3D, Rayman). Seriously, I love this jetpack. I could just zip and zag around Coruscant for hours shooting aliens. One of the coolest moves in the entire game is targeting an enemy, jetting up in the air and shooting around them as I fly in a circle. It's almost impossible to get hit and looks crazy cool too. That's a double whammy.

I've been getting a little irritated with the way the Star Wars has been handled lately in games. There's one scene in which a bounty is frozen in carbonite. This annoys me because carbonite was used to preserve food and Vader was the first person to think of ever using it as a way to transport bodies. And although it is not in this game, the same goes with using tow cables to take down AT-AT's. In Rogue Leader, it's the only way to destroy them. Tow cables were meant to do what they sound like, tow stuff. It was never meant to be used as a weapon.

Also, I'm confused about Jango Fett's character. I've always pictured Jango Fett as a bit of a badass that plays by his own rules. My "Civilians Killed" statistic after each mission will attest to that. Even so, the first few missions found me going after "death stick" dealers. I felt like I was playing Star Wars: Narcotics Officer. It seemed like Jango Fett was trying to be this noble bounty hunter. That, my friends, is what English majors like to call a "paradox."

All eighteen of the game's levels are amazingly large and expansive. I was surprised to discover that each and every level averaged a completion time of about twenty to thirty minutes. For the most part, the game is "move from room to room shooting everything in your way." Sometimes the concept of "jumping from ledge to ledge" is thrown in to shake things up. It's not particularly inventive or revolutionary, but it doesn't feel tedious. Point is, I felt it was lacking that engrossing nature that most of the other Star Wars games have had in the past.

On the replay value side of things, Bounty Hunter has an optional side quest to collect various other bounties in the levels. Usually, these optional bounties are hidden among the civilians. My friend and I set out tonight to try and find them all, searching every nook and cranny, but alas, we could not find them all. We got a little trigger happy with all the civilians around, so we don't doubt that we accidentally eliminated some of them. Even so, on a rainy Sunday afternoon, you can always try to go and collect all the bounties you missed.

Visuals

The graphics are unbelievably clear and would no doubt look awesome if I had Progressive Scan. All of Jango's movements are quite fluid and flow together with the greatest of ease. It's easily one of the better efforts I've seen on the ‘Cube. The level backgrounds are spot on with their film counterparts. The Coruscant levels look like they're straight out of Attack of the Clones and are my favorite levels because of this. And the flamethrower! Oh flamethrower, how I adore thee. I love it when flames look so awesome and frankly have not seen anything better in any game I've ever played. Also, the game quite frequently manages to push about five different enemies shooting their blasters along with ten different pedestrians roaming around and several ships in the background without a hitch in the framerate department. Lucasarts, I salute you! On the other side of things, there are still a few camera quirks to be worked out. It just doesn't seem overly responsive and half the time won't get in the correct angle for Jango. You feel like you constantly have to readjust it when you're flying around on the jetpack. It's a minor problem, but it is slightly worse than most other games I've played.

Audio

Wherever there is John Williams, good music cannot be far behind. There's nothing quite like playing with those sure to be classic Attack of the Clones. It definitely adds a stylistic touch. Whenever there's nothing going on, the music is very sedated and slow. And then all of a sudden it'll rise in speed and volume, and then I know that an enemy must be on my tail. It's like an audio radar. Sound effects (jet packs, blasters) are at the usual top of their game, including my favorites, the pedestrian sounds. Sometimes, when I running through town with my twin blasters out, I hear, "There's the killer!" in the background. It gets me everytime. The guys over at Lucasarts also managed to get Temuera Morrison (Jango Fett in the movie) to lend his vocal talents for the full motion video sequences.

This game gets an N-Philes score of B-.

Jango Fett is quite possibly my favorite character in the current trilogy, and I think it was an absolute genius idea to formulate a game around him. I mean, who can't like a dude that looks cool, has dual-blasters, and a jetpack? It's a surplus of cool. The game, on the other hand, just kind of wallows in mediocrity. It doesn't fail really at anything, but it doesn't make an effort to become great. It's just average.

Posted in: Reviews

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