Star Wars Bounty Hunter (2002) | Retro Game Review - Star Wars Escape Pod

Episode Transcript
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(00:00):
Time to abandon ship!

(00:05):
Oh no!
Here we go!
Can I persuade you to join us for a drink?
It's a tradition.
Here, here.
Jar Jar, homie, my main man.
Quick!
Before the separatists attack, get into the escape pod.

(00:28):
Hey! This is escape!
Then where's the pod?
This is escape!
Welcome back to Star Wars Escape Pod and a retro video game review.
Today we've got Blake and Darian in the escape pod for a chat about Star Wars Bounty Hunter,

(00:50):
which is a 2002 Star Wars video game that came out, Action Adventure,
where you play the role of Jango Fett before the events of Attack of the Clones.
So we are going to dive right into this video game,
which was also recently re-released or re-re-re-released on Xbox, Switch, PC,
and newer consoles and all that stuff.

(01:13):
So you can probably find this on whatever console you have in your living room, to be honest.
And it probably runs well enough on a crappy old laptop, to be honest.
I mean, as long as it's not 30 years old.
So without further ado, let's get into this.

(01:49):
Another happy landing.
Alright, welcome back, Blake. Hello, hello.
Hello there.
Hello there.
Good to be back.
Yeah, good to have you back.
It's been interesting going through a game like this.
Oh, man.

(02:11):
It brings me back to a time that is long gone and maybe should never be relived again.
We also got Darian with us. Welcome back, Darian.
Good to be back. Hello, everyone.
Hello.
Alright, so let's just dive into what this is exactly.
Because really, I mean, there's no better way to kick things off.

(02:35):
But before we do, for those listening and if you have not already done this,
it really helps us out if you leave a review on Spotify.
You know, if you drop those five stars, it helps with the search algorithms
and helps people find a skate pod.
So that would be a huge favor.
And also in the links to below, we have a new podcast that we launched,

(02:56):
which is a second show to our very own called Star Wars Launchpad.
And it's a bit of an experiment. Isn't that right, Blake?
Yeah, you can call it that.
I don't know what else you would call it.
Yeah, it's sort of an AI-based podcast,
which is like we have the intro and the outro.
But I mean, at the end of the day, the source of the meat of the content

(03:18):
is all driven by AI that we pipe through official articles
and comes up with an interesting discussion.
It honestly was just an idea to audio starwars.com articles and stuff
so we don't have to read through them for driving and stuff
and figure why not just post it online.
Yeah, yeah, yeah, exactly.
So anyways, yeah, go and check that out.

(03:39):
We've put out two episodes for that show so far
and I feel like it's been a success as far as how well it could sound.
Yeah, I'd say so. It's pretty impressive actually.
Yeah, yeah.
Scary even.
Yeah, instead of browsing, yeah, scary, yeah.
Instead of browsing starwars.com for your news,
although I do recommend going there, but a lot of people don't.

(04:03):
So if you like listening to your news, this is just a way that you can do it.
I think you just have it set up to just turn on your whatever,
like house, Alexa or whatever you got,
just auto plays whatever articles in the morning, right?
Oh, yeah.
So I haven't set it up yet to be compatible with the Google news routines,

(04:24):
but I mean I can look into it for sure.
I thought that was your plan all along.
But well, that being said,
we do put these out on a weekly or bi-weekly basis
or every two weeks or whatever the term is.
So if you do want to wake up in the morning to that,
all you do, just follow it on Spotify or whatever podcast app.
And if you're running Android, I know you can do it this way,

(04:47):
is in the alarm app you can set a podcast to be your alarm in the morning
and it'll just play the episode that you specify
or the latest episode that you haven't listened to yet.
So that's a nice way to wake up.
Now that you know that, you probably should set it to Star Wars Gatepod.
Yeah.
For the listeners out there.
I mean, it would give us a lot of downloads, that's for sure.
I'm pretty sure we broke our record last year only because I did it myself.

(05:13):
I'm only kidding, sort of.
But anyways, let's dive into this video game called Star Wars Bounty Hunter.
All right.
So what's interesting about this game is we are talking about this game 13, 23, 23 years.

(05:43):
Yeah.
So I'll just say 20 years later.
Yeah.
23 years later.
OK.
It was my first time because I was an Xbox player and I could never play this game.
When I think back to how a video game looked and sounded 20 years ago.
Yeah.
I mean, that was like really old stuff, you know?

(06:04):
I mean, compared to what – it's like a huge difference between 20 years from this game and today's game.
It's at least in the similar realm of 3D video games.
Sure, yeah.
It's past the side scroller 2D stuff.
Yeah.
But I will say replaying it, it definitely feels like it's in between there and modern day games.
Oh, yeah.

(06:25):
For sure.
Which caught me by surprise.
Yeah.
Because I think stylistically it's still really cool.
And I think the idea behind it's really cool.
I think just some of the coding needs to be worked out.
Oh, yeah.
100%.
Yeah.
Had some rough moments.
Darian, what did you play back in 2002?
What do you remember?
What was the highlights for you as a Star Wars gamer?

(06:46):
And what console did you have at the time?
I was definitely an Xbox player.
So this one missed me.
And it's only recently become available on Xbox.
So I definitely was a fan of the Clone Wars video game where you got to play the different tanks and LAATs and spaceships.
And still to this day my favorite walker is the experimental walker that was in that game.

(07:11):
But hands down my favorite video game was probably 2003 Republic Commando.
Yeah.
That's my favorite too.
Oh, man.
Yeah.
That's a good one.
That's why my username is Republic Commando and everything.
I just always get so frustrated.
You got to fight the super battle droids in that game though.
It's just so ridiculously tanky.
I just remember sprinting around in circles using the wrist knife like constantly.

(07:34):
That's a great game though.
That's the way they're exactly supposed to be.
If you're not a Jedi, they are supposed to be this tank that's almost impossible to take down.
Yeah.
And I'm used to Star Wars Battlefront.
The original one where they're just somersaulting everywhere.
I think that was something I really appreciated about.
I mean this particular episode gets a lot of flack from The Mandalorian Season 3.

(07:55):
But I do remember enjoying the Bryce.
Was it the Bryce Dallas Howard episode?
It was the one where Mando goes to that droid bar and he's chasing down a B2 battle droid.
Yeah.
It really brought the freakiness back to the B2 battle droids.
It's like, oh yeah, these things are actually kind of dangerous.

(08:17):
You're so used to Jedi, right?
Yeah.
And then in Clone Wars where the B2s are...
It's like, yeah, okay, they're not dumb like the B1s, but they're kind of all the same.
They're kind of dumb.
They're all just sliced down.
R2 tricks them in the beginning of Revenge of the Sith.
Yeah.
Yeah.
I guess so.
I guess they're just perceived a certain way in some of the media we've seen so far.

(08:39):
And then it's like, oh no, these are supposed to be kind of terrifying upgraded battle droids.
I will say that was my biggest annoyance though between Attack of the Clones and Revenge of the Sith.
The droids became very comical.
Yeah.
I found even in the movies that they weren't any smarter than the B1s,
but they were definitely programmed different to be more arrogant, more intimidating and stuff.

(09:00):
But other than that, they're pretty much the same programming.
Yeah.
I can see that.
Totally.
Yeah.
Low IQ.
Yeah.
So, okay.
So a little bit about Star Wars Bounty Hunter.
It came out in 2002.
You role play as Jango Fett in a story that takes place before Attack of the Clones.
And actually long enough before Attack of the Clones that it's probably in fact closer to the Phantom Menace, to be honest.

(09:28):
That's what I was wondering because if they're just double the speed of an aging person,
then there's got to be a decent amount of time before they actually find the clones and they're ready for battle.
Exactly.
Because this is before all of the cloning happens on Kamino.
So, you know, it takes the way that they put it to Obi-Wan is that they can grow a clone in half the time it takes to grow a person, right?

(09:50):
Yeah.
So assuming that the age of the clones in Attack of the Clones that go to Geonosis are in fact, like, you know, grown over 10 years or whatever.
I'd say probably around 10, maybe 9.
Yeah.
Something like that.
Then there is a good chance that, yeah, this game maybe takes place closer to the Phantom Menace, I think, in time frame.

(10:12):
So then what's the time gap between Maul dying and Darth Tyranus becoming...
See, that's the weird part.
Say again, Darian?
I got the impression that it was like a matter of days, basically.
Because Phantom Menace only takes place about 10 years before Attack of the Clones, it would be like these are almost simultaneous.

(10:37):
And if you read the books and whatnot, Maul was never supposed to be a true Sith.
I believe in some books Sidious' master was still alive during Phantom Menace.
Yeah, it's the Plagueist novel.
And it was also the Phantom Menace 10 years before Attack of the Clones where...
What was the Prime Minister of Kamino's name? I'm blanking now, but he says...

(11:01):
Lama Su?
Yeah, Lama Su, I think. Or maybe the other guy.
There's the two.
What would you guess?
Sorry?
I believe Lama Su is one of the scientists, but I'm terrible with names, so don't quote me on that.
Right.
Okay, yeah.
Just one of the two.
The Prime Minister, though, he says to Obi-Wan, and the Master of Sifo-Dyas, he inquires about him, right?

(11:26):
And then Kenobi's like, well, Master of Sifo-Dyas was killed almost 10 years ago.
And that aligns perfectly with the Phantom Menace in terms of year.
And it also aligns perfectly with the moment in which Sidious approaches Dooku.
Because we know from Tales of the Jedi, the animated series, that it was almost immediately after Maul killed Qui-Gon and then was killed, or I guess so we thought, by Kenobi.

(11:54):
At the funeral, when all the Jedi go to the funeral, he stays behind and he goes to the district in the east side of the city in Coruscant and he meets with Sidious.
That's where Yaddle comes in and he kills Yaddle.
Oh, right.
Yeah, really cool stuff.
But anyway, that was pretty soon after the death of Qui-Gon.

(12:15):
So is it Plagueis dies, Maul dies, and then Dooku's just immediately the Apprentice?
Is that how it works?
Man.
Yeah.
Palpatine's moving quick.
Totally.
That's what makes Phantom Menace such a great storytelling time period because so much stuff happens all at once, right?
We're talking within a matter of weeks or even days.

(12:36):
If we're considering Plagueis as part of the canon, that is, for those fans who love the books.
He better be.
Yeah.
Then he gets killed the night before Sidious is elected as Chancellor.
Yeah, Chancellor, I remember.
Then he's elected as Chancellor and I think within that same time frame, that's when Maul and Qui-Gon both kind of die, right?

(12:58):
And then the funeral happens and Sidious is at the funeral.
So I think it was sometime between Sidious also joining the Jedi on Naboo for the funeral that he has this encounter with Dooku where he kills Yaddle and then basically recruits Dooku as Darth Tyranus in that moment.
Okay, because I think in the Plagueis novel, he also kind of sets Dooku in the path of being caught between his family relations and being the leader of the home planet.

(13:27):
Yeah.
Being a Jedi.
And that's all leading up to that moment.
And then the whole Sidious thing comes in because of course Sidious is good friends with Dooku.
So after he becomes a Sith Lord, they set up Sidious to make this clone army in his own name and then they bury him for it.
So they frame Sidious with the Pykes or whatever.

(13:48):
There was something weird in Clone Wars where they did a whole arc about it, right?
And then basically he gets killed and the whole story is buried.
And then on top of that, Dooku used Sifo-Dyas's access codes in the archives to erase Kamino from the archives.
So that way no one could really, that way it would be really hard, I guess, to track down, oh, this planet Kamino, which is one of tens of thousands out there.

(14:10):
But anyways, so this game with the cut scenes that kick off the story and then end the story really does take place a long time before Attack of the Clones.
It does, yeah.
Yeah.
Because I was surprised to see how honorable Jango is in this game.
Yeah.
He's very much like the Mandalorian.
And then when we see him attack of the clones, I wouldn't say he's necessarily, he doesn't do anything that's overtly makes him a bad guy, but he's kind of cast in the light of a bad guy.

(14:37):
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
But he's also, yeah, but you're right, though.
He is a man of honor because even in Clone Wars, like we saw Hondo talk to Boba when he's, I mean, he's standing in front of Windu, who he failed to assassinate or whatever.
But, or Plo Koon and Ahsoka, but, you know, they caught up to him because he was trying to kill Windu, all this stuff.
And there was a bunch of clone hostages that are taken, right?

(15:02):
And Hondo says to Boba, like, tell the Jedi what they want to know.
You know, it's what your father would have wanted.
It's the honorable thing to do.
That's what he says to him.
And Hondo knew Jango pretty well.
So.
Have we got that story?
Say?
Have we got that story?
No, we don't.
I don't think so.
But, but we got a cutscene to play here for the beginning of the game.
So let's take a listen to what Sidious and Tyranus are up to way at the beginning of all of this.

(15:37):
Master?
Lord Tyranus, an urgent matter has arisen that must interrupt your training.

(15:58):
The Pandogora has become a dangerous parasite.
It must be eradicated.
I believe you once had the opportunity to eliminate its leader.
Why did you not take it?
As an experiment.
The experiment has failed.
This deranged former Jedi has no place in my vision for the future.
I expect you to correct this error.

(16:21):
As you wish.
And what of your plan for the clone army?
Our cloners require a host.
You must find an ideal specimen.
Perhaps among the galaxy's most dangerous mercenaries.
I shall accomplish both of these tasks with a single stroke, Master.
Yes, yes.
I look forward to completing your training, my friend.

(16:48):
Alright, so we kick things off with two plots.
One of them is Khmeri Vosa leading a bunch of crazy people.
Or creatures.
The cultists.
My understanding is, well, the storyline is they're using death sticks.
And they've tainted them to turn people into mind slaves.
Gotcha.

(17:09):
Yeah.
Classic, like, old-school fantasy storyline.
Always cults.
The old Star Wars games, just like, everything's fighting cults.
Yeah.
I think the other one is, of course, the clone army.
Which is a pretty interesting storyline, obviously.
But, you know, going into this discussion, it's definitely worth noting.

(17:33):
We try to make the connections between the canon and the EU as much as possible here.
But, you know, for all intents and purposes, this game is part of the EU.
It's part of the Legends continuity.
Which is weird, because it has so many of the original cast from the film.
Yeah, and, you know, the voice actor for Dooku.
Same guy as Clone Wars.
Yes.
Same guy.
Yeah.
Yeah, same.

(17:54):
And T'mur Morrison plays Jango.
Yeah, crazy, right?
Like, very cinematic.
And I was, because I finished it this evening.
In the credits, it said the cutscenes were by Industrial Light & Magic.
And I think I saw John Knowles' name go through.
So, like, I don't know if this is canon or not.
No, I think, like, there's always that weird, you know, connection there, I guess.
Because, you know, it's Lucasfilm, and it's Star Wars.

(18:17):
And it's, you know, but it's just before the new Disney canon.
And then when Disney reset everything, it was just more or less, like, confirming.
Look, we're only going to be building on the continuity of these six movies and Clone Wars.
We're not doing any other growth.
Right, yeah, because pick and choose, it gets so complicated.
Yeah, so instead of just picking and choosing, it was just like, this is how we're doing it.
And the things that happily align up still are the things that I guess you can still consider canon until it's overridden by another story.

(18:45):
You know what that means?
We need Tales of the Mandalorian and get this all recanonized.
Tales of scum and villainy.
I would love that so much.
Yeah, right.
Or Tales of the Nightbrothers would be the ultimate, like, yeah, show us that culture right from the start.
That'd be pretty cool.
Yeah.
But yeah, it's, okay, here's another one.

(19:08):
This game is an official continuation of the old EU comic book called Jango Fett Open Seasons, which was a Dark Horse comic book series, if I'm not mistaken.
Okay, I'm curious about the timing of this.
So, like, did this stuff come out before or after Attack of the Clones?
The comic and the game.
Well, this game...
The comic, yeah.
It was after, okay.

(19:29):
Yeah, this game came out after.
It was, like, fall or winter of 2002.
So, it was, you know, a couple months after the movie hit theaters.
Yeah, because the movies would have been May.
Yeah.
So, let's all take a listen to this cutscene as well.
This is a pretty important moment of the game.
Transferred to your account.
Well done, Jango.
Miko's bounty, courtesy of the Correctional Authority.

(19:53):
You're short, Ross.
Not trying to swindle me, are you?
Hey, you're forgetting my finder's fee.
I'm not even counting the damage to my station.
I'm just glad to be rid of that scum.
But Miko wasn't the only reason I asked you to come back.
A transmission came for you.
It's personal.
I didn't even peek.

(20:14):
Greetings, Jango Fett.
I am Tyranus.
I have a proposition for you.
You are one of a select few chosen to participate in a special hunt for a special prey.
If you succeed, the reward will be in the amount of five million Republic credits.
Five million?

(20:36):
Wow, that could make you for life.
Who's the poor sap with that kind of price on his head, huh?
You mean her head.
You are to locate and capture Komari Vosa, dead or alive.
The deranged leader of the Bandogora.
No, no, Jango.
Not the Bandogora.

(20:58):
It's too dangerous, even for you.
Like you said, this hunt can make me.
Or break you.
No bounty hunter who set out after the Bandogora has ever returned.
Worried about losing your finder's fees?
Now that's not fair.
You know I worry about you.
What else do you know about this Bandogora?
Only rumors.

(21:19):
It's a very secretive organization.
They're everywhere and nowhere at the same time.
I heard they're behind the new Deathstick craze.
Deathsticks are big in Coruscant's underworld.
Oh, that reminds me.
There's a bounty for a Deathstick dealer on Coruscant.
He's small time, though.
Probably not worth the effort.

(21:40):
If he's in with the Bandogora, it's a good start.
I don't know.
I've got a bad feeling about this one, Jango.
Alright, so this is just like kind of the beginning of the game.
Really introducing you to all the characters.
Rosada, who is the Tordarian that is your contact.

(22:01):
The person who sets you up with all the jobs.
I've missed a lot of expanded Star Wars from this era.
From all the prequel alien species.
You never see Tordarians anywhere anymore.
Right.
Them and Dugs.
So many Dugs in this game.
We'll get into that.
The plot is Tyranus now setting you up as the bounty hunter on the job.

(22:23):
To kill Khmeri Vosa for 5 million Republic credits.
You can kind of see where this is going.
Seeing as we did just listen to the other cutscene.
His job, Dooku's job is to destroy Vosa.
As well as try and find a host for the Clone Army.
So right there between those two cutscenes.
You kind of get the idea for the game.
What I can do is just read through kind of the big meat of the game here.

(22:47):
And then we can listen to the last cutscene.
And then we can just kind of talk about what we thought of the game.
Different connections I guess around this era to other games.
And various other things.
So let me just breeze through this real quick.
And then we'll just get into that.
So to find Khmeri Vosa.
Jango investigates the Bandogoras distribution ring of addictive death sticks.

(23:10):
And captures the guy on Coruscant.
Who reveals his source to be a gangster named Groff Hogg.
Then while investigating Hogg's processing plant.
You run into a long time rival called Montross.
Who is also hunting Khmeri Vosa.
So Dooku set up this for a number of different bounty hunters.
And they're all in competition for the prize.

(23:32):
So you also...
How did he die?
Did you kill him again? I forget.
He gets away.
Then you fight him again later.
Gotcha.
So following a brief fight Montross leaves to find Vosa.
While Jango infiltrates the penthouse of Twi'lek Senator Conus Trell.
Who is involved with the death stick trafficking ring.

(23:54):
Trell tells Jango to seek the dug crime lord Sobolto.
How original.
I know. I put that down in my notes too.
On Malastare before being thrown to his death.
After escaping from a Republic gunship.
That shows up at that scene.
Jango learns that Sobolto has put a 50,000 credit bounty.
On the head of his former employee Bendix Fust.

(24:18):
Who is incarcerated at the asteroid prison on Uvo 4.
Believing that capturing Fust will allow him to close Sobolto.
Jango infiltrates the prison.
But finds that another bounty hunter by the name of Zam Wessel.
Has beaten him to the target.
The two are forced to work together to escape Uvo 4 and Fust.
With Fust.

(24:40):
Am I pronouncing that correctly?
Is it Fust?
Sure.
I don't remember.
It's F-U-S-T.
And they stage a riot to create a distraction.
After Jango's beloved ship.
The Jaster's legacy is destroyed.
Also very cool connection to Jaster Mereel.
A big character from the Republic Commando books.
Darian did you read those by any chance?

(25:01):
I did.
I love that series.
The first book is the best though.
Yeah it is.
Agreed.
100%.
So after it's destroyed.
He, Wessel and Fust escape in another vessel.
Which Jango dubs Slave 1.
Slave 1.
Meanwhile Montross finds that Hogg gave him a false lead.
But hears of the Uvo 4 riot.

(25:26):
And realizing it was Jango's doing.
Decides to follow him.
So you got another bounty hunter on your trail basically.
On your tail.
Jango delivers Fust to Sibolto.
I always want to say Sibolva.
It's very close.
It's very confusing.
And they're both thugs.
Yeah.
So he goes to deliver him on Malastare.
King Lord quickly deduces Jango's true intentions.

(25:48):
And attempts to flee.
Only to fall to his death down a pipe.
Leading to his death stick factory.
Jango enters the factory.
And finds that the Bandogora member is guarding a ship.
With Hati's markings on it.
Hinting at the Hut's involvement in the death stick distribution ring.
Montross ambushes Jango again.
Taunting him over his adoptive's father.

(26:09):
Jaster Mereel.
And Jaster Mereel's death.
And the disaster.
The disaster of.
Sorry, what's this?
The battle of Galadran.
Where Jango's Mandalorian forces were slain by a Jedi ambush.
Jango is defeated.
But escapes with Wessel's help.
On Tatooine.
Wessel goes to question Gardula the Hut.

(26:31):
Jango impresses Jabba by killing Longo Two Guns.
His gang.
What a stupid name.
After learning about Jabba and Gardula's involvement with the Bandogora.
Jango travels to her castle.
But is captured after an imprisoned Wessel.
Whom he left in her cell to avoid sounding the alarm.

(26:54):
Compromises his position.
Quickly escaping he confronts Gardula.
And feeds her to her pet Krayt Dragon.
Which I guess it looks incredibly different.
Than what we know now in the Mandalorian, right?
Yeah, I mean Krayt Dragons have showed up a few times in different games.
They usually look more like giant lizards.
Like a giant dragon thing?
With wings?
Yeah, like you know the...
No, there's usually no wings.

(27:15):
Usually it's just like a giant lizard.
Oh, okay. Yeah. Weird, right?
I don't know. Instead we got dune worms.
Well, he kills it.
Leaving Wessel behind.
Jango continues to search for Vosa alone.
Only for Montross to attack Rosada Station.
In an attempt to hinder him.
Jango arrives to find a dying Rosada.
Oh, how sad.
Who gives him the guidance device that helps him track Vosa.

(27:37):
And asks him to find something to live for.
Besides money.
Uh, how nice.
Jango journeys to Bogdan's Jungle's Moon, Kulma.
And Bandogora's secret headquarters.
Where he finds Montross waiting for him in front of Vosa's Citadel.
Jango defeats Montross.
And leaves him to be killed by the Bandogora.

(27:58):
Refusing to give him a warrior's death.
As he enters the Citadel.
Jango is captured and tortured by Camarivosa.
Until Wessel suddenly arrives to rescue him.
Getting herself injured in the process.
And finally defeating Camarivosa.
Darth Tyranus arrives.
Chokes her to death.
Before explaining to a stunned Jango.
That the bounty was merely a test.
To find someone worthy.

(28:20):
Of becoming a genetic template for a clone army.
Uh, so, uh, he actually, um, you know, passed the test of course.
And, um, I think I'm gonna, should we play that cutscene as well?
Yeah, let's do it.
Alright, hold on a second here.
Um, what did you think, just while I'm bringing it up.
Like what did you think of that last kind of boss fight that you had to do?
Uh, pretty straight forward for that kind of era.

(28:42):
You just keep moving around the maps.
They can never actually get to you.
And just keep shooting at them.
Right.
I would say, uh, if she was properly trained as a Jedi.
I was not impressed.
Well, I think she was.
In the old expanded universe.
Camarivosa was, uh, Dooku's apprentice I believe.
I think so, yeah.
Cause then he takes her lightsabers and gives them to Sarge Ventress.

(29:04):
Yeah, yeah.
So, uh, that in the old EU that is.
It hooks up really nicely with the 2D Genndy Clone Wars series.
Because when he gives Ventress the lightsabers, they're in a gift box.
And it's the exact same ones that Camarivosa has.
So, yeah.
I have her Star Wars miniature in that cabin over there.
Oh yeah.
Anyway, we got one more cutscene, uh, to get through for the story.
And then, uh, we can keep going here.

(29:26):
Here's some gameplay in there.

(29:56):
He is here.
Congratulations, bounty hunter.
Tyranus.
I'm impressed.
No ordinary man can defeat one trained in the Jedi arts.
Especially one trained by me.

(30:17):
Camarivosa was once an excellent pupil.
If a bit unstable.
You knew Rosa was here.
I thought she might one day prove a valuable ally.
Instead, she became a liability.
If you could have easily killed her before, why put a price on her head?
To find you.

(30:39):
This contest brought you to me.
I'll collect the reward now.
Of course, of course.
Five million, was it?
Or much more.
Much more.
If you'll come with me to Kamino.
To be cloned.
You want to clone me?

(31:00):
Imagine an army of clones.
The training of which you will oversee.
They will be modified to grow at twice the rate of ordinary men.
And will be programmed for absolute loyalty.
They will be magnificent, perfect warriors.
Like you.
What makes you think I'd be interested?

(31:22):
A chance at immortality.
To pass on your ways to an army crafted in your image.
A great deal of money.
How could a man such as you not be interested?
I'll accept your offer, Tyrannus.
On one condition.
And that is?
I want the first clone for myself.
Unmodified.

(31:43):
Might I inquire as to why?
You might.
Very well.
Consider it done.
We have a deal then, Jango Fett.
Deal.
Guess you got her, huh?
You could say that.
So, we're going to split the bounty 50-50, right?

(32:04):
Don't push your luck, Sam.
Alright, yeah.
So that's Sam Wessel right at the end there.
He's carrying in his arms who was injured.
Cool story.
Cool story, you know.
Yeah, the story's very solid.
Yeah.
I love that Dooku there was channeling Mr. Burns.

(32:25):
Five million, was it?
Yeah.
The number just keeps getting smaller.
That's great.
So, yeah.
So, sorry.
I blasted through all that text so fast there.
But hopefully we got a good idea for the story.
What do you think about that, Darian?
Just like how he gets the job.
I like how they did that because it makes sense with everything else we've seen with Dooku.

(32:49):
And he's very good at mastering his plans to get rid of all these different loose ends from across time.
So, I love that this added to Attack of the Clones that confirmed what he said and everything in a weird way.
Yeah.
What about you, Blake?
I was pretty happy with it overall.

(33:11):
Yeah, I would say so.
I don't know.
As I mentioned earlier, I'm on the fence a little bit with all these cults.
I feel like at the time there's far too many cults in Star Wars.
It just feels weird that they're never referenced in any media except video games.
And there are a lot of them.
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
But barring that, I was actually quite satisfied with the story.

(33:33):
I thought it was pretty fun.
It connected a lot of loose ends, as Darian said.
Kind of fit everything together, do a nice box.
Because I'd never actually played this game.
I may have watched the cut scenes online at some point, but I didn't remember anything specific.
So, it was cool filling in a lot of blanks of stuff that I've always kind of been aware of, but never knew how it came to be.
Like, I saw Avengers as lightsabers, for example.

(33:55):
Right, yeah.
And characters like that are just such a big part of the Legends continuity.
But what I really liked about that is that the seeds are actually planted very far along at the beginning.
If that makes any sense.
Where Raz basically says to him, what are you going to leave behind when you're gone?

(34:18):
Life is short, especially in this field, right?
They're very soft for underworld characters.
Yeah, they are, yeah.
But he starts to think about it, right?
He's like, yeah, you know what?
I would like a legacy.
I would like to leave a legacy behind.
And this is also Mandalorian culture.
So, at some point, he probably had a plan to have some sort of apprentice.
Right.
That was my first thought of that.

(34:40):
That's a great manipulation of somebody that's aware of Mandalorian culture.
It even goes beyond having an apprentice.
They really do want to pass on the culture to direct descendants, if possible, as well as other alien species and whatnot.
Yeah.
So, you know, him having those seeds planted, he starts to think about it.

(35:04):
And, you know, this is all leading to the creation of Boba Fett.
Right.
Who I didn't know was the first clone.
I thought, you know, maybe he was one million and two.
You know what I mean?
He wasn't like the first clone that was finished.
Well, I think who was it that says that in Attack of the Clones?
I don't know if he specified it was the first.

(35:26):
But I think we were talking about this when we were watching the Bad Batch, because Omega is called Omega for a reason, because the Alpha is Boba.
Right.
So there's like the Alpha and the Omega being like the two unmodified clones.
One of them turned out as a boy who looks exactly like Jango.
The other turned out to be a girl.

(35:47):
Right.
And however, they modified it to make it that way.
Chromosomes.
Yeah.
Like there was intentional modifications with Omega to be that.
But they called them that, the Alpha and the Omega, to, I guess, to be those two unmodified versions.
Right.
Does that mean the Kaminoans refer to him as Alpha?
Like to his face?
Well, no, because he has a name.

(36:10):
I believe they did actually refer to him somewhere as Alpha.
Oh, really?
Neat.
But her being female means that she has been modified.
Like we all start out as female in chromosomes.
So maybe they just stopped whatever turned her into a male.
But that is a modification.
So I always hate that when we're like, she's an unmodified clone.

(36:32):
I guess by unmodified, I mean like, yeah, like it's like without the loyalty, the brain chip, the growth acceleration.
Probably should have kept the loyalty part.
Yeah.
Yeah.
True enough.
Yeah.
Without the growth acceleration, though, without all the training, you know, all the behavioral conditioning, all that stuff.
Right.
Like all that stuff was kept out of Omega's way.

(36:54):
It was really just she was just born.
I mean, she is modified, but she is modified to just be a girl instead of a boy.
And that's the only modification that they made.
And then she was just trained to be a lab assistant, I guess.
Right.
But, yeah, I guess kind of neat that he, you know, he gets his first clone as a son.
And, you know, it's yeah, it's cool.

(37:15):
You know, Darian, you probably remember much of the world before we did before the prequels came out, all that stuff.
But when Attack of the Clones came out and it was confirmed that Jango was, in fact, the template clone for for a clone army, as well as Boba Fett.
Like, what did what did you think like as a Star Wars fan?
Like, what was your perception of that whole alteration in canon?

(37:36):
Well, I guess expansion, really, because, I mean, this must have been in George's head for a long time.
Boba wasn't originally a clone.
Who knows?
Maybe he was in George's head.
Maybe he was.
Right.
Because the because the clone army was always a thing.
No, so in in the older books, I never read it myself, but I remember a lot of people getting angry because Boba Fett was listed as an alien.

(37:58):
If you have his card in the CCG from the 90s, it shows him as an alien.
And there was a rumor that he was part of an experiment where the Empire was going to take alien species and make them like some kind of super trooper stormtrooper idea.
So people were really pissed off that all of a sudden now he's a human.

(38:19):
Hmm.
I did not know that.
Interesting.
Because it makes sense with the armor, because originally that was supposed to be like commandos, essentially.
Yeah.
There's there was places all over the books where they kept saying the phrase, you know, Boba Fett isn't a true Mandalorian, but he's about as close as you were ever going to get to that seeing that extinct species again.

(38:40):
Hmm.
Oh, interesting.
So at that time it was a species, not a culture.
That was the idea.
I think it was both.
But like this alien found the armor and like bathed themselves in the culture of an extinct species.
It was everything up to that point about the Mandalorians was very vague, but they kept beating the audience over the head with he's not a real Mandalorian.

(39:03):
He's somebody that chose this life and like modeled every aspect of himself to fit in that mold.
That's interesting.
I had no idea that was the original background for Boba.
Yeah, crazy.
So, yeah, this this game, I guess we should probably start talking about the gameplay itself.
Yeah.
Story was great.
I mean, like, you know, I enjoyed the story.

(39:24):
You know, I think I think that's pretty it's pretty clear.
I think we all enjoyed that.
I mean, you know, good Jango story.
It's always good to see.
What did you think of the actual gameplay?
Seeing as between the two of us or the three of us, you're the only one who has finished a Blake.
Well, so what did you think of the full game?
I think the intention behind it was actually super solid.
I love the idea of playing this like dual pistol slinging jetpack flying bounty hunter, even with like side quests, essentially to like get extra bounties for cash along the way.

(39:52):
If all the all the different like GAC that he has on his armor, you can use a lot of it.
That all I thought was awesome.
But I will say from its era, the coding could use a little work.
There was some jankiness for sure.
Some outdated mechanics compared to what we're used to now.
So this this is a game where you have limited health and there's finite ways to find health and you have limited lives.

(40:15):
And then you have to restart the entire level.
And because the mechanics are kind of janky, sometimes something kind of just freaks out and then you just die or you fall to your death or whatever.
And then there's definitely times where that's very frustrating.
So as a game critic, if you were to put yourself as a as a game critic and put yourself in the shoes of other games at the time as well, if you can, and try and not lean on the the Star Wars cool factor, what would you give this out of 10?

(40:45):
Oh man.
Because my main complaint is just that it just maybe they rushed it for the movie.
I bet that was probably something to do with it.
Leading to really the only downside from me being mechanically just needed more polish.
Probably throw probably say seven.
That's quite high.
Actually, I thought I was very how well it connects to everything.
And like if you're and it's hard to not also see it as a Star Wars fan.

(41:07):
I'm trying to be as like, yeah, yeah, yeah.
I get over half for sure.
I would give it a seven.
I think that's pretty solid.
Because if they had the mechanical stuff, I'd probably even put a little higher.
Pablo points.
We've never given seven.
Well, that would be.
Well, we'll definitely give our public ones.

(41:28):
I was just curious out of a scale of 10 because I'm looking at Metacritic here, right?
And they rely on a scale of 10.
So what I'm going to do is I'm going to read to you now out of out of a scale of 10.
Just what the original was reviewed at.
And then what the current remaster is reviewed at.
So when was the original?
So the original 2002.
This is at least I think these are going back to original reviews as much as possible.

(41:55):
Or it could be that these were reviews that then because I don't know if Metacritic was always out there.
But probably was.
Yeah, maybe.
But these are these are reviews that are in fact done with the PlayStation 2 version natively on the PlayStation 2.
You could also look up like reviews on the run or X-Play or something.

(42:16):
Yeah.
But it's Metascore.
So it's pulling in all these major critics.
Right.
So on average, it gave the original PlayStation 2 version a 65 out of 100.
It's pretty close to what I gave it.
It is.
User score was seven point seven.
So that's a bit higher.
Rocking the average.
Yeah.
The relaunch or the remaster, shall we call it's not a real remaster.

(42:39):
But if we were to call that the Star Wars Bounty Hunter remaster on PC platform, which got released.
And it looks like July 31st, 2024 was rated at a 64 Metascore.
So only one point less than the original.
And for user score, though, was a six point six.

(43:01):
So it was a full point off with the users on the remaster.
And this is what somebody said.
This is from Game Critics, which is, I guess, a official critic review site.
They said, should people play Star Wars Bounty Hunter?
Definitely.
It's an acquired taste, but I still enjoy its high points.
But should anyone play it via this remastered edition?

(43:23):
Goodness, no.
Considering how long fans have waited for this title to get a next gen boost.
There's no excuse to release it in this state.
So I think they were just very disappointed with that.
It wasn't more refined as far as a remaster could go.
Right.
Also, the way that's phrased makes me wonder if the original on PS2 and GameCube were actually less janky.

(43:45):
Yeah.
Yeah.
Well, so yeah.
So that's something about the new one.
The new one, they did add the ability to remap some buttons.
They did have some improvements, I believe, to some of the shaders.
You know, like the metal on his costume.
You know, the Beskar is a little more reflective, I think.

(44:06):
But yeah, remappable controls.
There is a deaf and hard of hearing accessible feature, which relies on visual prompts and how to proceed.
There is colorblind modes.
I think the rating was revised.
I'm not entirely sure about that one.
And then, of course, they had to push it out for PC, PS4, 5, Xbox, X and S, as well as Switch.

(44:32):
And this is one of those games that's been repubbed by Aspire, which they're the company that brought KOTOR to mobile.
They're the same company that remastered, so to speak, Podracer for the Nintendo Switch, as well as Republic Commando.
So they've done a few of these games here and there, where they've taken a really old game and just kind of made it work on a new console.

(44:53):
But they haven't really done a lot to give it a new, fresh skin.
Yeah, they haven't altered any of the coding.
No, they haven't.
They probably just have a wrapper that's just remapping it to whatever the new stuff is.
Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.
And for an old game like this, I don't know how hard that is to do.
I wouldn't imagine it being super difficult.
Well, it depends if they're giving the original source code to the game, right?

(45:17):
They probably don't have that.
It seems to be a consistent problem.
All of these things I've heard about, the remasters of the original two battlefields and the Republic Commando and all that,
it seems to be, hey, we made the graphics 10% better, but we seem to screw up the rest of the game to do it.

(45:39):
I'm having that problem with stuff like Halo and whatnot.
Like, Halo 2 Remastered is a world better game because it just looks so much better.
But it kept the gameplay intact and it doesn't look more janky or anything.
So, I don't know enough about programming to say why that is,
but can't we just get a graphics update and leave the original games the way they are?

(46:05):
Yeah, I mean, that's a great thing to point out.
And it's something that this particular company has been criticized for a lot,
is that they call it a remaster and it's really just a re-release that has a bit of a 5% or 10% facelift.
But overall, it's very, very much the same original game with a lot of the original jankiness.

(46:26):
We were talking about this the other day, but in old games like this,
which are some of the first to really approach that 3D gameplay,
it's a bit of a better looking game than the original Crash Bandicoots and stuff,
but a lot of the physics engines are just awful.
Like, throwing grenades, worst part of the game.
50% of the time you will kill yourself by throwing a grenade.

(46:49):
You can't aim and it just bounces off everything.
It's also like, why does Jango have grenades?
And if you just click the button, he just drops it at his feet.
This is a guy with wrist rockets, a jetpack with a rocket on the back.
He's got, technically, flamethrowers, he's got all this stuff.
Of course, he's also got grenades. Are you kidding me?

(47:10):
And there's things that don't work that well.
Grenades can be used in some really interesting ways that don't require...
Wrist rockets shoot very straight.
You can't set them up somewhere, like behind the door or whatever.
You can't throw them down a shaft and blow up the bottom of a building,
like in Shadows of the Empire and stuff.

(47:31):
Grenades are a very utilitarian thing to set up as an explosive,
that you don't have to sit there and program the box
in the C4 style of Clone Commandos.
That's true, but the problem is, mechanically,
they didn't set it up where you could aim it at all.
Yeah, it was just like flinging it across the map.

(47:53):
It was third person, and he just kind of throws it forward,
but he might be facing an awkward angle.
It's so hard to aim, and you also can't judge how far you throw it.
There's no auto-snapping for these things back then either, right?
Yeah, it's kind of crazy.
It's a good idea, but like I said, they just need to polish all this stuff.
I think another big complaint I had personally about the game was,

(48:17):
there was no visual prompts as to where to go next.
Sometimes you're going through levels.
That's something of an error though.
That's like playing with the old Doom games.
Yeah, you're just trying to find your way.
It's like real life, man. You're trying to find the console.
Right, and some people might prefer that,
but I think personally, maybe it's just a preference thing,

(48:38):
but for me personally, I do like having a little mini-map,
and I do like having some sort of pointer as to where my next objective is.
The mini-map for sure.
I go back and forth on the pointer because it almost makes it too easy in games.
It kind of kills the immersion, but the mini-map is sorely needed in this game.
I haven't played a game without a mini-map.

(48:59):
Man, I forgot that they existed.
Yeah, yeah.
I think that was something that was really neat about the Nintendo DS sometimes,
is because of the two screens, they would occasionally rely on the second screen
as like a mini-map for some of the games, and that was kind of neat.
I think Metroid was like that.
Yeah.
Sorry, Darren, you were going to say something?
It's okay. We've jumped points a few times, so it wasn't that important.

(49:20):
What's your take on, I guess, other games that were perhaps of the same caliber,
you know, third-person shooter at the time, or, you know, if that...
This would have been Halo for me.
Well, as first-person though, like would you play any action adventures?
Third-person shooters.
Yeah, like maybe...
I think I had Operation Desert Storm Call of Duty.

(49:43):
I'm trying to think if there's any like action-adventure role-playing games
that were really famous that weren't first-person shooters.
KOTOR.
Pardon?
What was that, Darren?
KOTOR was the action-adventure game of that time.
Yes, yeah, KOTOR.
I guess technically it is a shooter.
I don't think of it like that because it's turn-based.
It's like you start off...
You can use swords or you can use blasters.

(50:04):
Yeah.
No, I guess it is a role-playing game though, and it is like third-person.
It does play differently for sure, but yeah.
It also came out one year after Bounty Hunter did, so that's...
Yeah, you know, that would fit, you know, with the time period.
So if you compare it to...
Sorry to throw in a monkey wrench.
What was that?

(50:25):
Sorry to throw in a monkey wrench.
There's a slight delay on here, so I keep talking over you guys.
I'm sorry.
Oh, no problem.
No problem.
Yeah, so like how would you compare it to that in terms of graphics,
in terms of like, I don't know, how enjoyable it was to play?
It's hard to compare them.
Graphically, I guess they're somewhat similar.
I would say I felt like Bounty Hunter was a step down graphically,

(50:47):
but they're still similar where they're very simple polygons.
Yeah.
At least Bounty Hunter had some cut videos, whereas KOTOR really had...
It's like this is just the gameplay as a cut scene.
No, that's true.
It had like in-game cinematics.
Yeah.
Whereas this, as I'm surprised to see on the credits,

(51:09):
like ILM did the cut scenes for this.
So they were pretty solid.
I think that's also why the audio recordings of all the characters
is like top notch.
That might have been Sky Sound.
Yeah, maybe.
But these two games are drastically different in length.
So even with me having to replay at least every level of the second half
of the game twice, it still took me about 12 hours of in-game play.

(51:33):
And KOTOR is like 40, maybe longer.
If you speedrun it.
Yeah.
I've played it a lot.
Yeah.
I know where everything is.
Here's one thing that we haven't mentioned yet about the game as well,
is on the side, as far as a story goes, because it's a Bounty Hunter game,
every level...
Well, there's five chapters to this game in terms of pacing,

(51:56):
and each chapter has like five sub...
Three.
Three sub chapters, I guess, right?
Where there's a cut scene and then another like playable level,
and you keep going and whatnot.
In each of those sub-levels, there is like up to 10 bounties
that you can find, I believe.
No, there's some that have like 15.
Some of them have more.

(52:17):
Okay.
All right.
So it fluctuates.
I think on the last planet, there's none,
because you're just after Bandagora.
Gotcha.
There's nothing else there.
So basically what this is, is you can use his helmet scanner
to essentially figure out if any of the NPC characters are wanted people
that you can either choose to capture or kill,
which is incredibly like...

(52:38):
Hard to use.
Hard to...
It works well, but it's hard to use in a way that's very fluid.
Yes.
So it's like if you don't prepare to use it the moment the door opens,
because it does slow down time, like it's too late,
because then everyone just rushes and tries to kill you,
and you can't shoot and use the thing at the same time.
Yes.
Yes.
And this in first person,

(52:59):
so then you're switching between third and first person constantly.
Yes.
And it's like an added element to the game that is like completely optional.
You don't need to do it.
It's just a side objective for all these levels that you can go back and replay.
And if you're trying to get all of them,
and they're very easy to miss or accidentally kill,
then while you're doing it, you're more likely to die,
because you have limited health, limited replenishment of health,

(53:22):
and then limited lives.
That's just it.
It's so hard to do, because like you say,
they are accidentally killable,
and because how it works is in order to get the bounty.
And you can't tell unless you see them beforehand.
Yes.
Unless you get the bounty,
you have to use the head scanner to see if they are a fugitive,
and then you tag it, the person basically.
Yes, you have to tag it.
And once you tag them, then you have the option to capture or kill.

(53:43):
But if you kill them before you do that, you don't get the point.
Which makes no sense,
because you should be able to still get the dead bounty.
It's one of those weird things from an old,
it's like old video game sort of logic that's like,
oh, well, this is just simple coding that wasn't really well thought of.
Right?
Or just not complicated enough for the time, I guess.
Because one thing that does change when you target them

(54:05):
is their bodies will no longer disappear after they're dead.
Right, because then, yeah,
and then that way you can claim the killed bounty.
Exactly.
Yeah.
But I don't want to just do that.
That sounds like an N64 left me over,
where there was a Mission Impossible game
where you had to like scan people's heads
to make a clone of their face sort of idea.
That was in a lot of games of that time

(54:28):
where you would have to like knock somebody out
or drug them or whatever and then capture their face.
It just seems like they were trying to add player agency in a weird way.
That's a weird one.
I only ever played Goldeneye.
I don't think it's from that one.
Yeah.
That's N64 though.
So Pablo points of poodoo's for this.

(54:49):
Hold on a second.
Do you want to jump to that?
I got some notes in here.
Oh, you got some notes?
Yeah.
Go for it.
Go for it.
Okay.
So we might have talked over some of them already.
Oh, we didn't talk about this era.
Every single Lucasfilm game had the exact same sound effects.
Oh, yeah.
100%.
Yeah.
Oh, that's actually a complaint of mine.
Oh, I liked it.
Jango's Blasters weren't Jango's Blasters.
It wasn't the Westar sound?

(55:10):
No.
And that blew me away.
It was a Naboo sound, wasn't it?
It was just like a standard.
It sounded like a standard blaster.
It didn't sound like the toon, toon, toon, toon.
You know, like his really awesome blaster sound that only he has.
They didn't use it.
And if Sky Sound did the audio for it, I am surprised beyond belief that they didn't do it.
They might have just did the audio recording, not the effects.

(55:31):
Bear in mind how much they were pushing technology of that time.
Like every game was built from the ground up with its own proprietary physics engine, right?
Yeah.
And up to that point, you only had like 16-bit sound.
Even if you go play like GoldenEye and stuff like that, every game on that system was like 16-bit sound.

(55:55):
So it was a pretty major leap in technology very quickly.
That's a good point.
I just would have thought that they would have tried to make it sound closer to the movie.
Because at this point, the movie had come out already.
That's true.
Unless they'd already done the sound in-game and they didn't figure out it was different until after the movie was released.
Yeah, maybe.
But it sounds like it's just a file.

(56:17):
It's just like one audio file that gets repeated with the effect, right?
So like I just, I don't know.
You just modify your game files.
Yeah, you just upload it.
You just use a different file.
It's like any time that this function happens, it plays this like one-second audio file, right?
You just replace it with a different one.
Okay, I'll say they didn't do that, but they did give Jango Spurs.
Yeah, see, that was cool.

(56:38):
With Boba, the Boba connection there.
Yeah, I was so surprised by that.
That does feel like they went the extra mile.
Yeah, it's kind of extra.
Yeah.
So I did not know that the fire spray was a prototype police ship for a high security prison.
No, I guess that's an interesting part of the...
That's why there's no other fire sprays around.
Because they only made two and Boba Bulls loved the other one.

(57:00):
And steals one.
Yeah.
They talk about it in a couple of books.
But yeah, that was the EU forever.
I kind of wish they would keep it like that.
Have they rewrote it to something else yet?
They kind of show you the fire spray in Camino.
Like when they're walking around the facility, there's something going and checking the viability of the embryos.

(57:21):
And it looks just like a fire spray.
That's about as close as we've come to my knowledge.
Okay.
Yeah, so I'm just looking at the Wookieepedia here.
And yeah.
Designed by Kuat Systems Engineering.
Initially used by the Republic Correctional Authority.
Yeah.
So it doesn't say that there's only two.
Did it say in the game that there was only two?
I think so. Yeah.

(57:42):
Oh, interesting. Crazy.
I wrote it down so they must have said it.
Well, because it says at least 10 were used by Mandalorian protectors during the Yuuzhan Vong War.
Oh, that's much later though.
So maybe they made some more.
Actually, I did write down two.
I might have just used that as an example.
I'm not sure if that's accurate.
There's a limited amount, let me say.
Very few.
Yeah.
Okay.
Yeah.

(58:03):
Yeah.
Yeah.
Cool.
Great.
Let's see.
Okay.
I'm going to be honest.
I love the idea that there's a Doug King who has like a, what do they call it?
The death stick.
He's like death stick manufacturer.
His name's Subolto.
I thought that was great.
That caught your attention too because the name's pretty unoriginal.
It's so unoriginal.
It's like one of those things like, oh, we need a name for a Doug.

(58:25):
What's another Doug other than Subolto?
What Doug do we know?
Subolto.
Yeah.
Subolto.
Subolto.
Yeah.
I'm going to reuse that name for the next D&D character.
You got to keep playing it up.
You got to be like Subluba.
That could be a character.
You got to keep building on the something.
Yeah.

(58:46):
Sacasa.
Sahoro?
I don't know.
It just sounds like beer.
Sazoro.
Sazoro.
Sazoro.
There you go.
Hey, we didn't talk about Gardula the Hut.
Yes.
Because I had always wondered what the heck happened to Gardula to disappear and to Jabba
to suddenly become the leader of the Hut family.

(59:08):
And so that's in this game.
Right.
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
Because Gardula is in Phantom Menace.
You see her during the pod race.
Yeah, behind Jabba there in the back, right?
Yeah.
Yeah.
Maybe you can just elaborate on that a little bit more for people because I know I just
blasted through the story.
So when you're trying to track down...
Which part is it now?
I think you have to go directly to her for information because you originally went after

(59:32):
Bendic, who gets stolen by...
What's his name?
Monstar?
Montross.
Montross.
Thank you.
So yeah, the space champ.
So instead, you find out the only other person you can go to who is working with the band
of Gora is actually Gardula the Hut.
So you try to go to her directly, but you get captured and you have to fight your way

(59:53):
out of, I guess it's her castle.
But eventually you get to her and then you feed her to her own Krayt Dragon, which she
originally was trying to feed you to.
Gotcha.
Okay.
Yeah, it's a really roundabout way.
But I just always wondered what the heck happened there.
So it's another...
One thing I mentioned earlier, I like this game for is it fills in a lot of these gaps
between the movies.

(01:00:14):
Yeah, that's something that I really liked about those old Star Wars.
Well, I mean, the new Star Wars games do the same thing, I guess, with like side stories
between the movies, right?
But some of those old ones were not just straight movie adaptions.
Some of them were actually like, here, this is a story that takes place in between the
movies.
And it was kind of cool, right?
Like Force Unleashed is a great example of that.

(01:00:35):
Republic Commando.
Even Starfighter.
I don't know if anyone here or listening has played Naboo Starfighter.
But that was a fantastic game.
I have not played that.
Jedi Starfighter was basically the sequel to that game.
And if you had played that when it was new, you actually got to see the Republic Venators
or not Venators.

(01:00:58):
You had to see a bunch of the Republic ships before Attack of the Clones came out by like
a year.
Oh, that's cool.
Yeah.
The first Starfighter, it overlaps with Phantom Menace, but takes place kind of before.
And it's like leading into that first invasion of Naboo.
There's three storylines and they all like eventually crossover at the end, which is

(01:01:19):
like the Battle of Naboo, basically.
So it's a really, really cool narrative and it's fully in a Starfighter.
Some of the cutscenes take place outside of the Starfighter.
It's like the old X-Wing games, right?
X-Wing Tie Fighter games.
Yeah, but it's like a lot newer.
And because it was Starfighters, I don't think like they really did a good job at, they really
did a nice job at the graphics for Starfighter because there wasn't a lot of environment

(01:01:43):
to be able to, they didn't need to model crazy.
It's just space.
It's just space, right?
So they didn't need to model crazy buildings and like all this extra stuff.
So a lot of the budget was really put on the code for the game as well as just a few models
and effects that they needed to do to pull off the game, right?
So really, really cool game.
I remember enjoying that on PlayStation 2 like a lot.
I played Brogue Squadron, but I didn't really play any of the flight games after that.

(01:02:08):
Okay, yeah.
You probably like this one.
So I think we have a license for it.
So maybe you can do that one next.
Yeah, we'll try it out.
Yeah.
I never ended up playing the second one though, Darian.
So was it the same?
Was it only one character?
Was it multiple storylines that you all kind of like cross over in the end?
Yeah, I believe some of the same characters bled over.
Basically, you're a Jedi testing out the Jedi Starfighter before the Battle of Geonosis.

(01:02:34):
And yeah, you get to use like force lightning and stuff as a part of your ship.
I played both those games together, so it's hard remembering which is which game.
But man, that was a fun game.
If you were into only flight simulation, but you didn't want to play first-person shooters,

(01:02:57):
you got more out of the story that was coming out at the time than if you weren't playing video games at all.
So that's what I miss about that era the most is if you're only into flight simulators,
okay, here's a Star Wars game for you.
If you're only into first-person shooters, there's a game for you.
If you're into art role-playing games, there's kind of a couple of games that work for you.
Did you ever play or did either of you ever play Star Wars Squadrons?

(01:03:22):
No, I got a copy and then never played it.
Because that game was pretty awesome.
Say again, Darian?
That came out like a year or two ago, right?
Yeah, at this point, honestly, I think time goes quick.
It's now been probably close to four years or so.
But yeah, you are right, though.
It's like a more recent, it's a canon game, much like the Battlefront 2 campaign from EA.

(01:03:45):
Squadrons was done by EA as well.
And you play two different storylines, one as a rebel X-Wing pilot,
the other one as an Imperial TIE fighter pilot.
And that one was in VR.
Yes, I do own that.
Yeah, there was a VR port.
Well, I guess you could put on a VR headset and play the game in VR if you wanted to.

(01:04:06):
Yeah, it's crazy.
Only on PlayStation?
No, I did on PC.
I played the VR version on PC, but it made me sick as heck.
Yeah, that's what I've heard.
Yeah.
But yeah, it was a great game.
Definitely give it a go if you like the Starfighter simulators.

(01:04:30):
And the campaign itself didn't take long to get through.
It's not a very long game.
When it launched, it was launched at a lower price point because of the length of the game.
I think it was like a $50 or $40 game or something instead of like an $80 or $90 game.
So they knew because it was like a lot less.
But it was based on all the development that they did through Battlefront 2 for the Starfighter mode in Battlefront 2.

(01:04:53):
And they kind of piggybacked on that to make squadrons.
So, yeah, I mean, anyone who's like a big fan of like the...
I should play because I like the old Battlefront 2, like 2005 game, right?
Oh, it's great.
I think you definitely enjoy that.
Yeah, it's pretty cool.
It was a great game, but I found it hard to really get into for a couple of reasons.

(01:05:15):
Mostly that that is hands down the buggiest game I own.
So every time I've tried to play it, it has been after a major update.
And you still have to restart levels just because of game glitches.
And it took me about half the game to realize that that green chick that you're talking to is Hera.
Because it doesn't look anything like Hera.

(01:05:37):
That's a good tip.
Because when I play it now, at least I'll know.
I guess now it would.
And now that they've done like another new live action version of Hera.
But, yeah, you're right.
I totally forgot that she was in it.
Let me just look at it.
Does that mean you fly with the ghost?
Right, yes.
No, Hera's...
Yeah, no, you don't fly with the ghost.

(01:06:00):
But what were you saying, Darian?
She's in the game though, right?
Yeah, she's in the briefing rooms.
And you get to like talk to her directly.
And it's like that looks nothing like the Rebels version of her or like the comic book version of her.
It's so terrible.
Yeah, go find a picture of it.
It's really bad.
I'm just looking at one right now.

(01:06:21):
Yeah, it looks like an entirely different person.
Yeah.
I think what they did...
Because this was, of course, before Ahsoka where they cast a live action role, right?
So they didn't have a live action portrayal yet for Hera.
She doesn't look very similar to the animated one at all.
But no, that's right.
They didn't really do a great translation from the animated version.

(01:06:42):
So it seems like...
This was a real person recorded for this part, not like a CG character.
Yeah, it seems like maybe they just casted for the role of the motion capture.
And then they just based the physical facial model on the motion capture person, right?
The actress who played her in the zebra suit.
Rather than trying to model a different face on top of that face.

(01:07:05):
Okay.
Yeah, because that's what they did for the Jedi Fallen Order game, too, right?
Yes, exactly.
Yeah, I think it just makes it easier.
And honestly, the motion capture comes across way better when you do that.
Also, at least for Star Wars, if they ever bring that character in, they did bring that same person.
Yes, yes, exactly.
They don't have characters with triangles for heads like in Bounty Hunter.

(01:07:27):
Mind you, it's not the worst translation I have seen between various medias.
I got to say, I think the biggest doozy I think so far is still either the Grand Inquisitor or Cad Bane.
It's got to be one of those two.
Yeah, I can't argue with that.
I'm still unhappy with both of them.
Yeah, yeah, yeah.

(01:07:48):
I think Cad Bane wasn't as bad as people make him out to be.
There's definitely some gripes to be had there, don't get me wrong.
But of all the things that they've not done well in Star Wars, that doesn't even make the top 20.
Fair enough.
Fair enough.
Is this a big list, top 20 of wrongs with Star Wars?

(01:08:09):
Yeah, I don't know if I would quite put it on a top 20 wrong with Star Wars.
But I think more specifically, what's wrong with some of the more recent shows, I guess.
That's something that would definitely come to my mind is how to bring certain species that have been portrayed in live action before to a show.
It's like, why not just achieve the same effect, right?

(01:08:30):
It's like, why change it and then make it different?
Yeah, odd choice.
I think part of it is they always just bank on the fact that fans will be so happy that this thing they love is getting included.
They're like, oh, we can just kind of fudge it and they won't care.
They'll be happy it's here.
And it's like, how many times do you have to fail at that assumption before you start being like, maybe we should do it justice?

(01:08:55):
Yeah, yeah, yeah, exactly.
Good way to put it.
Alright, so let's move into our Pablo points and poodoo's here.
And we will give this video game some score.
So let's see here.
Get that music going.
OK, so as the only one who's actually finished the game, I feel like you're the only one who can properly rate this game.

(01:09:19):
So you have the stage here, Mr. Blake.
For our Pablo points of poodoo system, for anyone who is tuning in for the first time, three Pablo poodoo's is the worst of the worst.
Then moving up from there, you have two Pablo poodoo's, which is like kind of bad.
And then you have one Pablo poodoo, which is just bad and definitely not great.

(01:09:43):
Then you have a Bendu.
Bendu is a 50% score.
That's kind of mediocre.
Then you got one Pablo point.
That is a good two Pablo points is a great and three Pablo points is the best of the best of the best.
So where does this sit on your scale of Pablo points and poodoo's?
Well, I'll have to say, I think the idea and the story ties into everything.

(01:10:11):
And really just the cool factor.
If that's all it was, if there was no underlying gameplay issues, I'd probably give it like a 2.5.
It's pretty solid.
But man, those gameplay issues are a real problem.
Oh, man.
I had to stop playing the game at times because it was so frustrating with just the mechanics.
It was very frustrating.

(01:10:33):
Controllers thrown across the room.
Thankfully, I cut myself off before that point these days.
But points where I would often just have to play through one level or even one chapter.
And then I have to stop because it's just so frustrating.
Yeah.
So I would lower it all the way down.
I think to about 1.5.
1.5.
All right.
1.5 Pablo points.

(01:10:54):
So, Darian, based on that review, will you be playing Star Wars Bounty Hunter Remastered?
No, because the only reason I haven't bought it so far is everybody complaining about the glitches and problems in the gameplay.
I love the story.
Years ago, I watched a video on the storyline and I loved it.

(01:11:15):
It's great.
It's it fills in so many things I want to know about the Clone Wars era.
But yeah, the glitches, it's just like with how bad Squadrons was, I can't imagine playing this now.
That's fair concern.
Yeah.
Yeah, it's fair.
It's just there's so many parts of the game where you can just fall to your death and there's nothing you can do.

(01:11:36):
And then the mechanics are so janky that you just can't grab on to stuff or like fly properly or the camera just like rotates.
I think another thing for me, which was like the death timer before you have to redo a whole level.
So like when you're part partway through the level, there's areas where you where you can respawn in if you die.
But then you only get five of those checkpoints before you have to redo the whole thing all over.

(01:11:58):
And that to me is like just a thing of the past five lives.
But there's checkpoints to the game where you respond to.
Yeah. Yeah.
But it's like that to me is just a thing of the past.
Like in most modern games, almost all modern games.
Like if you die, you just come back to almost where you died or just a little bit before that.
And even just the modern day game feature of just not needing to deal with your health bar that much comes back.

(01:12:20):
Even if it's slowly.
Right.
On its own.
It's soft.
Yeah.
Because like characters barring the last level will drop health.
But because it's like old school, they don't it doesn't remain there.
So if you don't need it immediately and you get hurt and you go back for it, it's just despawned.
Yeah.
I think that was one of the that's been one of the most frustrating things for me on a lot of older games.

(01:12:44):
So like one of my favorite games ever is Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone, the Game Boy Advance version.
And it's like a top down bird's eye view.
Kind of like Pokemon.
GTA games.
Yeah.
Yeah.
Yeah.
And but the levels are very mazey and there's a lot of areas where you can like, you know, take enough hits and then eventually die.
But then you have to redo the whole level all over again.

(01:13:05):
And sometimes you spent like 15, 20 minutes on a level and you have to redo it.
And it's like, what the heck?
You know, like this game, because I was trying to take my time, look for bounties and stuff.
I'd be out like an hour.
Yeah.
It's infuriating when you have to redo it.
But like a lot of modern games like they don't do that anymore.
And I feel like as much as I love that game out of a nostalgia factor, because I've got so many good memories playing it.

(01:13:26):
And I recently started playing it again over an emulator because I don't have my Game Boy anymore.
But it's just one of those things.
I was like, my goodness, like I love this game still.
But that is still a very frustrating thing.
And I remember being a kid, being so frustrated when I died.
And it's like, this is like infuriating.
I don't want to play this game if I have to redo this over.
And then I would put it down and pick it up again a later time.

(01:13:48):
Right?
Yeah.
OK.
Sorry.
Go ahead.
So that existence, you played the video game more because it was more of a challenge.
You'd come back and be like, OK, I took a little break.
I really want to get to the next thing.
You get so much more excited for the end.
And you felt like you earned it more out of those old video games than the new ones.
Where it's like, yeah, I played through it once and never played it again.

(01:14:11):
That was it.
Oh, it was pretty good.
That is true.
That is definitely true.
That's fair.
And I'm not opposed to things like old school health bars and whatever.
My problem is that combined with crappy controls and mechanics that just cause you to die randomly is not a good combination.
It's very frustrating.
That doesn't help a lot.
No, it definitely doesn't help.

(01:14:33):
So, yeah, I guess it would be.
Like those grenades, man.
Yeah.
I guess it would be a little more tolerable if parts in the game didn't cause you to die as easily.
Because there's one section where it's on the level with the Doug King.
And you're going through different caves and stuff.
And there's a section where you and Zam, because she's with you.

(01:14:56):
She's like sniping and helping you out.
But at one point you are together trying to get through this cave.
But there's a bug that apparently happens quite often where there's an enemy on the other side of the cave exit door.
When it opens and it's at a choke point, Zam freezes and gets stuck.
And she won't move.
And you can't get past her or progress the level unless you kill the enemy that you can't see because they're behind the door.

(01:15:19):
So the only way to get rid of them is to launch rockets and throw grenades.
But it's a very tight tunnel.
So I just killed myself like five times.
And then I had to redo the whole level because of this bug.
And then it happened again, but I happened to kill them the second time.
But this is a really good point for all listeners.
If you are going to play this game, for that section, you can actually run ahead of her and be at the door just trying to get through.

(01:15:42):
Because the door will auto-open when she gets close enough.
So you can get through before she goes in front of you.
Because technically she's supposed to open it.
So that's the only way I was able to get past it.
Like hack your way in.
You just have to expect it and get there ahead of her.
And beat the bug.
Stuff like that, man. It's so frustrating.
Yeah, I can see that being frustrating.

(01:16:04):
Any last minute things to bring up?
Because I feel like we've covered this game pretty well.
I love the theme of this game.
And what they were going for.
And it makes me really wish we got 13-13.
To be honest with you.
Because I feel like that would have been a fresh take on this.
That's fair.
I've been thinking about this whole conversation.
Man, I wish we got 13-13.
It just sounds like that would have been the new version of this.

(01:16:26):
That's exactly it.
Because being able to fly around in a jetpack.
And shoot stuff.
Because you use a flamethrower in this game.
How many games do you get to use a flamethrower on your wrist?
It's so badass.
It just needs a proper remake.
If we don't get 13-13 from the ground up.
Or at least a game where you play as a Mandalorian.

(01:16:47):
In general with all the cool stuff.
All the gadgets and stuff like that.
I feel like Outlaws was trying to hit that mark.
And it just did not succeed.
With that world.
It definitely pictured the world really well.
But the gameplay itself.
No, I want to play as a cool rocketeer.
I don't want to play as some smugglery character.
In that world specifically.

(01:17:09):
I think a game where you play as Jango Boba.
Or Din Djarin now would be ideal.
Maybe a story game.
Other than Bounty Hunter.
That's the only one that exists out there.
That's why I always wanted to play this game.
That's why.
Bugs and all.
I fought my way through.
Nice.
Dash Rendar.
Come on.
Let's make a new Shadows.

(01:17:30):
Yeah.
I know it's fair.
I know someone else who would be happy about that.
Shout out to Phil.
Shout out to Phil.
Yeah.
Alright.
Thanks so much both of you guys for popping in.
And joining us on the chat.
Darian, always good to have you back as always.
And Blake, you as well.

(01:17:51):
Thanks.
Thanks for having me.
Alright.
We'll see you out there.
Keep flying.
Alright.
A big thank you to our audience for tuning in thus far.
We encourage you to leave a five star review if possible.
On Spotify or iTunes.
Leave a kind review if you can.

(01:18:13):
We always like reading those.
And yeah.
If you've played Star Wars Bounty Hunter, let us know what you think.
Our email is in the description below.
Along with a link to Star Wars Launch Pad.
Which is our new second podcast that we're running out there as an experiment.
And our social handles.
Lots of cool stuff to look forward to this year.
Including a book review that we have coming up soon called The Living Force.

(01:18:36):
So we'll see you in the next one.
May the Force be with you.
Star Wars Launch Pad.
Available now.

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Star Wars Bounty Hunter (2002) | Retro Game Review

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