Bargain Bin Gaming- Episode 20: Bounty Hounds

Bounty Hounds.gifWhen gamers usually think of Namco, they’re reminded of either the classics of yester-year like Pac Man or Galaga, or the playstation classics Ridge Racer, Soul Calibur and Tekken.

Trying desperately to shake the reputation that they were merely cashing in on sequels to established franchises, rather than creative genius and ingenuity, Namco has done everything from merging with another company, Bandai, to working with as many different and diverse developers as possible, like Xpec, [who was responsible for making perhaps the worst X-box game of all time, Black Stone: Magic & Steel] in a desperate attempt to broaden their scope in the video game world.

Unfortunately, Namco’s newest collaborative creation with Xpec, Bounty Hounds, a third-person, sci-fi shooter for the PSP, doesn’t live up to the high standards of the other games they have released on the Sony Portable [Ridge Racers, Tekken: Dark Resurrection], but thanks to an engaging story and solid graphics, the game does end up with more positive qualities than bad.

To go along with a solid storyline that has players hunting aliens on distant planets for the good of mankind, Bounty Hounds has a very unique sense of style, making it one of the better looking PSP shooters currently available. Everything in the game, enemies, weapons, environments and our hero, Maximilian all look great, while the animations of all the characters are smooth and well polished.

Unfortunately, there are times when the camera in the game acts up, making it almost impossible to tell where the awesome looking enemies are coming from. Pressing the left and right triggers on your PSP in Bounty Hounds will rotate the camera for you making things a little easier for you, but more often than not, the enemies in the game are too fast to catch this way, making most gamers dizzy in an attempt to defeat routine enemies.

Another problem in Bounty Hounds is that despite having the opportunity to customize Maximilian with various different weapons, the gameplay mechanics are way too easy. Aside from a simple three-hit combo, there aren’t many other ways to attack enemies, making a game with good graphics and a solid story seem dull and repetitive.

On the whole, if you can get past the haphazard camera and simple gameplay, you might eventually come to like Bounty Hounds. However, if great graphics and a good story alone aren’t enough to quench your gaming thirst, look elsewhere.

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About Patrick Hickey Jr. 13819 Articles
Patrick Hickey Jr. is a full-time Assistant Professor of Communication & Performing Arts and Director of the Journalism program at Kingsborough Community College and is the chairman of the City University of New York Journalism Council. He is the Founder and Editor-In-Chief of ReviewFix.com. He's also a former News Editor at NBC Local Integrated Media and National Video Games Writer at Examiner.com where his work was mentioned in National Ad campaigns by Disney, Nintendo and EA Sports. Hickey was also the Editor-In-Chief of two College Newspapers before he received his BA in Journalism from Brooklyn College. Hickey's work has been published in The New York Daily News, The New York Times, Complex, The Hockey Writers, Yahoo!, Broadway World, Examiner, NYSportScene Magazine, ProHockeyNews.com, GothamBaseball.com, The Syracuse Post-Standard, Scout.com and the official sites of the Brooklyn Aces and New York Islanders. His first book, The Minds Behind the Games: Interviews With Cult And Classic Video Game Developers was released in April 2018 and is chock full of interviews with legendary developers. His second book in the series, The Minds Behind Adventures Games, was released in December 2019. His third book, The Minds Behind Sports Games, was released in September 2020. His fourth book, The Minds Behind Shooter Games, was released in March 2021. The Minds Behind Sega Genesis Games and The Minds Behind PlayStation Games were released in 2022 and The Minds Behind PlayStation 2 was published in January 2023. Hickey is also a contracted comic book writer, currently penning his original series, "Condrey," as well as "The Job," "Brooklyn Bleeds" "Dem Gulls" and "KROOM" for Legacy Comix, where he serves as founder, owner and Editor-in-Chief. Hickey Jr. is also a voice actor, having starred in the 2018 indie hit and 2019 Switch, PS4 and Xbox One release, The Padre (also serving as English language Story Editor), from Shotgun With Glitters. The sequel, The Padre: One Shell Straight to Hell was released in February 2021- Hickey also served as a Story Editor and Lead Voiceover performer. He has also done narration and trailers for several other titles including The Kaiju Offensive, Relentless Rex and Roniu’s Tale. Hickey is also the lead voiceover performer on Mega Cat Studios’ upcoming title WrestleQuest, responsible for nearly 90 characters in the game, as well as Skybound's Renfield: Bring Your Own Blood, where he voices both Dracula and Renfield, as well as several other characters. He also stars in Ziggurat Interactive’s World Championship Boxing Manager 2, where he performs the VO of nearly every male character in the game. He also worked on the Atari VCS’s BPM Boy.

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