Playstation 2 - Cowboy Bebop

Format
Playstation 2
Publisher
Bandai
Developer
Bandai
Country of origin
Japan
Genre
Shooter

A Few Thoughts on Cowboy Bebop the Game

By David Rasmussen
15th Jan 06

I haven’t played it yet (waiting for Playstation magazine to get a demo out for us on newsstands to get ahold of for first look purposes) but I have not heard good buzz from my associates on this one! In fact, to date, I have heard a few discouraging words about the game, and for good reason.
As we all know there’s some sort of evil curse when it comes to games that are adapted from TV or movies! It’s a rare thing to find a TV Series or Movie adaptation game that truly lives up to expectations (The Warriors (PS2) or the (dot)hack Quadrilogy (PS2) from BANDAI for examples) and so far it looks like Cowboy Bebop the PS2 game is falling into the norm rather than the exception.

Look, this show is splendid and one of the essentials of your Anime experience, but talk about a loaded gun when it comes to the struggle of making a Cowboy Bebop video game! You have your work basically cut out for you on this endeavor, and somehow you just know that you can’t make everyone happy no matter what you do because a show packing such a powerful (and vocal) fanbase will pack a powerful (and very vocal) opinion about what the game should be, and what the game failed to be. Just look at the Full Metal Alchemist fans, for instance! They’re very passionate about the series, even more so about the topic of the 2 PS2 games to date! So much so that they’ve become mortal enemies to the staff of X-Play just because they’ve given the two games a 2... Out of 5.
As for BANDAI’s fortunes with X-Play? Well BANDAI hasn’t fared well with X-Play either if memory served me correctly. They were down on Digimon World 4 for the GameCube (do you blame them?), and they were not the most thrilled with One Piece : Grand Battle (I haven’t played this yet to long enough lengths to generate a review), nor were they thrilled with Ghost in the Shell : Stand Alone Complex (PS2)! Then again they were down on (dot)hack and I had praise for it so they do sometimes have opinions I don’t agree with… sometimes.

Point is that while I am holding out my final opinion for the game in question (for a DEMO and then full review) I have to say that I am a little concerned about the lack of hype heavy buzz about this game. I need to hear more feedback, but more importantly I need to hear some feedback that gives me hope that gamers will fall in love with this game as much as they fell in love with the series this game is based on. Otherwise this is going to trip and stumble down the path of failing series to game translation which seems to happen more times than we wish it would happen. But still this is not my final thoughts on the game. I have an open mind and I would like to actually have said game in my hands, playing it fully, before I say more.
I’m looking forward to seeing this, and have my fingers crossed it’ll live up to my high expectations.
Stay tuned for more on this game as I will review it in the coming weeks! Be good until then!

-- David Rasmussen 15th Jan 06

Playstation 2 Cowboy Bebop Images