Cowboy Bebop
Cowboy Bebop is basically an anime institution, and this game for the original Playstation was a greatest hits title in Japan. However, I've heard surprisingly little conversation regarding this one given the notoriety of its source material and the immense popularity of the system it was on.
Cowboy Bebop is a rail shooter in the vein of Panzer Dragoon in which you take flight as Spike Spiegel in control of his fighter, the Swordfish II in search of bounties. You have two weapons by default, which are a machine gun and ruby laser, but the weapons can be upgraded with points earned in between levels and switched out with upgraded lasers and missiles. By chaining together explosions and taking out entire formations you increase your score with which to upgrade, and... that's about it so far. I haven't finished it yet.
The controls have some idiosyncracies compared to others in the genre, such as an inverted y-axis, which is adjustable in the options menu, and the method in which you use your secondary weapon. You first press the square button to narrow your cross hair, and then press square and x to fire. Simply pressing x will continue to fire your standard machine gun. Your secondary weapon has a charge gauge that refills within about 3 seconds. Also, using the L1 and R1 buttons, you can initiate rotation and rolls to dodge and fit through narrow canyons, however I have found the maneuver to be largely for show to the point of the game I've reached.
The enemies are blocky and somewhat nondescript, but the familiar character portraits chiming in with concern or adulation during the mission add some flavor from the show. Some of the made up characters for the game, though, feel oddly out of keeping with the tone of the show and closer to the goofier nature of some of the manga upon which it is based. The biggest missed opportunity, though, is the music, which lacks all of the jazz/bluesy flavor of the show in favor of oddly upbeat synth and guitars. It's a waste and takes away from the show's tone entirely. It's a shame, really, as a few tweaks could have really enhanced the feel of this game to make it feel like an extension of the property's universe instead of a rail shooter with a tacked-on license.
Cowboy Bebop is an okay rail shooter that really fails to cash in on an excellent license. It plays okay, but it may as well have just been called Space Fighter and been a Simple Series generic. Even as a rail shooter, there are games with much more action such as Super Robot Shooting, Gamera, or Vanark to satisfy you before settling for this game. As a fan of the anime, I really feel like they missed the boat with this one, but it's not an abject failure. I'm not mad at Bandai, I'm just disappointed.
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