When I originally saw Bounty Brawl: Most Wanted, I didn’t hesitate to add it to my wishlist. This is very close to the style of game that I want to make from the art to the camera angle. The team at Nanuq did a great job creating a world that is just fascinating to look at. While my own skills are nowhere near this level, I am so happy that a game that looks like this exists.
Getting into the gameplay is when things start to be a little bit rough. My playthrough was as a solo player, so I do wonder if the game is better enjoyed with a full party of 4. You can check out the game for yourself at . You can check out my full play session or the shortened version if you want to hear more of my thoughts.
I am the bounty hunter
Out of everything, the game just nails this from the start. You know what you’re getting yourself into before you launch the game just by all of the screenshots and videos on their store page. When you do load in, you eventually find yourself in a hub where you have access to everything you need to prepare for a run in one screen. Some of the menus have a few layers to them, but for the most part it’s very quick to get ready and jump into a run. Once you do start a run, you are setting off on a mission to collect the bounty on one of the bosses right away. Even on the runs when I was losing, I was feeling that pull of just trying one more character and doing one more run.
Too much interruption
The biggest challenge I had with the first 10 minutes was that most of it was spent on a tutorial and waiting for tutorial boxes to let me proceed forward. Some of the boxes only had a few words to explain something that was really obvious, so it wasn’t clear to me why this was needed. With a high action game, it’s really important to let the players get into things and explore the space. Given how easy it was to launch a game, it seems like having an onboarding the emphasized playing the game would have gone better. There’s a lot of screen real estate that is totally free, so some of that could have gone toward button prompts that are there for reference.
Was it my fault or unfair?
There were a number of times where I felt like I was getting hit by attacks that were not telegraphed well or seemingly had no start up. The worst example were the crystal stage hazards against one of the bosses that seemed to have a much larger range than shown. This made playing the melee characters feel much worse because there was almost no time to react to some of these attacks. Learning how to dodge the attacks and position may come with experience playing the game, but there is a point at which it crosses from “possible to overcome” to “I guess I won’t try to dodge”. As a game creator, I want to make sure I’m keeping an eye on that balance and giving players enough of the signals to learn more efficiently. It’s on me to design the feedback into the experience.
Will I play again?
This is one of those games that I really enjoy and will recommend to people who want to try something off the beaten path. Hopefully the game will get some more updates to polish off some of the rough edges. Even if not, I think that the art for this game is well worth the price to see it for yourself if you’re a 3D artist. It may not be a game for everyone, but I’ll always be happy and excited to boot this one up even just to run around in the lobby.