If you’re around my age, you remember back when gaming wasn’t indie or triple-A; it was just games. Things changed a lot for console players when Xbox Live Arcade appeared, and suddenly a whole host of new games started to creep into mainstream gaming. The early games in that program were a little janky, kind of cute, often cheaper, and just fun to play. It’s not often that you get that exact same feeling in 2026, and yet Bounty Brawl: Most Wanted manages that.
That’s both a good and bad thing, in my opinion. It’s good in that it’s a game that’s immensely easy to pick up and play, you’ll understand it straight away, and you can muck around with your mates. You have to go to different planets to hunt down bosses, and each level gives different modifiers, with them getting more intense as your run goes on, but you get stronger by getting upgrades. A lot of these are kind of run-of-the-mill, like move and attack speed, but each character has different unique buffs too.
The characters do all feel meaningfully different too, although they don’t tend to be complex. The main thing is that you can dodge, you can lasso (I’ll get to that), you have a basic attack, and you have a special attack. You can also dance, which is always good. Basic attacks range from things like charging up a big melee swing to shooting at something, and special attacks can have unique properties, like making claws swirl around you, or being chargeable if you have a special resource. Each character also has different weapons you can unlock, but they really don’t change much.
The lasso is pegged as being one of the big features, and while you do use it a lot, it also feels a little bit too limited. You use it to interact with the various stage hazards, like pulling up lightning rods or trying to stop trains to act as cover for you, and you can use it to deal damage to enemies if you can stun them, but that’s sort of it. There is movement with it, but it’s only in specific places, so it’s just a bit underwhelming.
I’m not really trying to complain about Bounty Brawl, because it is a fun time with friends, although it does also feel bad solo. It’s one of those games which feels like a time capsule to 20 years ago, and that brings me a bit of internal joy, but I also don’t know that that’s enough for how good games are now. There’s fun to be had here, and I think it’s likely a massive amount of fun with younger gamers in split screen, where I do think this game would shine, but otherwise, it’s fun, but not for long. If you don’t mind that, then grab it and enjoy the sheer nonsense of it all, find your favourite character, and summon some worms to help aid you in battle.
