It has been over 20 years since the original Cowboy Bebop anime debuted, and in that time it has grown to be one of the most groundbreaking and influential anime series of all time. With a mixture of space opera, noir, comedy, and westerns all packaged into a beautifully animated action-adventure, the show is still held as a one-of-a-kind adventure. However, despite its massive popularity and iconic status, Cowboy Bebop has never really been adapted properly for the video game world.
Despite the series continued popularity, it has only produced two games to date, both developed by Bandai before its Namco merger. The first, simply titled Cowboy Bebop, was a 1998 spaceship shooter released for the PlayStation. Bandai followed this rather tepid entry with the equally forgettable Cowboy Bebop: Tsuioku no Serenade, a Japan-only beat 'em up, released in 2005 on the PlayStation 2. With the imminent live-action Cowboy Bebop Netflix show set to release next month, many fans are wondering once again why this series hasn't gotten more video game adaptations? The time is right for a new Bebop game, and the classic anime is still perfectly suited for a video game adaptation.
One of the most vital reasons that the past attempts at Cowboy Bebop games have failed is that the scope of each entry doesn't come close to matching the epic nature of the anime. A Bebop game deserves to have a budget that will allow its adventures to be properly realized. The anime delivers tense space battles, martial arts brawls, shootouts and more than a fair share of locations throughout the galaxy. A game adaptation needs to at least try and match this level of spectacle for a proper adaptation to work. The games of the past focused on only one aspect of the show and failed to capture what made the anime work so well: the wide scope of an adventure where anything can and does happen.
Throughout the narrative of the show, protagonist Spike Spiegel and his partner Jet Black travel the galaxy as bounty hunters, tracking down dangerous bounties and getting themselves into ridiculous hijinks. The pair even end up collecting other allies in the femme fatale Faye Valentine, master hacker Edward, and even the super-intelligent "data" dog Einstein. Whether or not a new game starts with the iconic crew already intact on a new mission, or follows the narrative of the show, it needs to deliver unique adventures that put these great characters into various exciting situations along with a variety of gameplay mechanics.
Cowboy Bebop's narrative setup is one that perfectly suits video games mechanically as each mission could be a new bounty target that players must take on. By creating a game that revolves around tracking down bounty targets, each mission could mix up the gameplay and match the galaxy-spanning nature of the show by constantly switching things up on players. One mission could have Spike tracking down a bounty solo on foot, only to chase the target through the streets and right into a spaceship dogfight, as the show did in numerous episodes. Another could have players perusing the seedy nooks and crevices of a slum, looking for clues and tips in order to track down a dangerous target and have the whole thing erupt into a tense gunfight when the target ambushes players.
Furthermore, the Bebop ship itself could provide a hub between missions, with players able to watch the in-world television show Big Shot for info on new targets. Players could even choose from a list of targets, with each woolong bounty placed on the individual criminals representing the difficulty of the mission. From there the game could allow players to choose a preferred character between Spike, Faye, or Jet and take on the mission from a third-person perspective. Missions could even be set up as radiant quests as well, resuing different planets to provide side-bounties that players can continue to take on outside the narrative arc. This would not only allow the game to present gameplay that mirrors the kinetic action of the show but also provide the excellent world-building of the Bebop universe.
The prospect of a fully realized Cowboy Bebop game is one that is absolutely brimming with potential, and with the new show set to receive a big push from Netflix, the time couldn't be better to give fans the game adaptation this series deserves. Hopefully, if the new show proves to be a hit, fans will get to travel the stars with Spike and company in a game that nails this iconic anime adventure.