8 Games To Play If You Love Cowboy Bebop

The bluesy, cyberpunk world of Cowboy Bebop may have taken a bow in 1999, but fans of the phenomenal anime series are still searching for a worthy successor. The show captured graceful space dogfights, slick martial arts combat, and the gritty reality of life as a space cowboy.

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9 Popular Anime In Need Of AAA Game Adaptations

These popular titles in the anime franchise will most likely perform well if they are adapted into AAA video games.

Thankfully for fans of the anime, modern video gaming allows the stylish spirit of Cowboy Bebop to return. Each of these games is an incredible throwback to the show, whether through its setting, story, or the colorful jazz vibe.

8 Cyberpunk 2077

Flatlining Chooms

The most obvious comparison between Cyberpunk 2077 and Cowboy Bebop is the setting. While the anime often focuses on more desolate locations, the vibrant visits to the massive metropolises make Cyberpunk fans feel right at home. Flashing neon advertisements, vending machines that dispense guns, and an in-your-face explosion of crime and corruption.

Cyberpunk also opens up skill trees and hordes of unlocks to let players customize their fighting styles. Approaches to combat can mirror any of the Bebop crew—Netrunners can mirror Ed’s abilities, while slow-motion revolver attacks are reminiscent of Spike’s cool confrontations. The side gigs that make up the optional content in the open world of Night City are the most similar to the bounty-hunting escapades in the anime and will let fans of Cowboy Bebop appreciate the world-building.

7 Disco Elysium

Detectives And Destruction

In a much less action-packed vision of a cyberpunk future, Disco Elysium puts players in control of an amnesiac detective who is learning about the world he has found himself in along with the player. The dystopian setting intertwines modern sensibilities with future tech and ancient struggles of racism, classism, and violence. The mission for the player is to solve the murder of a man who has been hung from a tree. This makes the whole story feel a lot like an episode of a larger narrative and the stylish dialogue, the chaos that the detective leaves in their wake, and the filthy world full of corruption, drugs, and danger all make him a potential successor to Spike and the crew of the Bebop.

The final connection that makes this a must-play for show fans is the lovable cast of characters who will become the game’s main focus. Lieutenant Kim Kitsuragi will quickly become a guide through the strange world of Revachol and the other weird and wonderful people capture the humorous and human spirit of Cowboy Bebop: Kuno, Garte, Titus Hardy, Klaasje, Lillienne, and Egghead are some of the most incredible.

6 Grim Fandango

An Afterlife Adventure

One of the most beloved aspects of Cowboy Bebop that has been universally praised is the score. Composer Yoko Kanno and the band ‘Seatbelts’ produced a series of bebop, blues, and big-band jazz songs to underpin the story of the anime. Grim Fandango, a classic adventure game directed by Tim Schafer, also features a soundtrack that has left a huge impact on the genre. Swing, big band, and bebop influences can be felt in the beautiful compositions that have been mentioned countless times in discussions about the game. The music will be a welcome connection for fans of Cowboy Bebop; the award-winning score sets the game apart from many of its contemporaries.

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The story itself expertly balances humor and heart with players becoming Manny, an underworld travel agent who is trying to get clients (the newly dead) to their final rest when he discovers a conspiracy that is damning good souls to torturous travel and possible eternal life in the unsatisfying Land of The Dead. Manny and his incredible demon sidekick Glottis are well-written and funny with real goals, who are risking their lives to do the right thing in a story that has rightly helped Grim Fandango to be known as one of the best video games of all time.

5 Sifu

Combat With Spike Spiegel Style

Cowboy Bebop series protagonist, Spike Spiegel, is often caught in close-quarters combat and has to rely on his perfect form. Perhaps the best examples of Spike’s expert skill come in the episode ‘Waltz For Venus’, when Spike starts to teach a young friend how to be ‘fluid like water’. Fans can take a leaf out of Spike’s book by becoming a young martial arts student looking for revenge in Sifu. Attacks can be chained into dance-like combos and players can block and parry enemy attacks to master fight scenes that would have Spike running for cover.

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These martial arts masters are inherently wise and cunning and prove incredibly adept with their fists.

As players improve in the game, they will unlock more and more moves and be able to capture the style of Bruce Lee or Cowboy Bebop‘s most tense fight scenes. Environmental attacks will let players use broken bottles, sticks, and swords, but players are also able to use ramps and ledges or drops into the abyss to gain an advantage over enemies that can prove tricky enough alone but will quickly become insurmountable hordes. The focus on realistic hand-to-hand combat cements Sifu as a spiritual successor to Cowboy Bebop, the closest a studio has come to the martial arts mastery that Spike displays at any opportunity.

4 Tokyo 42

Isometric Bounty Hunting

While bounty hunting in Cowboy Bebop is the profession of those on board the titular ship, the crew are catching criminals and handing them over to the police; undoubtedly, they are working for the cops, even if only for their own selfish gain. In Tokyo 42, the player is thrust into the world of hunting against their will, but it quickly becomes clear that their role is less of an officially sanctioned bounty hunter and more that of an assassin. The anime-inspired isometric visuals are stunning and set the sci-fi locations apart with hidden details that will net players experience for tagging with binoculars, but the moment-to-moment gameplay is much more combat-focused.

Players will be assigned a target and will then use all the weapons at their disposal to kill the quarry. Pistols, automatic rifles, shotguns, snipers, katanas, rocket launchers, and banana peels all feature as possible methods to carry out the required jobs, but special awards are given for defeating all enemies in the location or for never being spotted and still carrying out the kill. Speedy motorbike combat, planned-out hits, and chaotic sprints away from crowds of enemies all seem to emulate Cowboy Bebop perfectly and the ability to slip in and out of a trenchcoat when players are doing their deadly business means that players will always be immersed in the grungy sci-fi setting and the Blade Runner meets Hitman atmosphere.

3 Heat Signature

Hotline Miami, In Space

Some of the most iconic moments in Cowboy Bebop come from the blending of real combat in larger-than-life spacefaring scenarios. Heat Signature sees players becoming characters who make a living breaking into spaceships; they start by choosing any ship they can see on the huge galactic map and then board the vessel. A range of science fiction gadgets can be unlocked as players progress, and eventually, the character they are playing will be able to access their randomly chosen final heist. They may be rescuing their kidnapped partner, getting revenge by killing someone from their past or even just getting their favorite gun back. These character moments are never the focus, but they manage to make the whole game feel more heartfelt.

The story is slipped in gently, in the same way as in Cowboy Bebop, with the focus always being the awesome space combat. Enemies make use of armor and technology to stop the player character, but players can always freeze time to work out their next move before they try to make the impossible shot or doom themselves in a final stand by exploding sections of a ship and sending everyone hurtling into the vacuum of space. Teleporting, hacking, grenades, and endless opportunities make this game feel like a cosmic sequel to Hotline Miami, with top-down combat, high-speed killings, and a punky attitude.

2 Borderlands 2

Loot and Laughs

Cowboy Bebop‘s solemn moments hit hard, but the majority of the show is light-hearted and silly. Fights between the crew members are petty and the insanity that follows the whole Bebop ship is a symptom of a show that only takes itself seriously when it has to. Borderlands 2, the critically acclaimed looter shooter, has the opposite view. The game never takes itself seriously whatsoever. From the start, the antagonist Handsome Jack taunts the players who survive his attempt to kill them.

The players, vault hunters who come to the planet to seek their fortunes, are subject to constant name-calling and abuse from the villain. Quests veer into ridiculousness, while always remaining an important part of the game. Characters like Scooter, Ellie, and the ever-incompetent Claptrap keep the player invested in the story that manages to have real stakes and feelings while maintaining a goofy approach.

The responsive gunplay and explosive ultimate moves make each character feel distinct and the hilarious voice lines for each of the roles set them apart with different attitudes and issues. The constant accumulation of guns, money, and special items while bouncing between locations in a local or online co-op game makes the comparison to the Bebop crew come all too easy. Finish off with the beautifully stylized cell-shaded graphics that make the landscapes cartoony, eye-catching, and colorful, and many fans of Cowboy Bebop will be right at home on Pandora.

1 They Always Run

See You, Space Cowboy

In the most one-to-one translation of Cowboy Bebop‘s setting, style, and soul, They Always Run has players take on the role of a strange three-armed bounty hunter in a Western-themed space setting. The game is fast-paced, with an emphasis on dodges and parries to protect from groups of enemies who will attack from all sides in the 2D platformer. The player can swing, climb, and jump around or sprint at high speeds.

Combat uses the third arm as a break for blocks, an attack with a little more range, or even as a tool to destroy walls and obstacles in the way. Fights can quickly turn into manic scrabbles to dodge into an advantageous position, but the simple but deep formula spurs players on to continue. Playing as the bounty hunter, with all the threatening presence and brutal attacks that come from that position, really allows players to become the space cowboy that Cowboy Bebop focused on so often.

Cowboy Bebop

Release Date

April 3, 1998

Seasons

1

Studio

Sunrise

Directors

Shinichirô Watanabe