A long time ago, in a Nintendo Direct far far away, Star Wars: Hunters was announced. Initially shown off in 2021 and slated for a 2022 release window, Star Wars: Hunters was one of those games that fans scratched their heads about and eventually forgot about. Then out of seemingly nowhere, Zynga dropped a launch day trailer on April 30th announcing that Star Wars: Hunters would be coming out on June 4th. That date has now passed and I have been able to take it for a spin quite a few times.

When I first booted up Star Wars: Hunters, I was immediately flashbanged by the menu and the various forced tutorial prompts. Hunters is primarily designed for phones with the Switch edition being a nice add-on for people like me; someone who prefers to use the Switch to play games on the go.

Since mobile was the primary thought for the UI of the game, it can be quite difficult to traverse it using a controller. In handheld and docked mode, I occasionally tended to lose track of what exactly I had selected on the screen. After about a half an hour of being on the screen, I finally managed to get the knack of things.

The one thing that hindered my understanding of the main menu is the very thing that the developers put in to try to get you to understand how to navigate the menu in the first place, the forced tutorial. Having played a variety of mobile games in my high school years and still being an avid player of Star Wars: Galaxy of Heroes (All Hail Good is Dumb Guild!), I am familiar with the idea of the forced tutorial. It is a common thing to happen in mobile games since it allows for the game to be more accessible to the lowest common denominator.

However, this tutorial seemed to drag on for a bit longer than it needed to. For the first half an hour, I was jerked from one prompt to another in an attempt to show me every aspect of the game. While I can certainly understand all of this being necessary for a new gamer, I found it quite annoying. It didn’t help that there was no option to skip the tutorial.

After all of this was done and I was finally free to play the game as I saw fit, I quickly discovered just how fun Star Wars: Hunters is. While nothing about it reinvents the wheel in any capacity, it does serve to be a free and fun mobile take on the Overwatch formula. The gameplay is relatively smooth with a surprisingly quick queue time that allowed me to hop into matches within about 15 seconds. The various characters that you earn over time or with in-game purchases all have unique abilities that can change the tides of battle if played correctly.

Unlike Overwatch, there doesn’t currently seem to be any sort of overpowered meta or go-to characters that people gravitate towards. There seemed to always be an Imara Vex or Grozz on a team, but I believe that is primarily due to the fact that these characters are some of the first to be unlocked. While there did seem to be a few people who played melee characters such as Rieve and J-3DI, they never really seemed to have an edge in the overall changes on the battlefield.

While on the subject of characters, I believe that their design is what truly makes Star Wars: Hunters shine. All the characters are completely original and have their own motivations for being contestants within the arena. While the story behind all of them is minimal at best, the unique looks of each character are immaculate. My top three favorite characters are Diago, a Miraluken Sharpshooter, Slingshot, which is in Ugnaught riding a Droideka, and Utooni, two Jawa brothers who stand on top of one another.

With Hunters having a battle pass and copious amounts of in-game purchases, there are bound to be tons of more characters added to the game over time. Especially if the game is successful. While I personally don’t plan to buy any of these, since I don’t tend to spend money on games like these, I do look forward to seeing just where they go with other character designs. I would definitely pay good money to see what other character designs the artists have whipped up over the years while Hunters has been in development.

Overall, I believe that Star Wars: Hunters is a game that is worth checking out. Due to its similar name, I would not be surprised if some people download it initially expecting it to be the upcoming Star Wars: Outlaws. If anyone does end up falling into that trap, they will certainly not be blown up by a Death Star because Hunters is worth the download. Besides, it is a free-to-play game so there is no harm to your wallet for taking a chance on it. Just make sure to be careful before you go slapping a credit card down for any of the microtransactions.

Phenixx Gaming is everywhere you are. Follow us on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram.

Also, if you’d like to join the Phenixx Gaming team, check out our recruitment article for details on working with us.

Phenixx Gaming is proud to be a Humble Partner! Purchases made through our affiliate links support our writers and charity!

Star Wars: Hunters

Free-to-play

8

Score

8.0/10

Pros

• Fantastic Art Style
• Original Characters
• Fun Gameplay

Cons

• Limited to mobile and Switch
• Microtransactions everywhere