Netflix releases first live-action Cowboy Bebop pictures, leads us to find a hidden game

3, 2, 1…Let’s Jam. For many anime fans, those words probably elicit more than a few tears. Today, Netflix released the first photos of its upcoming Cowboy Bebop live-action series based on Shinichirō Watanabe’s 1998 anime series. And wow. I’m definitely hearing those jazz notes play. 

Cowboy Bebop is a space western that follows a rag-tag team of bounty hunters: Spike Spiegel (played by John Cho), Jet Black (Mustafa Shakir), Faye Valentine (Daniella Pineda) joined by the hyper intelligent girl-hacker Ed and Ein the corgi, in their intergalactic adventures.

A typical episode involves spectacular gunfights, and losing money due to said gunfights erupting into all out space runner brawls. Faye screams, Jet yells and Spike breaks his runner, again, all in their pursuit of money, revenge and love. Add in some funky jazzy tunes and it isn’t an anime to forget.

What is Cowboy Bebop?

Netflix’s 10-episode series is just the latest part of the beloved anime’s franchise. Scheduled for release Nov. 19, the series stars John Cho as Spike, Mustafa Shakir as Jet and Daniella Pineda as Faye. The anime, which ran from 1998-99 in Japan and 2001 in the West, spun off a manga series, movie, two PlayStation games and still has a very dedicated fanbase. Unfortunately, the games – Cowboy Bebop for the PlayStation, and Tsuioku no Serenade for the PlayStation 2, did not receive a release outside of Japan.

However, we’re in luck. Because of Netflix’s pictures, Mega Visions did a little net sleuthing and found a hidden gem. Thankfully, Cowboy Bebop has sparked the imagination of indie retro games developers Nova32 Animations Studios. The Mexico-based studio has published titles from older platforms like the Atari, MS-DOS, SEGA Saturn and Dreamcast for both retro and new consoles.

Cowboy Bebop is one such game. Playable on the Dreamcast, Windows, macOS, Linux and Android, the side-scrolling 2D shooter lets you fly a runner while taking out enemy ships similar to Space Invaders. Although the graphics are admittedly low-resolution, the nostalgic factor should not be ignored. Notorious villains like Vicious appear to have their own big boss areal battles. It seriously looks like a fun way to spend some time. 

Downloads of Cowboy Bebop and their other titles are available on Nova32’s itch.io store. Check out a sample game play video below. And if you are a fan of the series, we would love to hear from you. Do the new cast pictures hit you in the feels?

Until next time…”See You Space Cowboy.”