Star Wars Episode 1: Jedi Power Battles Returns

A long time ago… we had video game movie tie-ins. Most of these were terrible. That included Star Wars: Episode I The Phantom Menace, a rather janky, slog of a game that did, however, let you murder pretty much every NPC. Somehow that spawned a follow-up with more focus on combat; all the action, none of the fluff and fetch quests and retelling of the slowest story in Star Wars. That follow-up was Jedi Power Battles.

The new remastered version definitely brings a dose of nostalgia, if nothing else. It’s technically a port of the N64 version, so it has some slightly nicer textures than the PS1 version plus some extra characters – mostly available from the start with this release. It also gives you level selection from the off.

That’s about it as far as upgrades though, nothing has been done to improve playability or enjoyment. This is a bonus for purists but a pain in the Ahsoka for anyone else.

Playing as a Jedi you have several combos and force powers but it quickly devolves into standing still. And reflecting blaster bolts and hoping a droid doesn’t snipe you out of the air while you navigate some aggravating platforming sections – dropping you into the void. There’s a co-op mode but again no modern considerations such as online co-op and you’ll have a shared life pool which mostly just adds to the frustration particularly with the tricky platforming sections.

There are a couple of instant death scenarios, but they’re nothing compared to failing an objective. This doesn’t send you back to a checkpoint but resets all progress in the level. You can make it to an end-level boss only to not have the objective complete and have to start the entire level over.

There is an easy difficulty which takes some of the edge off but doesn’t solve the above problems. There’s no way to carry progress between difficulties either, you actually have to overwrite your save file! That’s going to suck for trophy hunters.

I put a lot of time into this game the first time around, so it really hits the nostalgia buttons. But with no quality of life improvements and a bunch of jank that has also aged terribly it’s a hard one to recommend.