Star Wars Episode 1: Jedi Power Battles Review - Screenshot 1 of 3

More than 25 years after the release of the Phantom Menace movie, Star Wars: Episode I: Jedi Power Battles has now returned. Like the movie, this game wasn’t all that well-received on release when it launched for the original PlayStation in the year 2000 – with the Dreamcast release tidying up the whole package just months later. Aspyr’s now back with a restoration of this apparent “beloved classic” following its re-release of Bounty Hunter and the troubled Battlefront Classic Collection in 2024.

Jedi Power Battles is a game that some Jedi Masters might remember as being one of the most unforgiving and dare we say frustrating Star Wars video game experiences. It’s got clunky combat, relentless waves of enemies, and janky platforming mixed with controls and camera angles constantly working against you. Although this kind of design is sometimes considered part of the charm, by modern standards, it’s not exactly aged well.

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Fortunately, for prequel fans, there might still be enough here to enjoy if you do want to relive George Lucas’ 1999 film starring a young Anakin Skywalker. This includes 10 arcade-like levels covering the events of ‘Episode 1’ and a range of different gameplay scenarios including 3D platforming and brawling, one-on-one lightsaber duels, escort missions, bonus minigames, boss battles, and even some speeder bike action. It’s a good variety and there’s an iconic list of playable characters to top it off, starting with the likes of Obi-Wan, Qui-Gon Jinn and Darth Maul, and even incorporating new additions like Jar Jar Binks.

So, the core game experience here – which is based on the Dreamcast version of Jedi Power Battles – is much the same. As for Aspyr’s input, it's rather subtle. There’s now the option to select between classic and modern controls (remapping buttons and swapping some bumper actions with trigger input), the ability to toggle lightsaber colours, content from later releases such as “versus and training modes” has been added, and cheat codes return. The resolution and performance has also had a modern facelift, and the cinematics and famous soundtrack seemingly remain intact.

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Where this title is perhaps at its best is the local co-op action – allowing you to work through the entire 10-level campaign and bonus mini-games with a second player. Enemies can be ruthless at times in solo, so having a buddy can really help with crowd control or when trying to take down certain bosses. You will admittedly have some moments of madness attempting to coordinate your movement during certain platforming segments, but overall, two-player does seem to make the experience more enjoyable.

Considering all of this, the re-release of Jedi Power Battles is not bad. Unfortunately, though, we did encounter some technical problems in the Xbox review build – including a handful of crashes and freezes, sound issues and various other bugs like characters getting caught on objects or stuck in some levels. Hopefully, these issues are resolved quickly if they’re in the final release, but if you do encounter them, a quick game restart should suffice.

Conclusion

There will likely be some Jedi out there who succumb to nostalgia and enjoy reliving the events of 'Episode 1' in this game no matter what, but for everyone else, Jedi Power Battles is a tough one to recommend. The co-op mode does offer some fun moments and is perhaps the best way to experience this package, but the overall design hasn’t aged the best and we encountered some technical problems on Xbox. Maybe wait for a sale on this one, if you aren’t the biggest prequel trilogy fan.