Star Wars Jedi Power Battles gets a remastered version twenty-five years after its release. Here’s everything you should know about it.
Originally released in 2000 for PlayStation, Dream Cast, and Game Boy Advanced. In Jedi Power Battles you can play multiple Jedi through the events of Episode I: The Phantom Menace. Twenty-five years later Aspyr has released a remastered version.
Here are my impressions after playing it for days.
Re-living a wonderful childhood experience
Playing a game twenty-five years after it first release is a very different experience. As a small kid, I didn’t care about things like character design, progression systems, combat, game mechanics, and other stuff that today is always a talking point when experiencing a game. Back then it was just about having fun playing a Star Wars game.
Before diving into the game itself, how cool is the opening sequence! It’s simple for modern standards but back in the day, very few things could match it. Five Jedi fighting together with Duel of the Fates playing? Nothing hyped me more than that.
I spent countless hours playing Jedi Power Battles on my PlayStation 1. Since I did not own a memory card at that time I always had to start over without my progress being saved.
The way this game works is each time your character earns experience when completing a level, you can learn a new combo, as well as increase your health or force bar.
The best thing is that you are able to choose from multiple characters. The list includes
- Qui-Gon
- Obi-Wan
- Ki-Adi Mundi
- Mace Windu
- Adi Gallia
- Plo-Koon
- Padmé Amidala
- Captain Panaka
- a B-1 Battle Droid
- Darth Maul.
The ideal thing is to pick up a character and max both bars as well as get all the combat combos available in order to beat the final level which is a boss battle with Darth Maul.
As a kid, I never cared about this and I switched characters every few levels because I loved playing as all the different Jedi, especially Adi Gallia, and Plo-Koon. Like many other old games, Jedi Power Battles might have been clunky, but it wasn’t the type of game that you could complete just by spamming a few combos. At least not the fight with Maul.
When this game came out, Adi Gallia used a red lightsaber, Plo Koon a yellow one, and Mace Windu a blue one instead of his signature purple blade. This is because Attack of the Clones had not come out. That has been changed in this remastered version but you can choose what lightsaber color you want when eligible.
I decided that the way to approach my gameplay after two decades would be the same, for better or worse. Trying to do things efficiently is obviously the best way to beat the game but I still wanted to replicate the experience I had twenty-five years ago.
The first thing that I noticed was how horrible it is to play with a mouse and keyboard. After dying almost immediately to the weakest NPCs of the game I switched to the controller and the issue was solved.
With that behind, everything went very smoothly. In terms of visuals, the game looks exactly the same but that’s not something that bothers me in this particular case. It’s part of its appeal and at least I am able to play it on my Ultrawide monitor with zero problems.
There are aspects that make all the levels different from each other. Some levels require you only to advance the final boss, others to rescue a number of NPCs, a couple let you drive vehicles and there’s one that has a time limit. Despite being linear, at least these elements give all levels a different identity.
The UI is extremely simple. Lives left, life bar, Force bar and usable items available are the only things you can toggle on/off.
The combat mechanics are very simple and combos become boring quite fast but the deflect mechanic never gets old and it’s always satisfying. I’d say this is the biggest way the player can express their skill in Jedi Power Battles.
The way it works is that when the enemy shoots with their blasters, you have to press the block button at a specific moment. If you don’t time it properly the lightsaber still protects you but it won’t send it back to the enemy.
This is the most reliable way to get rid of multiple enemies particularly because even Battle Droids are capable of blocking multiple lightsaber strikes. Trying to hit a single droid three or four times in a row while others are shooting is a quick way to become one with the Force.
To deflect successfully you have to be paying close attention to your enemy. Sometimes it’s a movement that tells when the shot is coming but it can also be a sound depending on the enemy. It’s nothing compared to how parries work in fighting or Soulslike games but it still feels great when you do so!
Apart from the ten levels of the story, you can get to play a few funny mini-games with a friend. Kaadu races, 1v1 practice mode, or even the equivalent of Rocket League where Jar Jar Binks is the ball and you have to poke him with an Electropole.
Does it do Episode I justice?
The Phantom Menace is the first Star Wars that I got to watch in movie theaters and still remains one of my favorite episodes of the entire Skywalker saga. I had a vague memory of the levels in Poder Power Battles but I wasn’t sure how faithful they are to the movie.
There is a total of ten levels, all of which happen in locations that appear in the movie. The Trade Federation ship, Naboo’s forest, Tatooine, Coruscant, Theed City, and the main palace.
The music is exactly what you hear in The Phantom Menace. You can imagine how fun it is to strike Battle Droids down with the original soundtrack of the movie. However, it’s not possible to hear the respective music pieces.
Depending on where you are, only a small bit will play and it’s going to repeat on an endless loop until you move on to the next area. This can make things a little tedious but only if you really get stuck on a specific area.
The variety of enemies is decent. You face different ranks of B-1 Battle Droids, Droidekas, Bounty Hunters, Tusken Raiders, Probe Droids, Gungans, and Jawas. The bosses are all different with their own simple but unique combat mechanics. Droids, a ship, a Bounty Hunter, a Gungan elite warrior, massive beasts, and the mighty Darth Maul.
With the clear limitations of a game of this type, I’d say that Jedi Power Battles does a great job honoring the first prequel trilogy movie.
Should you buy it
This is one of my favorite PS1 games and it brings me great memories. Replaying it has been very interesting and while it doesn’t look as I “remembered”, it’s still an incredibly fun and nostalgic experience.
With that said, it’s important to point out that Jedi Power Battles is not a game for everyone. Probably most people born after 2000 wouldn’t even consider getting the game and I understand why. It looks goofy and the gameplay can be clunky. Compared to any game that was released after the 2010s, Jedi Power Battles feels outdated.
But, if you want to experience how it was to play a Star Wars game in the early 2000s this is one of the best candidates. The lightsaber combat, level design, boss fights, and power-ups are the basis of what we experience in modern games like Jedi Survivor.
This is also a good game for those who like a challenge. I only mean one challenge because even in Jedi difficulty most of the game is easy to beat with the exception of Darth Maul.
Even with everything maxed out you are at a disadvantage against the powerful Sith Lord. He does multiple combos at a speed you can’t match and his damage is very high. One small mistake and it’s over. This boss is one of the most frustrating ones I’ve encountered in any Star Wars game.
I think any Star Wars fan who loves games should try it at least once. It’s a really fun experience with a price tag of around $10 on Steam (depending on your location), this game is very affordable. If you only enjoy games with the most updated mechanics and visuals then this is probably not for you.
