Tuesday, January 28, 2025

Game Review: 'Star Wars: Episode I: Jedi Power Battles' Remaster

The current "Star Wars" galaxy is far, far away from what existed back in 2000 when "Star Wars Episode I: Jedi Power Battles"  light saber-sawed its way into homes a year after the divisive "The Phantom Menace" blew up the box office.

The remastered version, released by the dev and publishing team at Aspyr, acts as something of a time machine to the era before the sequels and scattershot Disney TV series sullied the franchise's good name. 

A raucous, action-heavy shoot-and-'splode-em up, the game's story carries only a tenuous tie with with film in order to maximize creative and dramatic licenses with as much death and destruction as possible.

Improvements are myriad. The game plays faster and looser than it originally did, and offers more than 10 new playable characters, couch-co-up, improved graphics and uncountable quality-of-life adjustments to ease clunky interfaces that were all the rage at the dawn of the George W. Bush regime.

The untainted innocence on display is disarming. If love for the prequel-era franchise still flickers in your heart, you'll find plenty to adore here. Outrageous action, simplistic, yet oddly effective, writing and an emphasis of a bizarre, incongruous story are the headliners here/

This remastered version of "Jedi Power Battles" put a smile on my face, and it allowed me to show my kids a taste of what "Star Wars" games were like before they were born without having to dig up and dust off an old PlayStation or Dreamcast. The game is as warm and comfortable as the sands of Tatoine.

Publisher provided review code.

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