As of late, I’ve been somewhat adrift in my video game playing. The Silent Hill 2 remake has stalled for me, despite it doing everything right. An indie game (that shall remain nameless for the time being) didn’t connect with me right off the bat like I’d hoped it would and it too got shelved. These are games that I desperately want to like and fully immerse myself in but for whatever reason they’re not clicking with me right now.
I’d like to think that every gamer, casual or not, is after a solid “head empty” game that they can fire up for some good, old-fashioned escapism. When the chance to take a look at the newly remastered Star Wars Episode I: Jedi Power Battles from Aspyr for PlayStation 5 came up I (Force) jumped at the chance to check it out.
Twenty-five years ago, I was in the newly reignited throes of Star Wars-mania. Episode I: The Phantom Menace had just hit the year before, and regardless of what my present-day feelings towards the prequels are…I still saw it FIVE TIMES in the theater. For the record, I’m not going to count the shaky-cam VHS bootleg a friend of mine bought in New York and then copied for me in my viewing figures. Besides, I just fast-forwarded past all the Senate stuff and got right to all the lightsaber duels whenever I popped it into the VCR.
That’s where Star Wars Episode I: Jedi Power Battles comes in.
I had purchased and subsequently loathed the Episode I tie-in game for PS1. I recall it being one notch about shovelware with terrible controls and graphics that were not great even by PS1 standards. For me, the saving grace of the game was footage from the movie itself and John Williams’ certified banger composition Duel of the Fates. But what I wanted, what I REALLY wanted, was a game where I could play as a Jedi and slice up battle droids all damn day.
When Star Wars Episode I: Jedi Power Battles was released in April of 2000, I’m fairly confident I got it the day it dropped. Not only would I be able to play as my favorite Jedi, Obi-Wan Kenobi, but also Qui-Gon Jinn and the other Jedi that didn’t get a chance to do a whole heck of a lot in the movie. That option right there was more than enough to keep the game from becoming stale for me.
My old PlayStation and copy of the game are safely in my basement but I had occasionally thought of dusting both off to revisit the game…but now I don’t have to!
Within the last few years, there’s been a push to get older Star Wars games onto current-generation systems, and for better or worse, it’s been nice having them back. Aspyr has given Star Wars Episode I: Jedi Power Battles the ol’ spit and polish to make it look nice for whatever your system of choice is, and to that end, the game is basically untouched. However, this go-around corrects a couple of missteps from the original version, such as ensuring every Jedi has their canonically accurate lightsaber colours. It didn’t bother me so much that Mace Windu had a blue lightsaber (purple wasn’t even a possibility until Samuel L. Jackson made it so), but giving Adi Gallia, a member of the Jedi Council, a RED lightsaber? That seemed like a Sith-sized oversight.
Thanks to the haze of nostalgia, I had forgotten how punishingly difficult this game is. Star Wars Episode I: Jedi Power Battles was truly the Dark Souls of its day…that is, if Dark Souls had insanely difficult platforming and wonky camera angles.
In the time I’ve spent playing through Star Wars Episode I: Jedi Power Battles, I’ve fooled myself into thinking I’ve gotten better at it in the intervening two and a half decades since I last played it. In reality, the modernized controls and a forgiving checkpoint system have made the game infinitely more playable than it was initially.
Even on easy mode, the game is still a tough one, but it still delivers some straight-up-the-middle Jedi action, which is all I ever wanted out of the prequel movies. From the start, all the levels and unlockable characters are available to you, including Darth Maul and even Jar Jar Binks. Star Wars Episode I: Jedi Power Battles is worth picking up if you were a diehard fan of the original release or somehow one of the few players who were actually good at it back then.