Star Wars Jedi Power Battles is the remaster nobody was asking for
I think we have crossed the Rubicon with regards to the remaster craze. It’s starting to feel as if we’ve exhausted all the good games that deserve a remastering and are now simply reaching our hands into a bag and pulling out something random. Originally released in the year 2000 for the PS1 and Dreamcast consoles, Star Wars Jedi Power Battles was simply put, not a very good game.
Jedi Power Battles is one of those classic beat ‘em ups but without the quality of a classic in the genre. The game feels a lot like an arcade game, in the sense that it feels like it’s trying to take your last quarter any way possible. You remember those sorts of arcade experience? The one’s where the game itself wasn’t great and was only created to eat quarters upon quarters. Jedi Power Battles is also just strange as a beat ’em up and equally as strange for an Episode 1 tie-in.
Developer Aspyr has done a fantastic job bringing Jedi Power Battles into the modern age, but for what reason is beyond me. Those of us who grew up with the game remember it for being overly difficult (falling to your death is a common occurrence), having clunky combat, and enemies that tank damage even to a lightsaber. The only real saving grace for the game was it’s co-op gameplay making the game big on the then popular rental scene at places like Blockbuster and Hollywood Video. It’s the perfect “weekend” type game that you get when friends are coming over.
In terms of version, it looks like this is remastered port of the Dreamcast version of Jedi Power Battles. This is good and bad for a number of reasons. The Dreamcast version ran much better and had added extras and fixes the PS1 version lacked, but it also lacked environmental damage and lacks the more colorful look of the PS1 original. That said, both versions suffer from the same core issues that no remaster is going to fix. Most annoying of all is that you’ll still get stunlocked in nearly every encounter, something made worse when you are trying to input Mortal Kombat-like combos.
But I think the biggest issue with this Dreamcast port is that most people who played and loved the original game as kids never played it on the Dreamcast. This means that even looking at the game through rose tinted glasses, you’ll feel like some things are just a bit off from how you remember. Is this the best version of Jedi Power Battles? Sure! It’s just not the one most fans will probably remember. And this might be the only game where fans will question why Darth Maul is using two blades and not one like in the PS1 version.
If you stripped out the co-op, Jedi Power Battles would certainly be forgotten to time. I know there are a lot of people out there around my age who remember playing this one and having a great time at some sleepover, but that’s just your nostalgia glasses fogging up. Jedi Power Battles holds up far better in your head than it does in real life, and this is with a fantastic remaster that fixes a lot of issues of the original.
Jedi Power Battles is a good remastering of a bad game with a couple of neat extras like a few new playable characters. It’s also still a buggy affair with the game crashing on the Coruscant stage for unknown reasons. At least the game is as frustrating as I remember considering I could never beat the first boss battle with the Droid Starfighter as a Jedi.
I mean, I still can’t but at least I can play as a blaster wielding character to take it down now. Good thing the Steam discussions had the answer I never got 25 years ago. Even for fans I’d recommend you wait for it to go on sale.
Final Score:
“Star Wars Jedi Power Battles is only for the hardcore fan of the original who recently got a new prescription for their nostalgia glasses”
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