Star Wars: Episode I: Jedi Power Battles Review

Star Wars: Episode I: Jedi Power Battles is a remake of a side-scrolling beat-em up that debuted on consoles a quarter of a century ago. It roughly follows the events of its namesake movie in that the levels are inspired by the film’s locations and presented in the same order that they appear in the film, so it’s more of a game inspired by Episode I than one that lets you relive the story.

I never played the original game when it was released. To be honest, the marketplace was being flooded with Episode I games at the time and the few I played were so terrible that I didn’t feel the need to try them all out. I’m not going to be able to point out differences in the game this time around outside of what I’ve read from the game’s PR releases, but I can tell you that while the game looks a little better than a turn of the century game, it still plays a lot like one.

The game is essentially a side-scrolling beat ’em up with lightsabers and Force powers instead of fists – or blasters and grenades for the non-Jedi/Sith characters. The game also tosses in some platforming sequences to add a little variety to the gameplay.

Each character has several attacks at their disposal which at first glance makes it appear that there might be some depth to the battles, but in reality, this is more of a button-masher that will have you relying on each character’s basic attack. The additional attacks take a bit longer to execute and are more difficult to land since they involve longer animations and the enemies tend to move enough while the attack is taking its time to execute. There are also points in the game in which you’ll need to use your lightsaber to take out enemies by hitting their blaster shots back at them, but the controls aren’t quite precise enough for you to execute this parry/riposte move with any consistency.

The lack of control precision can make some of the platforming sequences frustrating to get through, a problem compounded by some poorly chosen checkpoint locations. For example, there are times when a lengthy platform sequence is preceded by a battle, and if you make a fatal mistake while jumping, you’ll find yourself back at the beginning of the battle again.

If you find yourself repeatedly replaying a part of a level, one of the changes that comes with the remake will help. The game allows you to select any level to play without the need to complete all of the levels that proceeded it. You can also choose to play as any character in the game at any point, but since the game’s levels were originally designed to be played with certain characters you may find that you’ve made things difficult for yourself by a poor character selection. After all, blaster shots can’t reflect blaster shots the way that lightsabers can.

If you don’t have any feelings of nostalgia for Jedi Power Battles, it’s hard for me to recommend the game to you. There are plenty of modern side-scrolling beat ‘em ups available that are more fun to play, and plenty of better Star Wars games that have been released over the past twenty-five years to choose from. If you do have fond memories of playing this game in the past, you may appreciate the game a little more, but keep in mind that one of the best ways to ruin your memories of a favorite game from the past is to revisit it through a modern lens.