Star Wars Episode I: Jedi Power Battles Reviews
Star Wars Episode I: Jedi Power Battles is an entertaining game for fans of the saga. It offers a good mix of action, adventure and the opportunity to take on the role of iconic characters
Review in German | Read full review
As previously mentioned, I don’t even think this is Aspyr’s fault. Star Wars Episode I: Jedi Power Battles is just a terrible game at its core, so all the polishing treatment in the world wouldn’t have fixed its many, MANY problems. It’s a clunky, hilariously ugly, and poorly designed beat ’em up which, at times, feels so janky and unpolished, it almost becomes a funny experience.
The controls and battles are clumsy, the hit feedback sometimes seems like it came from hell, and the content not taken from the film is sometimes quite strange. At the same time, however, the title can be entertaining for a few hours if you consider it a time capsule from the year 2000.
Review in German | Read full review
Aspyr has been having a good run bringing back old classics, with their recent release of some of the Soul Reaver games last December, but looking at their work with Star Wars titles in particular, there’s something to be said about the resulting products. That’s not to say that they’ve not been doing good work since there’s only so much you can polish a game that wasn’t a gem to begin with. Then again, given the amount of attention that Raziel’s adventures got and how they were improved upon for their remasters, it’s a head-scratcher why the same could not be done for this as well. Maybe if Nightdive Studios were the ones doing it, perhaps that would have happened.
Aspyr has done enough with Star Wars Episode I: Jedi Power Battles to warrant the remaster, giving it a fresh lick of paint, tighter controls, accessibility through the wazoo, and a bit more besides, but performance problems, lacking story and audio that keeps cutting out do tarnish the experience somewhat.
Star Wars Episode I: Jedi Power Battles stands on the rougher side of Star Wars games from decades gone by. Though the new additions are a fun idea and the additional behind-the-scenes content is enlightening, the clunky gameplay makes this one harder to recommend than other recent Star Wars rereleases.
If you hold fond memories of Star Wars Episode 1: Jedi Power Battles, the 2025 version might feel more like a lazy rerelease than a remaster, with minimal changes beyond slightly smoother gameplay, some extra characters, and couch co-op—leaving the same dated graphics, frustrating gameplay, and a sense that little effort was made, albeit at a modest price of twenty euros.
Review in Dutch | Read full review