Somehow, Jedi Power Battles has returned. This won’t ring a bell if you’re a Star Wars fan who’s stuck to only the best Star Wars games of all time over the years, but many Jedi veterans will celebrate this return to a profoundly off-beat action romp which revisited The Phantom Menace as a ‘beat ’em up‘ game.
The developer-publisher Aspyr is no stranger to bringing retro Star Wars video games back from the dead, and, so far, the wins outweigh the failures. Last year, Aspyr worked with Lucasfilm Games to bring Star Wars: Bounty Hunter and the two original Battlefront titles onto modern platforms and PC with graphical improvements, quality-of-life changes, and even new content. In 2025, we’re off to a great start with Jedi Power Battles… as long as you enjoyed the original.
See, Jedi Power Battles’ initial PlayStation (PS1) release in early 2000 didn’t resonate well with critics. The Phantom Menace movie already had a tie-in video game: an action-adventure game of the same name in 1999 that mixed elements from wildly different genres and transcended the usual limits of movie tie-in releases. Regardless, that video game was a financial win for LucasArts, so it was a bit of a head-scratcher when a second big-budget, action-oriented take on the same movie, Jedi Power Battles, hit the PS1 right after.
Upon release, Jedi Power Battles offered something markedly different: a fast-paced mix of beat ’em up and platforming elements that were designed with couch co-op in mind. Moreover, it expanded the roster of playable Jedi Knights beyond Qui-Gon Jinn and Obi-Wan Kenobi, with Mace Windu and the background masters Adi Gallia and Plo Koon also available (plus Ki-Adi-Mundi later on the Dreamcast port). Many critics dismissed it as too frustrating and half-baked though. It wasn’t until the Dreamcast port released in late 2000 that its popularity bounced back up.
Twenty-five years later, Lucasfilm Games and Aspyr – who seem fully committed to dusting off and reigniting most of the retro Star Wars game library – have revisited that version of the game. They remastered the visuals while keeping the original art style intact, and added plenty of new characters and little bonuses (like canon-friendly lightsaber colors) to the already highly replayable package of the original home console releases. As a diehard fan of the rougher PS1 version and someone who had been asking for this remaster for far too long, I can confidently say it’s a hell of a Force-powered fun time.
By and large, this iteration of Jedi Power Battles doesn’t shake things up a lot. If you could blast through the original releases alone, you’ll do fine here. If you had a hard time with that extra-long Coruscant level, buckle up for another wild (albeit more generous with the checkpoints) ride. It all feels smoother and sharper, and welcome improvements have been made to the jumps in specific areas. However, this isn’t a ‘light remake’ of the original, instead it’s the best way to experience it in 2025. Arguably the best change is a playable Darth Maul getting his iconic double-bladed saber.
The trailers released by Lucasfilm Games and Aspyr gave us hints that a lot of attention had been paid to keeping the original’s arcade, party-like vibes. Whereas the ‘main’ game adapting The Phantom Menace was straightforward in tone and intentions, Jedi Power Battles always seemed like the looser, more humorous alternative. From the surprisingly varied roster of enemies – which presented tons of battle droid variants and colorful alien mercenaries on the Sith Darth Sidious’ payroll – to entire levels that were all about hitting the highest score possible, it’s abundantly clear LucasArts put uncomplicated fun front and center when designing the game.
That’s the main reason why Aspyr’s approach to the underrated brawler feels like the right one from the get-go: Trying to convince all the naysayers that Jedi Power Battles was “actually very good” would’ve been an exercise in futility. Instead, the remaster is an upgrade that expands on what worked and gives fanatics more Hasbro figures they can play with. With 13 new playable characters envisioned as well as challenging alternative ways to replay the levels and the ability to jump straight into any mission whenever, Aspyr’s latest Star Wars release is more of a gift to veterans than an attempt to Jedi mind trick more modern gamers into checking out an admittedly rusty title.
Yes, you’ll get stuck in seemingly harmless parts of the levels’ geometry. Sure, the dialogue lines are still little more than glorified barks and prone to breaking. That one enemy keeps jumping down into the black abyss for no reason. You can beat the 10 main levels in roughly three hours. All of that doesn’t matter as that was always part of the appeal and charm. There are very few Star Wars games as uncompromisingly video game-y as Jedi Power Battles, and this remaster simply gives nostalgic fans more excuses to replay it over and over again.
Star Wars: Episode I: Jedi Power Battles is now available on PS4, PS5, Xbox One, Xbox Series X/S, Nintendo Switch, and PC.
