Star Wars Episode 1: Jedi Power Battles launched to mediocre reviews on the PS1 back in 2000, but never let anybody tell you that remasters are only for the bonafide classics. Aspyr Media, the same studio which ported Republic Commando, Knights of the Old Republic, and Battlefront to modern platforms is doing the same for the Phantom Menace tie-in, complete with a set of fixes for some 24-year-old lightsaber color issues.
The Jedi Power Battles remaster launches on January 23, 2025 across PS5, PS4, Xbox Series X, Xbox One, Switch, and PC via Steam. As noted in a PlayStation Blog post, the new edition boasts higher-resolution visuals and a small handful of gameplay tweaks - like not forcing you to unlock secret characters and levels. The game is based on the expanded and improved Dreamcast version, but preserves elements of the original PlayStation UI for the best of both worlds.
Among others, Jedi Power Battles features playable characters like Jedi Council members Mace Windu, Ki-Adi Mundi, Plo Koon, and Adi Gallia, but the game was developed well before any of those characters had ever ignited a lightsaber on screen. As a result, they've all got lightsaber colors contradicting what would later be series canon. Mace Windu is a particularly notable example, since he'd end up getting a purple lightsaber in Episode 2 - much more striking than the old-school blue he has in the game and on its cover art.
This remaster goes the extra mile by fixing Mace Windu's lightsaber color on the box art, and giving you an option to swap to the correct lightsabers for all the wrongly colored Jedi in-game. That's a level of attention to detail I can appreciate.
Star Wars is one of the few film franchises with a reputation for excellent video game adaptations, and numerous Star Wars titles rank among gaming's greatest titles. Jedi Power Battles is not one of those games. The original PS1 version reviewed pretty poorly, and though the Dreamcast port fared better a few months later, it still wasn't much more than a forgettable licensed game. The one thing Jedi Power Battles is really remembered for is a brutal difficulty curve that probably got a lot of controllers smashed back in the day.
Yet even with all that in mind, it does my heart good to see even the mediocre bits of gaming's past get revived for a modern audience. In the end, any game with a genuine big head mode cheat is alright in my book.
You won't find Jedi Power Battles on our list of the best Star Wars games, but you will see quite a few all-time classics.
