Like any good Star Wars adventure, Jedi Power Battles kicks off with scrolling text.
A nice touch, even if it is just the EULA.
Beyond that lies a very unusual prospect.
This is a remaster of a game that is not really considered a classic.
It’s remembered, I suspect, with a mixture of fondness and frustration.
Both of these emotions survive intact.
I have had fun, though - at least some of the time.
You kill a lot of droids in this game.
Hopefully they’re the bad droids with the sort of sad flamingo-beak heads.
Apologies, Protocol Droids!
Platforming, meanwhile, is weightless and both unpredictable and fussy.
There is always a sense of negotiating with invisible walls, and the camera rarely helps.
Sometimes it’s just a bit of nonsense between the next fight.
Sometimes it’s kind of pretty, taking you through evocative Star Wars dioramas with a minimum of fuss.
Sometimes it’s so incredibly punishing that there are simply no words.
Simple metallic textures and very sharp lines make the spacecraft and future-city levels in Jedi Power Battles strangely luminous.
Levels without that degree of clean metal are less striking, but even they benefit from a slight uncanniness.
Does Jedi Power Battles look better or worse than it once did?
I can’t really answer that in any objective way.
Is 2000 really a long time ago?
Apparently the answer is yes.
Code for Star Wars Episode 1: Jedi Power Battles was provided by the publisher.
