If you’re done with Star Wars Outlaws and still need a gaming fix in the galaxy far, far away, then good news: perpetual re-porter of classic Star Wars games Aspyr is back with a very special blast from the past in the form of Star Wars: Episode 1 – Jedi Power Battles, giving the 2000 game a fresh and fun update.
Announced this morning, the newly remastered release of Jedi Power Battles–which saw players take on the role of multiple Jedi from The Phantom Menace and fight their way through an alternate riff on the events of the movie, slashing their way through Trade Federation ships, the swamps and cityscapes of Naboo, and the deserts of Tatooine–will hit consoles and PC early next year. The new release comes with a raft of additions based on the later Dreamcast port of the game, following its initial release on the original Playstation, including a training and versus mode. The Dreamcast version of the game also included multiple gameplay tweaks and fixes, including, for example, actually letting the unlockable secret character Darth Maul use both ends of his double-bladed lightsaber. A pretty big deal considering this came out in the wake of The Phantom Menace!
Speaking of unlockable characters, the new port will let players utilise 13 additional characters–including both originally secret unlockable characters in the original game, like Padmé, Captain Panaka, a battle droid, and the aforementioned Maul, as well as new characters made playable for the first time, like a destroyer droid, multiple alien beings like a Weequay, Tusken, and an Ishi Tib.
The available Phantom Menace-era Jedi playable from the Playstation and Dreamcast versions of the game–Obi-Wan, Qui-Gon, Mace Windu, Plo Koon, Adi Gallia, and Ki-Adi-Mundi–are of course, along for the ride too, with a special option to update their original lightsaber colors to their canonical blades if you wish to do so. Power Battles released at a strange time for Star Wars continuity, with little established about the prequel Jedi quite yet in the wake of Phantom Menace, including some of their trademark lightsaber design. Mace originally wielded a blue lightsaber in Power Battles, for example, before his iconic purple blade was introduced in Attack of the Clones. Adi Gallia had a red lightsaber, which is fascinating in hindsight! Hell, Plo Koon could even use Force Lightning, which was totally fine for a Jedi to use as long as they were Plo Koon and they called it “Electric Judgement” instead. Hypocrites!
While it might be just a little late to celebrate Phantom Menace‘s 25th anniversary year, it’s good to have a version of Jedi Power Battles playable on modern hardware, considering the game hasn’t been ported in the nearly two-and-a-half decades since its original releases. Fingers crossed this one won’t have the same kind of launch woes as Aspyr’s ports of the Battlefront games did earlier this year, at least.
Star Wars: Episode 1 – Jedi Power Battles will release on Playstation 4 and 5, Xbox Series S and X, and PC via Steam on January 23.
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