How Aspyr Is Making 2025’s Jedi Power Battles The Definitive Version

Posted by By our-little-miss-is-home January 11, 2025 2 Views 6 Min Read
How Aspyr Is Making 2025's Jedi Power Battles The Definitive Version

25 years ago, Star Wars: Episode I: Jedi Power Battles hit the PS1, a nostalgic gauntlet of action-platforming that contains a treasure trove of relics from an older era—such as the appearance of Mace Windu’s original blue lightsaber. In 2025, Aspyr is bringing Jedi Power Battles back with a bang, rolling out a remaster with everything a fan could want.

In October 2024, a remaster of Jedi Power Battles was announced. Helmed by Aspyr, the studio behind a vast catalog of Star Wars video game remasters, the remaster will be released on January 23rd. With how much the original game differed between its multiple ports and the issues present throughout all versions of the classic title, Aspyr has done much to tidy things up and unify the game’s disparate platform-specific content. To learn more about Aspyr’s up to, Game Rant sat down with director of product Chris Bashaar.

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How Aspyr Is Bringing Star Wars: Jedi Power Battles To Modern Systems

Polishing Up A Classic

Aspyr’s next Star Wars remaster is focused on fine-tuning to smooth over the disparities in ports, the original’s bugs, and some accessibility pitfalls. Bashaar explained how Aspyr has been approaching the remaster, emphasizing polish while preserving the past:

“Our goal with Star Wars: Episode I: Jedi Power Battles was to preserve the challenging, action-packed experience fans remember while improving accessibility and quality-of-life features. Unlike some of our other projects, we focused on improving the controls and gameplay while staying true to the original Dreamcast version. A core rule at Aspyr is “additions not revisions,” so players will find modern and classic controls in our version. It’s really exciting to get to play both versions and build two fully different strategies on how you can play.”

Bashaar also detailed the changes arriving with the classic Star Wars game remaster, pointing to specific quality-of-life features like toggling lightsaber colors, adjusting UI options, and switching between modern and classic controls. The remaster won’t give players full rein over their experience with a plethora of menu options, but streamlining the UI and controls is probably the most critical element when revisiting older action games.

Balancing The Dreamcast And PS1 Ports

The upcoming remaster of Jedi Power Battles is based on the original Dreamcast version, which introduced a number of improvements from the PS1 iteration. However, fans nostalgic for Jedi Power Battles on the PS1 aren’t without hope, as Bashaar brought up how the ports will be balanced in this definitive edition.

“This release is based on the Dreamcast version, as it represents the most refined iteration of the original. However, we also incorporated select features that fans loved about the PS1 release, like preserving elements of its iconic UI.”

It’s important to note the distinction between a remaster and a remake, with the former aimed at polishing and refining an already-finished product. The latter would be more like the Dead Space remake, a ground-up redevelopment of the entire game. Preservation is the primary goal of Aspyr’s take on Jedi Power Battles, even with its new bells and whistles. Given Bashaar’s mention of changing UI settings to suit preferences, players may be able to toggle certain aspects of the Dreamcast and PS1 UI. Changing lightsaber colors is also a welcome addition, allowing for franchise accuracy and preservation of the past—a brief, little-known period in Star Wars history where Windu’s iconic purple lightsaber was not yet established.

Aspyr received criticism earlier in 2024 for some mishaps with the launch of Battlefront Classic Collection. However, given the studio’s success with Star Wars: Bounty Hunter, Aspyr has all the cards to make Jedi Power Battles a slam dunk.

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