Back To Reviews
Rating: Average For some reason, I was actually looking forward to Star Wars: Jedi Power Battles despite LucasArts' horrible track record. I was disappointed to find that it's what I should have known it would be all along: Yet another unexciting Star Wars game. Jedi Power Battles uses "classic" gameplay mechanics that were never really that classic in the first place. Here's the basic flow of the gameplay: Move to the right, kill a few enemies; move into the background, kill a few enemies; move to the right, kill a few enemies, and so on. There isn't enough variety in the game because even though the setting constantly changes, the basic flow of the gameplay doesn't. There's not much difference between the first few levels and the last few levels in terms of what you actually do. More than half of the enemies in the game can be avoided simply by running like hell until the screen won't scroll to the right anymore, at which point you have to kill a couple before you're able to move on. The enemies almost always chase after you mindlessly rather than shooting, even if they have a clear shot at you. No game with jumping control this bad should have any platform elements, but sure enough, Jedi Power Battles does. It sometimes seems that your character jumps in a randomly-chosen direction when you press the jump button, regardless of what you're pressing on the d-pad. Also, sometimes the game is so dark that you can't see a gap in the ground until you fall into it. Of all the games that LucasArts could have drawn inspiration from, they seem to chosen the original Turok and its nonsensical platform elements. One particularly annoying thing about Jedi Power Battles is that the playable characters don't automatically line up to face the nearest enemy. You can make them do this by holding down R1, but you shouldn't have to. It's annoying to have to spend most of the game holding down R1 when there's no good reason your character shouldn't automatically use a little bit of common sense and face the nearest enemy. Jedi Power Battles often forces you to use trial and error in figuring out where to go and what to do next. Are you supposed to jump into that big hole in the ground? Well, jump in and find out. If you move on to the next area of the game, then you were supposed to jump into the hole. If you die, then you weren't. There's not much to like about Jedi Power Battles, and that statement comes from someone who is a big fan of Star Wars. The character models are small and not adequately detailed, the boss designs often require you to use a certain tactic repeatedly until the boss finally explodes, and even the music leaves something to be desired. Star Wars' trademark dramatic music is great when it's used sparingly, but overbearing when it's used for most of the game. The only really cool thing in the entire game is the ability to deflect shots back at enemies with your lightsaber, and this isn't anywhere near enough to carry the game on its own. If your favorite scenes in The Phantom Menace were the ones where the heroes repetitively killed battle droids, you'll love Jedi Power Battles. Everyone else should steer clear. Send your thoughts on this review to ivan@mastergamer.com
© 2001 ivan@mastergamer.com