‘May the force be with you’ is the very (possibly too)
popular catch phrase used by, well, a lot of people!
And with almost twenty games on the Star Wars theme,
Star Wars fans can’t really go wrong. The fact that
Star Wars games are probably the biggest franchise
that LucasArts has, along with the decent Monkey Island
series, everyone should be great. But, obviously, not
everyone is great, most are rushed. Over a year after
the film hit the big screen us Dreamcast owners get
Star Wars Episode 1: Jedi Power Battles, let the battle
commence!

The game begins with a classic intro from LucasArts
(as always) which shows the droids from Episode 1
chasing Obi-Wan Kenobi and Qui-Con Jinn. Classic Star
Wars stuff. After this you are greeted with a nice menu
screen, quickly scrolling down the menu you will notice
that a new mode of play has been added for the Dreamcast
version Versus Mode. With this mode just being
one-on-one combat in a small arena with only your
lightsaber by your side. This mode was obviously put in
quickly as it is only very simple, in actual fact it is
dire.

The main attraction and main part of the game is, quite
surprisingly the mode called ‘New Game’! This takes you
loosely through the whole film. Before you begin this
though you must select your Jedi there are a choice of
five. Obi-Wan Kenobi, Qui-Gon Jinn, Mace Windu, Adi
Gallia, Plo Koon and a Dreamcast exclusive Ki-Adi
Mundi, which you can unlock when you complete the game.
The best of all of these is the woman Adi Gallia. She’s
fast and very powerful, move over Lara Croft! After picking
your Jedi you’re thrown right into the action, as on the
first level there are about 7 droids waiting to be smashed
to pieces by your shiny new lightsaber! Yummy!

Jedi Power Battles consists of ten absolutely humungous
(is that a word ?!) levels. Each one more challenging than
the next however. Will you really be bothered to do it
all? Probably not. Going level after level defeating the
same droids over and over and over and over, I think you
get the idea now. But, it is worth playing through some
of the game. This gives you the opportunity to control
different vehicles such as an AAT (a floating tank type
machine) and a stap which is a little hovering machine
gun thing which you can get on and fire with.

Graphically this is nothing short of stunning, with masses
and masses of texture detail and amazing lighting. And to
cop all this off the frame rate has been improved over the
PSX version with it running at a continuous
60-frames-per-second, and it has absolutely no slow down.
However, all this luscious detail and smoothness can’t
help you noticing that there are a few glitches. Like the
way your character sometimes sinks into the wall, never to
return, and the textures do sometimes overlap each other
with one just flashing continually. These may be little
things but you can’t help but notice them. It’s a shame
really.

The sound is astounding with all this orchestral Star-Wars-y
type music continually playing in the background at what
seems, higher than CD-quality. Background music has never
sounded so good. The sound effects are also stunning, but
these can get repetitive. It seems as though your lightsaber
has one sound effect. This has to be the worst bit of sound
though you’ll be playing on your own and all of a sudden
it will cut to a droid there they are, get them, next level,
new boss. Cut scene of a droid again there they are, get
them. But, wait! You’re playing on your own, not in
two-player! And you would think that a droid had a much
higher vocabulary than that same phrase over, and over.

OVERALL - 6.5/10 Worth a look even if your not a Star Wars
fan, and it’ll last for ages. Shame about the glitches though
a few months more and that number above could be a higher
mark. Shame.