by Vinson Chen

Created on: July 23, 2010

Star Wars: Jedi Power Battles was a three dimensional action/adventure game for the Game Boy Advance. It was originally made back in 2000 for the PlayStation One, but was then ported to the Game Boy Advance in 2002. The game is based off of Star Wars Episode I: The Phantom Menace, but as with games based off of movies, it is not an exact port. There are plenty of differences between Star Wars: Jedi Power Battles and The Phantom Menace, but the most prominent are the graphics.

Whereas in the legacy of the Star Wars movies, the special effects were exciting and wonderful, Jedi Power Battles for the Game Boy Advance lacks much of that. The game plays with a top down view with an attempt at three dimensional graphics at the same time. Unfortunately, this leaves all the characters, droids, and backgrounds pixelated to no end. At times it is almost hard to tell man from droid, but then the gamer realizes that he is the one with the lightsaber. 

Something to compliment about the game is that its gameplay involves ten unique levels to run through ranging from the Trade Federation Battleship to Tatooine and even to the Palace Cliffs. This provides a unique setting to the levels as the Jedi runs through slashing up droids. It is just too bad that in these ten levels, it feels as though the gamer is slashing up the same droids over and over again. It is slightly repetitive and rather easy. Secondly, the gameplay features three different Jedis to run through the game with. The gamer can choose Obi-Wan, Qui-Gon Jinn, or Mace Windu. For some strange reason, Darth Maul is an unlockable character that the gamer can use once he has beaten the game. True, it may be very creative for LucasArts to make Darth Maul an unlockable, but it is rather strange. It goes against the whole good versus evil scenario in Star Wars. 

Finally, the game runs on very simple controls. Pressing A makes the Jedi slash his lightsaber. B makes him jump. R deflects incoming lasers and L jabs the lightsaber forward. There are no combination tricks, so the entire game is based off of the Jedi running towards a pack of droids and slashing them to bits with several taps of A. 

With jumpy gameplay, poor graphics, and an awkward focus on the story, Jedi Power Battles is a game to be avoided.

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