|
      |
          |
|
STAR WARS EPISODE 1: JEDI POWER BATTLES By WILL
BARKER The story to JPB is one of intrigue, mystery and magical mushrooms; actually it follows the plot found in Episode 1 - and don't say you haven't seen it because Uncle Lucas' $900 million says you have. Chortle... You have to save Naboo, kill the Sith, dance like a monkey and so on. The game plays a lot like Zombie Revenge on the DC, only there aren't zombies and you can't use huge pneumatic drills to tear them to pieces. Instead the weapons of choice involve light sabres, clever use of the Force and the all important body odor a Jedi emits as part of wearing the same crappy brown robe for decades. Pee-ooooh! Seriously though, the way you get to wield your sabre is very reminiscent of The Phantom Menace game - strange that. But in this game it is definitely more fun as you can put combos together that inflict immense damage and there are some tasty power ups too. You can extend the length of your sabre and boy does it do wonders in the kitchen. There are signature moves too, with Mace Windu (aka Sam L. Jackson) and Obi Wan having some real pearlers. Controlling this beast is a real handful at first, as mentioned above, and is charged with a difficult learning curve. However when you get used to deflecting laser bolts, stringing combos together and using the effective 'lock' mode the game opens up to the point of 'I am one with the force'. The only problem I had after getting through the steep learning curve was the atrocious jumping-platformy sections. It is like trying to teach Donny the brain-dead gerbil to program using Z80 Assembler code. Why Lucasarts included these ridiculously tedious sections is beyond even the mortal musings of this games reviewer. If you want variety, go with something a little more dynamic - add a mini-game where you have dodge homing strawberries - just don't resort to jumping - I beg you! Moving on, the next port of call would be the infamous graphics department. JPB is by no means a good-looking game compared with efforts on the DC and PS2. But as far as PSX standards go this is pretty flashy really, with some very nice light sabre effects and so forth. Explosions look outrageous with expected transparencies and the flouro-residue of sparkles. The levels are also quite cool, together with dedicated depictions torn straight from the movie. There's Coruscant, Tatooine, the Trade Federation's Battleship and more. All up, the extensive levels (of which there are 10) are a hoot to play through, and the difficulty of the game is right up there ensuring good replayability. Jedi Power Battles is a fine effort by Lucasarts and although there are some ghastly clipping mistakes during the jumping sections, the game as a whole is an enormous amount of fun. Set out on your own, or do it with a friend - either way you'll be laughing all the way. Recommended for Star Wars freaks and Z80 programmers alike.
|
