As a kid of the ’80s. Star Wars has always been part of my life and the original Star Wars Arcade from Atari is one of my all-time favourite arcade games. Today though I am looking at two obscure Star Wars games, one good and one very bad!

I have been playing Star Wars games for as long as I have been playing video games. I have great memories of the Super Star Wars trilogy for Super Nintendo and many of the Star Wars games that were released on the original PlayStation (there was actually far more good than bad) but today I have a game for the Dreamcast and the PlayStation 2 that I want to talk about.

The Good

Star Wars Episode 1 Jedi Power Battles

Sega Dreamcast, 2000

This was also released on PlayStation, but forget that version it is the Dreamcast version of Jedi Power Battles you want to be playing. This is such an underrated gem in the world of Star Wars games! Clearly, it is based on the Episode 1 movie and you can pick from characters like Obi-Wan, Qui-Gon, and Mace Windu to name a few. Of course, you can use your lightsaber and the force. But it is the style of this game that made it so much fun to me. It plays like a classic beat em up. I would say that Star Wars Jedi Power Battles has more in common with games like Streets Of Rage and Golden Axe than it does other Star Wars games.

The gameplay is pretty simple and to be honest if you are not a fan of classic beat em ups, it will get pretty old fast. But if you love just ploughing through waves of enemies, taking on the occasional boss and just nonstop action. You will have a blast with this game. By the time this was released, we had seen a ton of Star Wars games in a very short period of time so perhaps that is why it has kind of been forgotten about. But this is one game I highly recommend you try, just make sure it is the Dreamcast version as it is vastly superior to the one that was released on PlayStation.

The Bad

Star Wars Super Bombad Racing

PlayStation 2, 2001

Star Wars Super Bombad Racing was yet again another game based on Episode 1. By the way, Episode 1 had just so many different forms of merchandise it was crazy! Anyway, this was a game that I was actually really excited to play! I know that sounds crazy to say now. But when it first released, it did not get much magazine coverage and the only thing I really knew about it was from the back of the box in my local Electronics Boutique. To me, it looked awesome! It was a fun, arcade style racer that looked like it was based on Mario Kart, but in the Star Wars universe. You had characters like Darth Maul, Jar Jar Binks and Obi-Wan from the Phantom Menace movie and the tracks were all based on Star Wars locations.

I picked this game up, pretty early in my days as a PlayStation 2 owner and I can tell you that right from the start I knew I had made a mistake. This is a bad game, like really, really bad. I love the super deformed characters and style of the game. The problem is the gameplay. It flat out sucks! The vehicles are just so hard to control, the AI cheats like crazy and it is so easy to plough into walls and end up facing the wrong way. Each track feels like it is a million miles long and takes forever to end and winning a race is a test of pure patience as it is a massive chore. I think the idea of a Star Wars kart racer is pretty awesome, but the folks who make this game (Lucas Arts) sure as hell screwed it up!

Have a great day!