Talking to StarWars.com on the 20th anniversary of the first Star Wars prequel film, George Lucas was clear that, "The films were designed for 12-year-olds." Big Ape Productions mustn't have got the memo when developing PS1 Star Wars Episode I - The Phantom Menace though, because a steep difficulty curve, and bewildering design ensures that its 1999 game is not family friendly for a Nubian noob.
You control Qui-Gon Jinn, Obi-Wan Kenobi, Queen Amidala, and Captain Panaka across 11 film location missions spanning the Trade Federation Ship to the Swamps of Naboo, all building towards an Assault on Theed conclusion. Following Big Ape Productions' work on 1997's Herc's Adventures, and proving that there's always a bigger fish, a 12-hour completion time may surprise gamers expecting a quick blast, as the game Force pushes adventure elements to complement the top-down action.
Door switch puzzles, and push/pull crate conundrums result in a similar 'Con' to Push Square's PS1 Syphon Filter review — a game that also released in 1999 — as it's "easy to get lost and lack direction". There's also a confusing Mos Espa podracer components trading section with Watto on Tatooine. Unfortunately, escort missions where you protect an NPC provide the worst difficulty spikes, since poor AI forced us into an infuriating mission restart after Queen Amidala became trapped within scenery and refused to be kidnapped on Coruscant, as the plot progression necessitated.
The single-player action's not a patch on PS2's 2005 Star Wars: Episode III – Revenge of the Sith, but it's worth learning extra lightsaber manoeuvres against bosses like Darth Maul, so try jumping and spinning your blade, because that's a good trick. Droideka destroyer droids are a frustratingly formidable foe, prompting the use of a variety of weapons including a Proton Missile Launcher, even if Obi-Wan normally thinks blasters are so uncivilised.
Big Ape Productions' presentation is lovingly respectful to its film source with deliberate details, and glorious John Williams' music compositions, including dialogue choices through a mix of original and a replacement voice cast that affect minor gameplay events. A distant camera depicts Otoh Gunga and outdoor Coruscant in a more favourable light, but close-up chunky models and uncanny valley CGI have been hit with the 32-bit ugly stick.
A lack of co-op is arguably Star Wars Episode I - The Phantom Menace's biggest missed opportunity, since 2005's PS2 LEGO Star Wars: The Video Game demonstrated that the prequel films are great material for multiplayer action games.
Comments 20
I'm away this week, but I look forward to reading people's thoughts about PS1 Star Wars Episode I - The Phantom Menace, so please copy me in for any questions, and I'll make sure I reply by the weekend.
Also, as an aside, there are no Trophies in the PS4 and PS5 versions of this re-release, but the modern addition of the 'Rewind' function was invaluable during jumps in this game's difficulty.
I'm also a big Star Wars fan, but let's face it, Star Wars fans understandably have big opinions about Star Wars nowadays. I've personally been harsh about the prequel films before in my review of SNES Super Star Wars on PS4, but it was never my intention to dump on people's memories, or their nostalgia, and I wouldn't want to spoil the fun for other fans — in this case, whether it's regarding Star Wars Episode I - The Phantom Menace the film, or the PS1 video game.
Therefore, to balance out my thoughts in this review, below is an alternative reaction to this game taken from a retro magazine's review in 1999:
Have a great week, everyone.
Retro reviews are always more than welcome. Nice work 👌
For me it is one of the most underrated PS1 games ever made, I remember renting this game at the local videostore, but I also remember being stuck for days getting all the parts for the podracer lol.
I was really looking forward to this PS5 version to replay it again after 20+ years but the no trophy list is withholding me to boot it up actually.
I am not a trophy hunter but I was expecting to at least get something out of it.
Its been great playing it after all this time, its pretty dated now but the nostalgic feeling has felt great.
I always thought this game had a co-op, but that was Jedi Power Battle.
Would like to see that in the future.
This game gives me a rush of nostalgia. Spent hours into it more than 2 decades ago. It was notoriously difficult for me at that time and there was one area where I was perpetually stuck. Never made it to the end.
And yet when it made it to PS Premium this month, couldn't stop myself playing it again. Rewind feature made life a thousand times easier. The platforming is as difficult as I remember it to be.
Seen it and done it.
I didn't spunk several hundred quid to re-play this crap !
Rewind helps the frustration levels of these old games immensely.
Always a treat to get a JamieO retro review, even for a game that I didn’t play back in the day. My clearest memory of the prequels is skipping out of work early to see The Phantom Menace on opening day, and being wowed by the visuals but pretty let down by just about everything else. The quote about the target audience being 12-year-olds gave me a chuckle since I remember a big plot point being about a trade federation disputing high taxes on certain routes. You know, kid stuff.
Where my trophies Sony?
Another outstanding retro mini review, Jamie. Time is precious so I personally don't think I'll bother with this one as I have no real nostalgia for it, but I enjoyed reading your thoughts and impressions!
I remember this game was ok, and I remember roughing it out at the end after a save left me almost no health to beat Darth Maul. I remember fighting him for over an hour with low health lol.
but as for a different but related game, Jedi Power Battles was amazing! I have so many good memories playing that one. More fun and it had co-op.
I have a lot of nostalgia for this game. It's terrible but also incredible(for the wrong reasons lol) at the same time. I've been emulating it for years at this point but getting to play it on PS5 was something I didn't know I wanted. Still difficult though, without enabling the invincibility hack I probably wouldn't be able to beat it.
Man I really wish this had trophies.
@JamieO Can we also add Trophy Support to the Pro's and Con's. That honestly is a deciding factor in whether or not I'll play these or how fast I'll get to them. Just a good thing to know for some of us who find that important.
Well I guess someone was a little late posting this review 😉
if anything, emulate it. not worthy of anyone's money or time if i am being honest. even in its day, it stood out as being an unpolished mess.
I played this when I was younger and remember it had poor platforming and clunky controls. I hope that other games such as Attack of the Clones and Episode 3 get released on modern consoles. The games I most want is the Rogue Squadron trilogy as they were by far the some of the best Star Wars games released. Come on Aspyr, please make it happen.
@NotSoCryptic Thanks for the feedback about mentioning Trophy support in either the Pros or Cons of a PS1 review. I discussed this with Push Square before writing this Star Wars Episode I - The Phantom Menace review, and we decided that we wouldn't mention anything that's unique to the PS4 and PS5 re-releases in the main body of a PS1 review, because we want these reviews to be specific to the content in the PS1 game.
This means that I didn't mention anything about PS4/PS5 features like Trophies, Rewind, Quick Save, Visual Presets and the PS Store's £3.99 UK price point in this review, too.
If you get the chance to look at one of my older Push Square PS1 reviews — for example Mickey's Wild Adventure, which I wrote in 2015 — you'll notice that I mention that "If you're purchasing this on the PlayStation Vita, PS3, or PSP it's worth noting that Mickey's £4.99 PlayStation Store price tag is more expensive than Rayman, too."
I also referred to the PS1 as PSone, because the PS Store for PS3, PS Vita and PSP catalogued PS1 games under the term 'PSone Classics'. However, historically the term PSone actually refers to an update of the PlayStation hardware into a smaller, more compact design style in 2000 — a bit like how we get slim revisions of hardware today.
By referring to details that were only relevant to the PS3/PS Vita/PSP re-releases, these older PS1 reviews haven't aged as well to be re-published in the future.
I always try to post a comment as early as possible when my reviews are published to ask for questions, so based upon your enquiry, I'm going to mention in bold at the top of my comments to highlight if each re-release has Trophies from now on. I've edited my comment above with this detail.
As one last side-note, the score of 6/10 is only relevant in comparison to other PS1 games. Therefore, the quality of Star Wars Episode I - The Phantom Menace can be directly compared to Syphon Filter by our readers as two 6/10 PS1 games. Yet, it would be unfair for The Phantom Menace to be compared to a 6/10 PS5 indie release like Have a Nice Death, just because they were both released on PS5.
I hope this explanation makes sense. Cheers!
@Amnesiac It's always a treat to get an Amnesiac comment on one of my retro reviews, and your comments are always appreciated, mate!
You gave me a good laugh with your breakdown of the kid-friendly story themes in Star Wars Episode I - The Phantom Menace.
It reminded me of 'The Phantom Menace Pitch Meeting' on YouTube where Screenwriter Guy explains that "Well, I'd like to gear this one towards kids a lot more, you know… so what I did was focus heavily on politics."
Then Producer Guy replies with "Oh, the taxation of trade routes to outlying star systems is tight!"
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