There’s a Star Wars sport on the market that’s laborious to play in 2024 as a result of, for no matter motive, it stays trapped on the hard-to-emulate OG Xbox with none official remakes, remasters, or backward compatibility assist. That sport is Star Wars: Obi-Wan.
Final week, Lucasfilm Video games and Aspyr introduced a remastered model of 2002’s Star Wars: Bounty Hunter, a sport that first launched on PlayStation 2 and GameCube. The brand new remaster is ready to replace among the textures, enhance the lighting, and even add a brand new flashlight choice, too. That each one sounds good, and I’m excited to see yet one more previous Star Wars sport delivered to extra fashionable platforms. Nevertheless, seeing Bounty Hunter get the remaster remedy made me take into consideration Obi-Wan on Xbox, a sport that launched only a yr earlier than Bounty Hunter that’s nonetheless trapped on the unique Xbox console over 20 years after its launch.
In 2001, two years after the discharge of Star Wars: The Phantom Menace, Lucasarts launched Star Wars: Obi-Wan as an unique sport for the Xbox. This third-person motion sport starred, you guessed it, Obi-Wan Kenobi and was each a prequel to and retelling of the Phantom Menace movie.
It’s not a fantastic sport, to be clear. However it featured some fascinating concepts—like utilizing the best stick for lightsaber fight—and provided a enjoyable solution to expertise the primary Star Wars prequel earlier than Assault of the Clones hit theaters in 2002. Apart from, it’s not like Bounty Hunter is an unbelievable online game, both. But it’s getting a brand new remaster (after being launched on PS4 as a PS2 basic already), whereas Obi-Wan on Xbox is left behind.
The right way to play Star Wars: Obi-Wan in 2024
Star Wars: Obi-Wan by no means acquired a PC port, was by no means launched on PS2, and has by no means been up to date to assist backward compatibility on Xbox One or Collection X/S. If you wish to play Obi-Wan you may have one good choice and one unhealthy choice.
The great choice: You go purchase an OG Xbox and a duplicate of Obi-Wan. Set it up and there you go, you’re taking part in Star Wars: Obi-Wan. Properly, that’s assuming the Xbox to procure works correctly and the copy of the sport you bought isn’t too broken. (Fortunately pre-owned copies of the sport aren’t very costly, so if you need to purchase two of them it received’t break the financial institution.)
The unhealthy choice is emulation. I really like emulating video games! I’m not in opposition to it in any respect and I feel fan-developed emulators are an vital a part of sport preservation. So after I say emulating Obi-Wan is unhealthy, I wish to be clear that it’s not as a result of I’m in opposition to taking part in previous video games utilizing third-party software program. No, taking part in Obi-Wan on an Xbox emulator is unhealthy as a result of it sucks and is (as of this writing) not a fantastic expertise.
When you play on CXBX-Reloaded, a fan-made Xbox emulator, you may be capable of make it via the sport, however many gamers have reported crashes, graphical bugs, and different issues that spoil the expertise. I’ve additionally tried to play Obi-Wan on XEMU, a distinct Xbox emulator, and had even worse luck—I couldn’t get previous the second degree. Whereas some gamers have been capable of tinker sufficient to get Obi-Wan operating nicely on CXBX, it’s nonetheless not a really perfect solution to play the sport.
Assist me Lucasfilm Video games, you’re my solely hope
So now, right here’s my plea: Somebody at Lucasfilm Video games, please contact Nightdive Studios, Aspyr, or one other developer that’s good at reviving previous video games and pay them the cash to carry Star Wars: Obi-Wan to extra platforms.
Cleaned up and operating at 60FPS, Obi-Wan can be a stable hit on consoles just like the Swap. Plus the Star Wars prequels are at the moment experiencing a renaissance amongst followers who grew up watching the movies. Pleasure for prequel-era content material is at an all-time excessive in 2024 and I feel a well-done Obi-Wan port or remaster can be a slam dunk.
And if that’s not attainable, on the very least it might be good to get the sport ported to PC so followers can maintain updating it and modding it simply for years to come back. Or somebody at Xbox flip the swap and make this factor backwards appropriate on Xbox One and Collection X/S consoles. I’d take that at this level!
However what I really need is a pleasant remaster. It will save part of online game historical past and rescue a Star Wars sport from being forgotten. It’s actually a win-win scenario and it’s about time Obi-Wan will get the remaster he deserves.
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