In 2024, a Star Wars game will remain hard to play because it's stuck on the original Xbox. This game, Star Wars: Obi-Wan, lacks any official remakes, remasters, or backward compatibility support.
Bounty Hunter remaster sparks hope
Lucasfilm Games and Aspyr recently announced a remastered version of 2002's Star Wars: Bounty Hunter. Launched initially on PlayStation 2 and GameCube, the new remaster promises updated textures, improved lighting, and a new flashlight feature. This news is exciting, especially for fans of older Star Wars games. However, it also highlights the absence of a remaster for Star Wars: Obi-Wan, a game released just a year earlier.
Star Wars: Obi-Wan was released in 2001, two years after Star Wars: The Phantom Menace, exclusively for the Xbox. This third-person action game, starring Obi-Wan Kenobi, served as both a prequel to and a retelling of the Phantom Menace film. While not considered a great game, it featured exciting ideas, like using the right stick for lightsaber combat, and provided a fun way to experience the first Star Wars prequel before Attack of the Clones hit theatres in 2002. Despite its flaws, it deserves recognition and revival, similar to Bounty Hunter.
How to play Star Wars: Obi-Wan in 2024
If you want to play Star Wars: Obi-Wan in 2024, you have two options: good and bad.
The good option involves buying an original Xbox and a copy of Obi-Wan. Assuming the Xbox and the game work properly, you can enjoy the game as originally intended. Fortunately, pre-owned copies of the game are not too expensive.
The bad option is emulation. While emulating games is often a great way to preserve and play older titles, Star Wars: Obi-Wan doesn't run well on Xbox emulators. Players using CXBX-Reloaded or XEMU, popular Xbox emulators, often face crashes, graphical bugs, and other issues that spoil the experience. Although some have managed to run the game smoothly, it's far from ideal.
Porting the game to PC would allow fans to update and mod it for years. Alternatively, making it backward compatible on Xbox One and Series X/S would be a welcome move. However, the best outcome would be a full remaster. This would preserve a part of video game history and save a unique Star Wars game from being forgotten. It's about time Star Wars: Obi-Wan gets the remaster it deserves.
