Star Wars fans lose it as Jar Jar Binks makes his long-awaited return

Jar Jar Binks is returning to Star Wars in a brand new release on January 23, in quite possibly the last place we would have expected.

In case you missed it, Star Wars Episode 1: Jedi Power Battles, a much beloved PlayStation title released back in April 2000, is getting a sort of remaster/re-release for modern platforms later on this month.

The re-release is being developed by Aspyr, the developers responsible for the recent ports/remasters of a bunch of other Star Wars titles including Star Wars: Battlefront Classic Collection, Star Wars: Bounty Hunter and Star Wars: Republic Commando.

Now I’m being a bit vague about whether these technically qualify as remasters for a pretty good reason - especially in the case of Star Wars Episode 1: Jedi Power Battles.

That’s because the new release of the game is actually adding a bunch of new, original content in the form of updated graphics, a reworked control scheme, and (most surprisingly) a bunch of new playable characters. So not quite a remake, but more of a remaster with additional content.

Now most of the new characters they’d previously announced were faceless nobodies (such as a Destroyer Droid and a Tusken Raider), but now they’ve decided to add the much-beloved Sith Lor– oops, I mean goofball Jar Jar Binks.

In a thread over on the r/StarWarsCantina subreddit, fans of the original game were pretty thrilled to hear of Jar Jar’s return.

“I was already getting this game since I used to rent it and it's why my Black Series Plo Koon has a yellow lightsaber… But now weesa be bombad playin wit da gungan Binkssss,” commented user FloggingMcMurry.

“I completely forgot this was coming out and now I get an extra surprise too. I never got very far in the original back in the day, but man I'd love to rage quit again in HD,” replied user ConVito.

And don’t worry if you don’t have a modern system, as Star Wars Episode 1: Jedi Power Battles will be landing on all platforms at the same time - including PlayStation 5, PlayStation 4, Xbox Series X, Xbox Series S, Xbox One and Steam.