Star Wars Episode 1: Racer and Jedi Academy Coming to Nintendo Switch

Two classic Star Wars games are now officially coming to the Nintendo Switch.

During today’s surprise Nintendo Direct announcement, Nintendo confirmed that Star Wars Jedi Knight: Jedi Academy and Star Wars Episode 1: Racer are set to debut on the Switch. Jedi Academy is set to launch on the Switch today (it’s also seemingly going to be available for the PS4 starting today) while there is no release date available for the ports of Episode 1: Racer as of yet.

When Racer does debut, it will include all of the content featured in the original title as well as split-screen multiplayer support for Switch and PS4 and LAN multiplayer for Nintendo Switch. There no word on whether or not it will feature any additional upgrades, but we do know it won’t sport the awesome graphics that we saw in that Unreal Engine 4 fan remake of the N64 racing game.

Let’s talk about both of these games for a second, shall we? Star Wars Jedi Knight: Jedi Academy (which, it’s worth pointing out again, is available now), is an interesting part of Star Wars video game history. As the follow-up to the brilliant Star Wars Jedi Knight: Jedi Outcast, it was knocked by some for its comparatively weak story and universe building. As we noted in our retrospective look at Jedi Outcast, some of that is actually due to Jedi Academy featuring far fewer sequences where you are deprived of force powers and a lightsaber.

The good news is that Jedi Academy featured some of the best lightsaber combat in video game history. Jedi Academy essentially built upon the lightsaber combat featured in Jedi Outcast, but it refined the subtlety of that combat system’s mechanics in such a way that we’ve still never seen a Star Wars game that featured better lightsaber action. Said action also made Jedi Academy‘s multiplayer substantially better than that of its predecessor.

Star Wars Episode 1: Racer is just as interesting. At the time of its release, it not only perfectly captured the spirit of one of the best sequences from The Phantom Menace, but it was one of the best incredibly fast-paced racing of its era. To this day, some people still consider it to be one of the N64’s best overall games and one of the most enjoyable racing titles ever.

Considering some of the…struggles the Star Wars franchise has suffered in recent years the arrival of these games should serve as a nice injection of nostalgia for fans everywhere.