Star Wars season starts early with Jedi Knight 2: Jedi Outcast on Switch and PS4 today

While you're waiting for Star Wars Jedi: Fallen Order to arrive in November, you can start playing one of the best Star Wars games on Switch and PS4 right now. A remastered re-release of Star Wars Jedi Knight 2: Jedi Outcast hit the two consoles today, after being first revealed in a Nintendo Direct presentation earlier this month. It's available for $9.99 / £8.09 - a nice price for remake of a 2002 game, especially since it sadly doesn't include any of the multiplayer modes.

If you aren't familiar with Jedi Knight 2, there are a few things you should know going in. First, it's actually the third game to star protagonist Kyle Katarn: there was Star Wars: Dark Forces, then Star Wars Jedi Knight: Dark Forces 2, then Star Wars Jedi Knight 2: Jedi Outcast. Second, the events of its story are now of questionable canonicity. For instance, Katarn's big claim to fame was stealing the original Death Star plans and selling them to the Rebellion in Dark Forces, and now we have a whole movie saying somebody else had that covered.

Third, none of that should keep you from playing Jedi Outcast, because it's fun as heck. Deflecting stormtroopers' blaster bolts right back into their bucket-clad heads, frying your way through legions of enemies with Force Lightning, clashing in one-on-one lightsaber duels against fearsome not-Sith. Yeah, there are plenty of warts too, including dated level design that's sure to get you turned around and utterly lost at least a few times. But it's worth it for those sweet lightsaber fights and Force powers.

Jedi Outcast was followed by Jedi Academy in 2003, which let you build your own Jedi apprentice to take missions under the tutelage of Katarn and Luke Skywalker. That was where I spent most of my time as a young lightsaber enthusiast, so I hope publisher Aspyr updates that one next.

See what else is on the way with our list of new games of 2019.