Star Wars has had plenty of notable video games over the years, and two titles that continue to hold a special place in fans' hearts to this day are the Battlefront games. They first debuted on Xbox and multiple other platforms in 2004 and 2005 and were praised at the time for allowing Force-sensitive individuals to relive iconic mass-scale battles from the original and prequel trilogies, while also taking control of both Jedi Masters and Sith Lords.

This brings us to Aspyr’s repackaged title, Star Wars: Battlefront Classic Collection. Admittedly, the developer’s Star Wars re-releases have a mixed history - with several titles living up to expectations and others, at times, falling short. It’s even had some drama in the lead to this particular release, so how does this latest version of Battlefront hold up and can it match the extremely high expectations of fans?

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On Xbox, what you’re getting in the collection over the backward compatibility releases is the return of online battles with bigger player counts than before. To make it clear, this is the main selling point from the perspective of Team Green, as the online play in the original console releases is no longer officially accessible. There’s also some bonus content included in this repackaged collection, but the original Xbox versions were already spoilt with some updates and DLC back in the day, so this arguably isn't quite as exciting as it might be for Star Wars fans on other consoles.

When you first boot up the collection, you’re presented with a screen asking you which game you want to play. While it’s nothing special, it serves as a reminder that this is a relatively straightforward re-release for modern systems. And if you’ve already played one of Aspyr’s previous Star Wars titles, you’ll likely already have an idea of what you’re signing up for. If you are a returning Battlefront player, in general, this collection should bring back plenty of memories – with familiar menus, maps, characters and modes. It’s mostly intact and this includes split-screen multiplayer and co-op options (which are still great fun with family and friends), although in BF2, Aspyr seems to have opted with PS2 split-screen over the four-player Xbox version.

Where you’ll really notice the differences is out on the battlefield. Load times are speedy, the resolution and textures look sharp, and the frame rate appears smoother. While we’re admittedly no Digital Foundry, the collection seems to have found the right balance here - delivering a package that feels authentic to the original experience and still feels like a glow-up.

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The battles also play out like they used to, and while there are some bugs Aspyr has already flagged (yes - this includes the ability invert X and Y-axis on control setups, which is “temporarily unavailable”), our own experience in the offline modes have been mostly fine across various modes and maps when using different classes and characters.

This brings us to arguably the most important aspect for the Xbox release – the return of online. While this experience was fun and largely stable for a handful of Pure Xbox staff during pre-launch, unfortunately the global launch has got off to a bumpy start. Our own experiences in public multiplayer battles have had some rough patches where gameplay didn’t feel as smooth as it should, but across hours of matches we’ve not encountered any seriously game-breaking scenarios (at least for now), although there were times where online made us feel like we had the aim of a Stormtrooper, with shots not always seemingly connecting due to apparent connection issues.

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However, this doesn’t completely match the community experiences – with widespread reports of issues with official servers, match hosting problems, connection issues, not enough servers, and many more problems which has made this crucial selling point a frustrating experience. Aspyr has officially issued a statement about this now as well – admitting its network infrastructure has experienced “critical errors” at launch and it’s working to address these issues, but unfortunately some members of the community are already at boiling point. Another letdown of this experience is the fact it doesn’t support crossplay, which could potentially shorten the lifespan of this particular release.

Despite these teething issues with online, what you're provided with Star Wars: Battlefront Classic Collection is two games that still offer a lot of replay value. Yes, instead of a live service, battle pass, or locked heroes and villains (we’re looking at you Star Wars Battlefront II), you’re actually getting a mostly complete package. Just don’t expect certain other modern systems that you may have become accustomed to in newer games.

Conclusion

On Xbox, there was always going to be some serious debate about whether fans should consider checking out the Star Wars: Battlefront Classic Collection. If you’re not in it for online play, and only want to participate in solo play and local multiplayer (or you simply want the original experience), we would argue the affordably priced backward compatibility versions are still more than enough. If you are really eager to relive the online battles of yesteryear on an even bigger scale though, the Classic Collection is the (only) way, so hopefully Apsyr can overcome these launch issues.