Raven Software’s Jedi Academy is the latest and most beloved part of the Jedi Knight series. It lets you play as Jaden Korr, a new student at Luke Skywalker’s Jedi Academy. And it’s a lotta fun! If you’ve already cleared the game’s main campaign and are looking for more action, be it multiplayer or single-player, the online modding community has you covered. Let’s take a look at some of the best mods for a new Jedi Academy experience.
15. Jedi Academy: Enhanced
Check Out This Mod One of the most exciting aspects of the Star Wars universe is the use of Lightsabers in combat. While vanilla Jedi Academy includes several Lightsaber options, more customization is usually for the better, which is why the JA: Enhanced mod is so good. It lets you customize your saber’s color through the console by inputting a hex code representing the hue you want. It also lets you customize the handle, adds holstering, and even a couple force powers to go with it. Nice!
14. The Jedi Academy Texture Overhaul
Check Out This Mod Improving an old game’s textures can go a long way towards making it more palatable for our modern standards. Which is why Mr. Zz put so much work into the Jedi Academy Texture Overhaul. This mod replaces some of the most amateurish and basic textures in the game with some new ones, including more detail and higher-definition stuff. All this just to give your game facelift, while remaining true to the core game’s aesthetic. It’s a work in progress, sure. And the author has expressed interest in coming back to perfect this overhaul in due time. But until then, this current version is still pretty good.
13. Ahsoka Tano
Check Out This Mod Few “minor” characters in Star Wars lore receive as much love and attention from the fanbase as Ahsoka Tano, Padawan to none other than Anakin Skywalker. This incredible character mod brings her likeness to Jedi Academy, letting you either play as Ahsoka or having her tag along with you on adventures. She can also exist as an NPC in hub areas – which is especially useful for custom servers. There are plenty of character and skin mods floating around for Jedi Academy, and sometimes that’s enough to improve your experience exponentially.
12. Star Wars: For the Republic
Check Out This Mod Despite being classified as a third-person shooter, Jedi Academy shines for its intense Lightsaber combat, rather than the use of blasters. This extensive conversion mod by creator Myceley puts the “shooter” back into Jedi Academy. It gives you a new campaign where you’ll play as a Republic Trooper going up against the Sith Empire and their armies. It turns the game into a hardcore shooter where you’ll need cover and fast reflexes to survive. Your only goal? To protect the people of several planets from the Empire’s oppression.
11. Revenge of the Jedi
Check Out This Mod Mods offer creators a detailed way to bring their fantasies to life, writing fanfiction in code rather than in prose. Revenge of the Jedi by the_Last_Jedi is just that: a fantastic re-imagining of the original trilogy’s second episode, where Obi-Wan managed to survive his duel with Darth Vader, and Yoda has founded a new Jedi Temple on Dagobah. It’s a huge mod with a staggering amount of custom assets. I mean really huge. It includes great-looking character models that make this new story come to life as well, so it’s almost like a totally new game. Give it a try!
10. The Ladder
Check Out This Mod Initially developed by JediNight for Jedi Outcast, The Ladder is a wave-based survival level meant to test your skills against increasingly tough enemies. It was ported to Jedi Academy by prolific mod author Circa, who modified some textures and a couple of code lines here & there to make it work in the more recent game. This single-player map may have a simple concept, but it can provide hours upon hours of enjoyment as you hone your Lightsaber dueling skills against hordes of enemies.
9. New Beginning SP Mod
Check Out This Mod Another relatively small but sweet mod is New Beginning by creator MagSul, which serves as a direct continuation of the Light Side ending of Jedi Academy. You’ll play as an entirely new character across two levels. That may sound like too little, but trust me, the first one is extensive-enough for hours of gameplay if you go around exploring everything. It’s also full of interesting easter eggs, custom assets, new dialogue, and even a couple unique cinematics.
8. Escape: Yavin IV
Check Out This Mod On the other side of the Force we have Escape: Yavin IV, a direct continuation of the Dark Side ending where Jaden Korr gives in to his dark impulses and takes the Scepter of Ragnos for himself. Developed by The Unbeholden, this new campaign mod follows Jaden Korr after being used and discarded by a new Sith Lord, who leaves him to rot in Yavin IV for four years. The original mod features 13 lengthy missions, custom new Lightsabers, new abilities, and upgraded visual effects. On top of that, the more recent “Lost Missions” update adds a whopping 35 entirely new levels for you to enjoy. Yes, this one’s big. Guaranteed to keep you busy for hours.
7. Prequel Conversion Mod
Check Out This Mod Star Wars’ prequel trilogy gets a lot of bad rep online. But this is still where at least half of the fanbase got to know Star Wars, and their aesthetic is just on point. Well this mod by Circa will let you immerse yourself in the world of the prequel trilogies by replacing the game’s base enemies with Trade Federation Battledroids, Super Battledroids, Droidekas and introducing enemies like Jango Fett and Count Dooku. All the spaceships, the weapons, and even the sound effects are also modified to fit in with the prequels’ style.
6. The Dark Pastime
Check Out This Mod While its title may sound like it’s an expansion for The Sims, The Dark Pastime is a complex campaign taking place several years after the events of Jedi Academy’s Light Side ending. In this universe, The Academy continues to fight the weakened remnants of the Galactic Empire along with the New Republic. After a New Republic base on Goura is mysteriously destroyed by forces unknown, the Academy sends Jaden Korr’s mentor, Kyle Katam, to investigate and discover the truth. What will you find? Well, only one way to find out.
5. Nina Series
Check Out This Mod The Star Wars universe is much more than the fight between the Sith and the Jedi. Even if that’s the central focus of its main storyline. This series of modded campaigns by creator Larry McBruce is one of the earliest ever to become popular. It presents a new perspective by having you play as Nina, who’s both a bounty hunter and the youngest sister of the fallen Sith Lord Tavion. Other than the classic “Nina 1.5” mod, the series is continued in Nina: Undiscovered Secret and Nina: Genesis.
4. Knights of the Force 2.1
Check Out This Mod One of the most ambitious works in progress for Jedi Academy is Knights of the Force 2.1. This total conversion mod aims to introduce characters and locales from all across the three main trilogies, Rogue One and even Star Wars Rebels. I make a point of including the version number here because this is actually a revived version of an older mod called Knights of the Force, which had been abandoned for quite some time before the current team started working on it. I’d expect great things!
3. EternalJK
Check Out This Mod EternalJK is an updated fork of OpenJK, a massive open-source client for Jedi Academy that fixes compatibility issues with modern operating systems and hardware. It’s also a pre-requisite for most mods on this list. If you want to play Jedi Academy or any of the Jedi Knight games on a modern system running Windows 10, you’ll need this one. Thankfully setup is pretty simple and it offers some guidance, but this is definitely worth learning how to install & tinker with.
2. Star Wars: Movie Battles II
Check Out This Mod Movie Battles II is easily the most talked-about and popular multiplayer Jedi Academy mod of the past decade. It adds a truckload of characters and character archetypes to the game, so you can see why it gets so much attention. It also introduces maps from all over the Star Wars mythos and even other games with a fitting aesthetic, adding up to over 100 multiplayer battle arenas. It supports many multiplayer modes, not to mention massive 16v16 team deathmatches are commonplace in most multiplayer servers.
1. Star Wars: Movie Duels
Check Out This Mod While Movie Battles II is still the most popular multiplayer mod, there’s a much more recent undertaking that offers many of the same features with an updated presentation. Movie Duels is the spiritual successor of Movie Battles II, using OpenJK as its primary engine and remastering the classic multiplayer mod with better animations, HD sound effects, music, and voice clips. It also supports prequel-like “SFX” Lightsabers, which was sorely missing from the original. And this even introduces some more duel stances to increase playstyle variety. Absolutely worth a try, and may the Force be with you.
