Jedi Academy was crap. The original Dark Forces series were great for their time. I certainly wouldn't want games produced liked that in this day and age, however I will say the storylines were and still are bloody awesome for all the original Dark Forces (Jedi Knight, and Mysteries of the Sith) games.
Then Lucasarts had some internal restructuring, whereby it decided it would be more profitable to get rid of its in-house development studios, and simply lease the star wars license to other game developers. Ravensoft tried to make a remake of the original Dark Forces: Jedi Knight game - Jedi Outcast. This game game was a decent attempt at making a loyal remake of one of the greatest games of the 90s.
Sadly that wasn't enough for Lucasarts. A hasty expansion was shot out. Back in days long gone, expansion packs were almost like 2nd games - a mega tonne of content and well worth the price. Mysteries of the Sith would be an ideal example: excellent storyline, good game length, excellent multiplayer expansion.
Jedi Academy on the other hand was the most absurdly poor star wars story I've ever seen - it's almost as bad as one of those old Star Trek movies where you're just thinking to yourself "this is so bad... it's almost like a fan wrote it". Resurrecting a dead sith ghost using the power of cyphoned force, and the final battle with the flying ghost... it was the most dire star wars experience I've ever had to endure.
The multiplayer expansion was equally poor in quality. The new maps were trash in comparison to Outcast's (it has to be said Outcast's weren't that good either). The new lightsaber styles were amusing, but the butterfly manauvers on the dual bladed and roflcopter crouch on the dual wielding were poor attempts at balancing the game; like giving someone a sniper rifle in a melee battle - a skilled person with a single bladed would always win.
Really I can't understand why people actually like the game, I find it sickening. Are people so thick as to just blindly look at something with Jedi and think "wow!". Well I guess the fact Star Wars: Galaxies still endures is proof of that... how pathetic.