Jak and Daxter

Wow, what a Super Bowl. I have been a Patriots fan since I started watching football, when the quarterback controversy was Grogan and Eason. I remember the Pats losing to the 85 Bears and the Packers in the 90s. Finally, the team has come together and pulled one off. Don’t get me wrong, I like the Rams too, any other team, I would have been for the Rams. But, this game was a game to remember.

Jak and Daxter has similar underdog roots behind it. The Nintendo 64 perfected the 3D platformer with titles like Banjo-Kazooie, Donkey Kong, Mario World and who will ever forget Conker’s Bad Fur Day. I never intended on picking up Jak and Daxter, because I felt the PS2 just couldn’t compete with the Nintendo old timers. Well, after having nothing else released and seeing a ton of positive press, I gave the dynamic duo a try.

Much like the Patriots this year, the results were surprising. Jak and Daxter is a solid platform game on many levels, and along with Conker, the best that last year had to offer. What does Jak and Daxter do so well? First of all, it is about graphics. The world is seamless. You actually transition from one area to another with no load times, and the transition makes sense graphically. That is to say that there is a lava world, there is an ice world, and all the other usual treats, but to get to the ice, you will make your way up a mountain, and you will see the snow start as you go up. From the starting island, you can see another island that is a whole level in the game, and it appears in great detail.

From start to finish, this is the best looking 3D platform game ever. The animation is smooth, and the control with it is tight. You are never fighting the controls, and you can almost always get the camera angle you need in a given situation.

My only issue with the game, and the only thing that would keep it from becoming the best platformer of our time is a couple Gameplay issues. First off, the plot. It is weak. You must collect power crystals and kill the badguy. Nothing here, no twists, no turns, no surprises. When you compare it to a story driven platformer, this game does not even come close. My second issue with the game is the difficulty. Some of the later puzzles are excessively difficult to near impossible, and more than one time the controller has been put down in sheer frustration. Having won EVERY major platform game out for the N64, I can seriously say that Jak and Daxter has some of the most difficult jumping and speed puzzles of any game.

One thing that does help with the pain of the difficulty is the fact that the world is affected by your actions. If you kill a spider, that spider will not be there when you return later in the game. You collect a power cell, you can come back to that level any time and you still have the cell. Even if you die, items are not reset. This makes repeating an entire level a hundred times unnecessary. Jak and Daxter seems shorter than several platformers I have played in the past, but I am guessing it is due to the lack of repetitive tasks that need to be performed. Content-wise, I think it is the same of any of the great Rare games.

Overall, I enjoyed Jak and Daxter, and I even found Daxter to be a great character. I found Jak and all the other characters dry and boring, but that was forgivable. If you love platform games, and you own a Playstation 2, this is the best one for it (till Maximo, we will see…). Get it and prepare for a splendid addiction.

Final Grade: B+

System Requirements:

Playstation 2
Peripheral Support: DUALSHOCK 2
8MB Memory Card