Jak and Daxter Review

With 3D Platformers coming back into vogue with Crash, Spyro, and Mario Odyssey, I decided to
take a look at a Playstation 2 Platformer that my brother in law tries to get me to play, Jak and Daxter. Developed by Naughty Dog, the same team behind the original Crash Bandicoot games, this was actually their spiritual sequel to Crash after they finished Crash Team Racing on PS1. But that leads to a question, how does this spiritual sequel from 2001 hold up in 2019? Stand amongst the cream of the crop? Or is it just a dated relic of the times?

The first thing to note is that Jak and Daxter has aged pretty well presentation wise. It's artstyle and graphics hold up pretty well, something I attribute to the cartoony style that Naughty Dog went for. Music is sort of a mixed bag, it does it's job but is just kind of forgettable, more atmospheric than head bopping with some exceptions, like the final boss theme. The environments are also nice and varied, from snowy peaks to boggy swamps, I was never bored looking at this game. Though the story and characters that inhabit the world are not much worth talking about.

I mean, the story is okay, following our titular characters as Daxter turned into a weasel otter hybrid and the two set out on a quest to turn him back to normal. It's a solid premise and the two characters who join Jak and Daxter on their quest, mechanic/love interest Keira and her father/village sage Samos help keep life in the story. Especially because Jak doesn't speak at all in this story. Although the villains are just... well they're no Doctor Cortex from Crash Bandicoot I'll say that much; in fact I forget what they even wanted to do and I finished the game the morning before I wrote most of this. They're just boring characters with no real life to them, at least Cortex was memorable in voice and lunacy. And I compare them to Crash's villain Cortex because, like I mentioned, Jak 1 is the true sequel to Crash: Warped so a comparison is kind of warranted.

But onto the game, namely design and well, Jak 1 is okay at best and worst. It's a Mario 64 style collectathon in which you need to collect macguffins scattered around the world to reach the next hub area, of which there are three in all followed by a final lair. The challenges are fun and, for a standard 3D platformer, it does it's job and got me to 100% it. But after that I can't imagine myself going back at all, it's definitely a one and done for me. Compared to the more challenge hallway intense platformers like Crash, the more intriguing open world stuff of Mario, and the gun based combat of Ratchet and Clank, Jak and Daxter just doesn't hold up on the design front. It just feels like Naughty Dog took the DNA of other platformers like Mario 64 and Banjo Kazooie and just slammed it together.

That said there are some upsides in the actual gameplay, riding the vehicle and bird are fun and offer new challenges, I appreciate how you have to take the bike in order to reach the next area and the Precursor Basin where you ride the bike all around is fun as well. But it needed more of that because places like the Spider Cave and Jungle area were a bit dull. Another plus was the control, Jak controls great, his moves are fantastic, his ledge grab has saved my ass on many an occasion and that double jump is a great course corrector. The shooting controls are all sorts of jerky though, it never felt like I was in control of the aim, like my shots were more powered by hope than skill.

That said, a thing I really appreciate about Jak 1 is more of a technical thing, the loading times. And by loading times I mean no loading times, at all. There may be an occasional stop or two, namely when using portals, but loading is handled very well and makes the world feel huge by comparison to Naughty Dog's Crash series. This was actually a big thing for the PS2/GC/Xbox generation, reducing load times in games, Metroid Prime is a great example of this as is the original God of War but I kinda forgot what that felt like till I played Jak 1, where I didn't wait at all, it's a great feeling. Heck it even stays that way on the PS3 version, which sounds obvious but Kingdom Hearts 2.5 fucked up loading the different transformations for Sora and gang so it ain't always a given.

I guess if I were to sum up Jak and Daxter, I think the word I would use is adequate. It never feels like it goes above and beyond and sometimes adequate is good enough. But given this is put up as one of the gems of the PS2 era, I guess I expected more than I was given. It never feels like Jak and Daxter does anything bold with what it has, it feels like it just exists. And if it existed in a void where it was the only one, I would sing it's praises to high heaven, but it's not, and so I have to compare, and sadly I just can't recommend Jak 1 in 2019. Though playing it did make want to try 2 and 3 which, given I own the PS3 collection, shouldn't be long.