With the Sly series getting an HD collection on the Playstation 3, I couldn’t help but wonder what other franchise would benefit from having an HD upgrade like that. The first thing that popped to mind is this series. Now, whilst there are many other series that deserve one, which I hope they get, I honestly hope that this series gets it first.
So, how best to portray how I feel about this series and why it deserves this, just read and find out in this completely new episode of:
The first game, Jak and Daxter: The Precursors Legacy is a game much like the first Naughty Dog game: Crash Bandicoot. It’s obvious that a lot of elements had been pulled from the Crash games. Still, at the same time, they had also innovated Jak and Daxter by adding a lot of new gameplay elements, a captivating story and a brilliant world for you to play in. Although you could still say that it’s Crash Bandicoot 2.0. Now, Jak II: Renegade on the other hand was an immense improvement on even the first game. It still kept the basic elements of the first game but just added so many things. Following this up with Jak 3 where Naughty Dog just polished everything to a mirror sheen and even added one or two more things. Then came Jak X: Combat Racing, which shifted genres to racing. Again, they took Crash Team Racing and did with that what they did with Jak II. Following this were two handheld games that worked pretty well as handhelds, but aren’t nearly enough to sustain our appetite.
It’s definitely an interesting world, in which they live. The characters are humanoids that have a darker beige skin tone and long pointy ears. They also tend to explode in purple orbs when they die. Now, the world seems to be fueled by this substance called Eco, which keeps everything in balance. There’s basic Eco like Dark Eco and Light Eco, but there’s also Green Eco (healing, nature), Red Eco (Strength, Earth), Yellow Eco (Power, fire) and Blue Eco (energy, lightning). Now called: The Old World, their world had more of a country feel to it with small villages, each having its Eco Sage to look after it. Essentially though, The Old World is nothing more than one continent. Still, it’s all we know besides The Brink. On its own, it was a very interesting world that was just interesting enough to keep us going. Still, it was very clear that it was specifically designed to be a platformer instead of being a world where you could platform.
That all changed dramatically when ND made Jak II: Renegade. Whoooo boy, was that a major shift or what? The first game held true to the vibe you got from Crash Bandicoot, although it was aimed for an older audience. Now, they were aiming for teens all the way. Gone was the platformer world, welcome Haven City, as inspired by Liberty City by GTA. By inspired I mean that Naughty Dog has taken it upon themselves to create a sandbox city where you are free to roam about freely and do whatever you please, allowing you to go to new missions whenever you please. Haven City is a city that relies on Eco for power, thrusting that the Eco grid set up by Mar many, many years ago would help them. They use this energy to power a lot of things like flying bikes and cars, called Zoomers, power elevators, electronic doors, tanks, street lights, TV’s. The whole shebang, really. A dramatic shift from the first game indeed. However, this also created a very interesting world where on one side you have a city ruled by a tyrant and another side of invading monsters that want to claim and destroy the city.
That world was even expanded some more in Jak 3 where we learn that there is a great wasteland out there that even has its own city, Spargus City. You can think of the Wastelands and Spargus like a Mad Max world, with equally as interesting settings and technologies.
And this world is even expanded further in Jak X where we learn there’s even more cities like Krass City. Although we learn very little about it except for the fact that it’s tailor made for races.
It aint over yet folks, although it is the end of the world. Literally, the brink is the far side of the world plateau on which these characters live. For the rest it’s all downwards bound. The Brink, for me, offered the most interesting developments in the world as it included sky pirates and all. Very interesting concept to add if you ask me. Plus, a floating city.
That all changed dramatically when ND made Jak II: Renegade. Whoooo boy, was that a major shift or what? The first game held true to the vibe you got from Crash Bandicoot, although it was aimed for an older audience. Now, they were aiming for teens all the way. Gone was the platformer world, welcome Haven City, as inspired by Liberty City by GTA. By inspired I mean that Naughty Dog has taken it upon themselves to create a sandbox city where you are free to roam about freely and do whatever you please, allowing you to go to new missions whenever you please. Haven City is a city that relies on Eco for power, thrusting that the Eco grid set up by Mar many, many years ago would help them. They use this energy to power a lot of things like flying bikes and cars, called Zoomers, power elevators, electronic doors, tanks, street lights, TV’s. The whole shebang, really. A dramatic shift from the first game indeed. However, this also created a very interesting world where on one side you have a city ruled by a tyrant and another side of invading monsters that want to claim and destroy the city.
That world was even expanded some more in Jak 3 where we learn that there is a great wasteland out there that even has its own city, Spargus City. You can think of the Wastelands and Spargus like a Mad Max world, with equally as interesting settings and technologies.
And this world is even expanded further in Jak X where we learn there’s even more cities like Krass City. Although we learn very little about it except for the fact that it’s tailor made for races.
It aint over yet folks, although it is the end of the world. Literally, the brink is the far side of the world plateau on which these characters live. For the rest it’s all downwards bound. The Brink, for me, offered the most interesting developments in the world as it included sky pirates and all. Very interesting concept to add if you ask me. Plus, a floating city.
Characterwise, these games are just plain awesome. Jak and Daxter are our two protagonists of the franchise, with one having taken a vow of silence whilst the other one … compensates greatly … for the other one’s silence. Although Jak does get a speaking role after the first game. Still, that gave Daxter plenty of time to solidify him as one of the funniest characters that gaming has ever seen. Following Jak 1, Jak actually became a great hero to play with. He became buff, strong, great in silent humor and badass. Besides the silent humor, Jak is best described as being Mad Max.
Daxter had a small evolution as well. He went from innocent humor to a lot more mature humor, which had many subtle and hilarious moments. Seriously, Daxter in Jak II evolved like the franchise itself, improving vastly in my honest opinion.
The supporting characters are all very good as well. Samos, Keira, Ashelin, Torn, Pecker, the sages, the precursors, the villains. They all had very distinct and fantastic looks and personalities and none were annoying or weird. I’ve heard complaints about the true identity of The Precursors, but come on, what did you expect? That moment was the most brilliant moment in the Jak franchise.
What I really liked about all the characters is how well fleshed out they were. Every single character doesn’t have a single generic quality about him or her. The backgrounds of the major supporting characters are pretty damn good as well, and involving. As you travel through the stories of these characters and learn to know them a bit better or even just longer, you care about them more and more. One particular story I really enjoyed was that of the leader of Spargus City, Damas.
Even in Jak X, where the story really took a back seat, Naughty Dog still managed to put in unique and distinct characters. The two handheld games following this did have interesting characters, though Daxter not as much as The Lost Frontier. No, The Lost Frontier was a high success for me when it came to characters. Though there were only three or four characters that had the same uniqueness as the new characters in the games before.
As far as voice acting is concerned, I’ve got nothing but positive things to say here. With talent such as Phil LaMarr, Max Casella, Mike Erwin, Warren Burton, Susan Eisenberg and just everyone else who was a supporting character, I can’t see how this could have failed. Like with Uncharted, there’s not a single voice actor who fumbles the ball.
Daxter had a small evolution as well. He went from innocent humor to a lot more mature humor, which had many subtle and hilarious moments. Seriously, Daxter in Jak II evolved like the franchise itself, improving vastly in my honest opinion.
The supporting characters are all very good as well. Samos, Keira, Ashelin, Torn, Pecker, the sages, the precursors, the villains. They all had very distinct and fantastic looks and personalities and none were annoying or weird. I’ve heard complaints about the true identity of The Precursors, but come on, what did you expect? That moment was the most brilliant moment in the Jak franchise.
What I really liked about all the characters is how well fleshed out they were. Every single character doesn’t have a single generic quality about him or her. The backgrounds of the major supporting characters are pretty damn good as well, and involving. As you travel through the stories of these characters and learn to know them a bit better or even just longer, you care about them more and more. One particular story I really enjoyed was that of the leader of Spargus City, Damas.
Even in Jak X, where the story really took a back seat, Naughty Dog still managed to put in unique and distinct characters. The two handheld games following this did have interesting characters, though Daxter not as much as The Lost Frontier. No, The Lost Frontier was a high success for me when it came to characters. Though there were only three or four characters that had the same uniqueness as the new characters in the games before.
As far as voice acting is concerned, I’ve got nothing but positive things to say here. With talent such as Phil LaMarr, Max Casella, Mike Erwin, Warren Burton, Susan Eisenberg and just everyone else who was a supporting character, I can’t see how this could have failed. Like with Uncharted, there’s not a single voice actor who fumbles the ball.
For as far graphics go, Jak 1 wasn’t exactly the best crayon in the pack. It was average at best, although unique in style. The uniqueness of it all really helped this game along quite nicely. Although in the end, everything was still rather blocky. Sharp, but blocky. Plus, it was very simple if you ask me.
I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again: Then came Jak II. What a tremendous leap that was. The graphics took a leap from simple to pushing the Playstation 2 to its limits. Something that was very clear in the opening cinematic to Jak II, where we briefly revisit The Old World. The world itself was a lot more detailed, a lot livelier and a lot smoother. Characters were the same way. Gone was the blockyness of the first game and enter the world of stunning graphics.
Although there were a lot more bugs to be found. This was to be expected really. I can’t begin to tell you how many times I managed to find myself clipping through walls and the ground without a reason.
If the graphics in Jak II were impressive, then Jak 3 really perfected them. As good as the graphics were in II, they were still rough around the edges and given this darker, grittier feel. Whilst Jak 3 added more color to the mix and a very different, sandy location in Spargus and the Wastelands. This, by the way, really feels huge and desolate. Especially during the artifact retrieval missions.
Jak X continued down that same path and delivered some top-notch graphics that seemed to be tailor made to maximize damage graphics in the races. Everyone was given new duds as well.
Seeing as Daxter and The Lost Frontier were both handheld games, the graphics are what you could expect late Playstation 1, early Playstation 2. However, The Lost Frontier seems to have taken a different route in their graphics. Whilst the Naughty Dog games kept that cartoony look, The Lost Frontier (which was developed by High Impact Games) took a more realistic look. It had its charms, but it certainly wasn’t Jak and Daxter.
Throughout all the games however, one thing remained consistent. Namely the sound. Nothing is half-assed; everything fits and sounds just right. From the sound of walking to the sound of shooting. Nothing to complain there. Musicwise, these games really deliver some great tunes that absolutely need to be on someone’s, if not everyone’s favorite lists. Especially the main theme. Definitely worth buying the soundtrack for.
I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again: Then came Jak II. What a tremendous leap that was. The graphics took a leap from simple to pushing the Playstation 2 to its limits. Something that was very clear in the opening cinematic to Jak II, where we briefly revisit The Old World. The world itself was a lot more detailed, a lot livelier and a lot smoother. Characters were the same way. Gone was the blockyness of the first game and enter the world of stunning graphics.
Although there were a lot more bugs to be found. This was to be expected really. I can’t begin to tell you how many times I managed to find myself clipping through walls and the ground without a reason.
If the graphics in Jak II were impressive, then Jak 3 really perfected them. As good as the graphics were in II, they were still rough around the edges and given this darker, grittier feel. Whilst Jak 3 added more color to the mix and a very different, sandy location in Spargus and the Wastelands. This, by the way, really feels huge and desolate. Especially during the artifact retrieval missions.
Jak X continued down that same path and delivered some top-notch graphics that seemed to be tailor made to maximize damage graphics in the races. Everyone was given new duds as well.
Seeing as Daxter and The Lost Frontier were both handheld games, the graphics are what you could expect late Playstation 1, early Playstation 2. However, The Lost Frontier seems to have taken a different route in their graphics. Whilst the Naughty Dog games kept that cartoony look, The Lost Frontier (which was developed by High Impact Games) took a more realistic look. It had its charms, but it certainly wasn’t Jak and Daxter.
Throughout all the games however, one thing remained consistent. Namely the sound. Nothing is half-assed; everything fits and sounds just right. From the sound of walking to the sound of shooting. Nothing to complain there. Musicwise, these games really deliver some great tunes that absolutely need to be on someone’s, if not everyone’s favorite lists. Especially the main theme. Definitely worth buying the soundtrack for.
Aaaaaah, here we finally are, the meat of the review. Namely: The gameplay. How well does it hold up today? Let’s find out, shall we?
Jak and Daxter: The Precursor’s Legacy: Right, this game copies and pastes a lot from Crash Bandicoot. Namely, that it has a punch attack, a dive slam attack, a spin attack, jumping, crouching and that’s it. To spice things up, Naughty Dog has also added zoomer gameplay, driving stages really, bird riding stages and Eco Powers. You see, if you remember, I said that Blue Eco is energy. Lightning, really. When Jak comes in contact with it, he becomes supercharged with energy, which he then transfers to a nearby piece of Precursor technology. Red Eco is the eco of strength, which gives Jak super strength. Yellow Eco allows him to shoot fireballs, etc etc etc.
In the end, this is all very simple to use and it gets quite intuitive something. Once, I was going from point A to Point B and I was talking to my mother. I actually continued to play even though I wasn’t paying attention at all, seeing as I was too focused on what my mother had to say. Near flawless execution too.
Still, this game is quite prone to put you in aggravating circumstances where it adds something to the playing field, like ice you need to skate on or complete and utter darkness unless you bitchslap a crystal. As aggravating as these moments may be, they do add a lot to the experience and I wouldn’t have wanted it any other way. One thing I can miss is those annoying little jumping bitches that keep jumping away from my punches. Little bitches.
Gameplay here is relatively easy and is a perfect transition to a harder platformer. Coincidently, Jak II.
Jak II: Renegade’s basics are very much the same as those found in the first game. Upon this, they build some more systems so that now every button on your controller has a purpose. Because now Jak can shoot a bitch and hoverboard your ass over.
Because Jak II is a GTA clone (of sorts, but not really), the game focuses a lot on shooting. This can get quite frustrating at times, but if you learn some tricks or two, you’ll get along fine. Like for instance the Wastelander move thought to you by one of my favorite characters, Sid. A few other very useful tricks will allow you to sail through this game.
HAHAHAHAHA, not really. This game is hard as balls. Ridiculously so. If you’re new to gaming or always pick easy, you’re basically screwed. It’s so hard that you thought this game popped a whole bottle of Viagra. Case in point, retrieving a piece in the water slums of the city. The following I wrote a while ago. This is a B&B blog about said slums that sums up everything quite nicely. Please, pardon my newbiness. This was written a long time ago.
“The Jak II Water Slums Ambush. Normally I would have gone with the final boss of this game if it weren't for the fact that what is hard about him isn't a flaw with him but with the game. If you go back to a checkpoint because you died, you should regain the ammo you've used up. You shouldn't lose it. That's total bullshit game designers. If you use up most of your ammo on the first attempt, then you'd better load your game instead of going back to a checkpoint. No, the water slums ambush is where the bullshit is at. This Boss stage is just amazingly stupid. You start off on the far side of the slums and you need to make your way out of there. Since this IS an ambush, the Krimzon Guard comes in by airship and occupy the walkway for the entire way, seeing as the drop ships come ever stinking meter. Besides this, if you drop in to the water or hoverboard across, then a small robot comes from the water and will shoot you. This will kill you instantly. One shot, one kill and the robot has a lock-on feature that ever misses. It will even go through solid material or other people. And lastly, besides the KG firing on you, the drop ships as well open fire. So there you are, on the other side. Gun in hand and seeing dropships come at you, unloading their cargo below them. The first part is easy enough. All you need to do is to not fall in to the water. As with everything, the stage becomes harder with every step you take. You can only take three direct hits before you're dead. It won't take long for you to die once. The dropships will come from behind you if you go to fast or they will come from the side if you go to fast. And they will shoot you. Sometimes, your kicks and punches won't land, even though they went right through the KG. Meaning that KG will hurt you as well. Also, whenever you are hit, you jump back a bit. Meaning you will also land in to the water a lot. That stage is way to long and way to hard. Designed to be a death trap. If only you had more health packs or more health all together then it would be a lot easier. But no, you will get hit and you will die. So what do you do? You use your hoverboard. It's going to take a lot of practice if you suck at it, but in the end this is your only option. Just get on your hoverboard and be as fast as you can. Once you reach the end and walk in to the regular slums, you stop being pursued. You can fall in to the water just fine without that robot popping up and the KG that were on to you have magically disappeared in to thin air. And also, immediately when you go out you see zoomers coming from the water slums that were strangely absent before. This stage is bullshit. With a gun and your dark powers, you're screwed. That robot in the water is too dead on and should be destroyable. The KG can't dissolve in to thin air, my blows need to stinking hit. The dropships come too slow and will surprise you from behind for some bumsechs and it's way to fucking long.“
A thing to note is the sheer brilliance of the Morphgun. It’s a gun that on its own is a Red Eco blaster that shoots damaging shield. Attach, let’s say, a Yellow Eco clip, and the gun morphs in to a blaster. Attach blue eco and it becomes a heavy machine gun. Attaching Dark eco results in an energy launches that’s pretty much fucks up everything in close range.
Jak isn’t the only character you can play with you know. There’s actually “two” more characters. One is Jak’s alter ego, where he becomes Dark Jak, a dark eco infected warrior that is basically a Hulk mode. A destructive character you use in a pinch. The other character is Daxter. Whoo! No longer is he just sitting there being pretty, the sidekick springs to action too! Well, not very long though …
One final thing, here we see for the first time that Naughty Dog is really considering doing something with races, as we see some Zoomer levels in the guise of a race. Now, they aren’t special or anything. However, they are difficult to maneuver. It’s very clear that these are in their baby shoes. They showed promise, but they weren’t something to write home about.
There’s also a few minigames to be played like timing puzzles and whack a mole. Easy to understand, difficult to play. Also, very difficult.
Whereas Jak II was hard as balls, Jak 3 was the perfect middle ground between Jak II and 1 in terms of difficulty.
Once again, this game build upon what it already had and added more of the same awesome. They didn’t really add anything new this time; they only expanded on what they already had in new directions. Take for instance the Dark Jak powers; they were given a Light Jak counterpart, which gave him defensive powers. Then there’re the guns, which were given a significant amount of new mods including a homing needle launcher, a grenade launches, a ricocheting round blaster and a fucking Nuke. One thing to note is that they vastly improved the racing by adding wheel based vehicles. They really smoothened out the racing mechanics, making them far more enjoyable than they were in the previous game. So that when I realized I was spending a lot, and I do mean a lot of time in the cars, I didn’t really care one bit.
You were also able to play with Daxter a lot more, which was fun. Little, orangy tons of fun.
Enter Jak Team Racing. I mean Jak X: Combat Racing. All they did really was take Crash Team Racing, replaced everything with Jak and slapped on a new paint job. Still, it’s a very good racing game that’s reminiscent of CTR and Burnout, in the sense that you can totally and utterly destroy your opponents as you race through old and new cities. The controls are fairly easy to understand but difficult to master, as you need to refine your handling every time you advance in difficulty.
In this game, you have different racing modes. Besides the standard: “be first, jackass”, there’s also one where you need to finish a lap in under thirty seconds by freezing time by snatching clocks or where you need to destroy as many dummy cars or where you need to drive head first in to as many cars as possible to reach the desired goal. Then there’s also Arena deathmatch, which is also a lot of fun, but very frustrating when you find the enemy is always on the other side of the fucking map.
In the end, it’s a very good game with a very good story, but ultimately falls short in some areas. I can’t help but wonder how it would be on the Playstation 3 where online play is a lot more accessible.
One thing is for sure, even if you aren’t a racing fan, you’ll enjoy this game.
Now, I can’t talk about the handheld games very much because I haven’t played them yet. I have seen playthroughs so I do have some feel for it. Daxter is a pretty straightforward simplified version of the Jak games. The Lost Frontier on the other hand tries its best to be a true Jak game by innovating and changing things up. Nevertheless, in the end it’s still a handheld game. More than half of the playtime you spend in this ridiculous plane that’s ultra slow, unresponsive and you’re fighting rock stupid A.I. and overgrown bosses. Gameplay is the same although the Eco powers have changed. But then there are the Dark Daxter levels. They are just stupid and only exist to add puzzles to the mix.
Quick Reviews:
Jak 1: Fun game, great platformers, definite evolution from Crash Bandicoot. 7/10
Jak 2: Amazing game, awesome platformer, way too fucking difficult. Really brings it down. 8/10
Jak 3: Perfect balance between Jak 1 & 2. Simply astonishing. Should be on everyone’s favorite games list. 9/10
Jak X: Fun racing game, Crash Team Racing meets Burnout, needed to be on Trey. 7/10
Daxter & Jak IV: They’re handheld games, good for what they are but nothing special. 7/10
Which brings my total to
Jak and Daxter: The Precursor’s Legacy: Right, this game copies and pastes a lot from Crash Bandicoot. Namely, that it has a punch attack, a dive slam attack, a spin attack, jumping, crouching and that’s it. To spice things up, Naughty Dog has also added zoomer gameplay, driving stages really, bird riding stages and Eco Powers. You see, if you remember, I said that Blue Eco is energy. Lightning, really. When Jak comes in contact with it, he becomes supercharged with energy, which he then transfers to a nearby piece of Precursor technology. Red Eco is the eco of strength, which gives Jak super strength. Yellow Eco allows him to shoot fireballs, etc etc etc.
In the end, this is all very simple to use and it gets quite intuitive something. Once, I was going from point A to Point B and I was talking to my mother. I actually continued to play even though I wasn’t paying attention at all, seeing as I was too focused on what my mother had to say. Near flawless execution too.
Still, this game is quite prone to put you in aggravating circumstances where it adds something to the playing field, like ice you need to skate on or complete and utter darkness unless you bitchslap a crystal. As aggravating as these moments may be, they do add a lot to the experience and I wouldn’t have wanted it any other way. One thing I can miss is those annoying little jumping bitches that keep jumping away from my punches. Little bitches.
Gameplay here is relatively easy and is a perfect transition to a harder platformer. Coincidently, Jak II.
Jak II: Renegade’s basics are very much the same as those found in the first game. Upon this, they build some more systems so that now every button on your controller has a purpose. Because now Jak can shoot a bitch and hoverboard your ass over.
Because Jak II is a GTA clone (of sorts, but not really), the game focuses a lot on shooting. This can get quite frustrating at times, but if you learn some tricks or two, you’ll get along fine. Like for instance the Wastelander move thought to you by one of my favorite characters, Sid. A few other very useful tricks will allow you to sail through this game.
HAHAHAHAHA, not really. This game is hard as balls. Ridiculously so. If you’re new to gaming or always pick easy, you’re basically screwed. It’s so hard that you thought this game popped a whole bottle of Viagra. Case in point, retrieving a piece in the water slums of the city. The following I wrote a while ago. This is a B&B blog about said slums that sums up everything quite nicely. Please, pardon my newbiness. This was written a long time ago.
“The Jak II Water Slums Ambush. Normally I would have gone with the final boss of this game if it weren't for the fact that what is hard about him isn't a flaw with him but with the game. If you go back to a checkpoint because you died, you should regain the ammo you've used up. You shouldn't lose it. That's total bullshit game designers. If you use up most of your ammo on the first attempt, then you'd better load your game instead of going back to a checkpoint. No, the water slums ambush is where the bullshit is at. This Boss stage is just amazingly stupid. You start off on the far side of the slums and you need to make your way out of there. Since this IS an ambush, the Krimzon Guard comes in by airship and occupy the walkway for the entire way, seeing as the drop ships come ever stinking meter. Besides this, if you drop in to the water or hoverboard across, then a small robot comes from the water and will shoot you. This will kill you instantly. One shot, one kill and the robot has a lock-on feature that ever misses. It will even go through solid material or other people. And lastly, besides the KG firing on you, the drop ships as well open fire. So there you are, on the other side. Gun in hand and seeing dropships come at you, unloading their cargo below them. The first part is easy enough. All you need to do is to not fall in to the water. As with everything, the stage becomes harder with every step you take. You can only take three direct hits before you're dead. It won't take long for you to die once. The dropships will come from behind you if you go to fast or they will come from the side if you go to fast. And they will shoot you. Sometimes, your kicks and punches won't land, even though they went right through the KG. Meaning that KG will hurt you as well. Also, whenever you are hit, you jump back a bit. Meaning you will also land in to the water a lot. That stage is way to long and way to hard. Designed to be a death trap. If only you had more health packs or more health all together then it would be a lot easier. But no, you will get hit and you will die. So what do you do? You use your hoverboard. It's going to take a lot of practice if you suck at it, but in the end this is your only option. Just get on your hoverboard and be as fast as you can. Once you reach the end and walk in to the regular slums, you stop being pursued. You can fall in to the water just fine without that robot popping up and the KG that were on to you have magically disappeared in to thin air. And also, immediately when you go out you see zoomers coming from the water slums that were strangely absent before. This stage is bullshit. With a gun and your dark powers, you're screwed. That robot in the water is too dead on and should be destroyable. The KG can't dissolve in to thin air, my blows need to stinking hit. The dropships come too slow and will surprise you from behind for some bumsechs and it's way to fucking long.“
A thing to note is the sheer brilliance of the Morphgun. It’s a gun that on its own is a Red Eco blaster that shoots damaging shield. Attach, let’s say, a Yellow Eco clip, and the gun morphs in to a blaster. Attach blue eco and it becomes a heavy machine gun. Attaching Dark eco results in an energy launches that’s pretty much fucks up everything in close range.
Jak isn’t the only character you can play with you know. There’s actually “two” more characters. One is Jak’s alter ego, where he becomes Dark Jak, a dark eco infected warrior that is basically a Hulk mode. A destructive character you use in a pinch. The other character is Daxter. Whoo! No longer is he just sitting there being pretty, the sidekick springs to action too! Well, not very long though …
One final thing, here we see for the first time that Naughty Dog is really considering doing something with races, as we see some Zoomer levels in the guise of a race. Now, they aren’t special or anything. However, they are difficult to maneuver. It’s very clear that these are in their baby shoes. They showed promise, but they weren’t something to write home about.
There’s also a few minigames to be played like timing puzzles and whack a mole. Easy to understand, difficult to play. Also, very difficult.
Whereas Jak II was hard as balls, Jak 3 was the perfect middle ground between Jak II and 1 in terms of difficulty.
Once again, this game build upon what it already had and added more of the same awesome. They didn’t really add anything new this time; they only expanded on what they already had in new directions. Take for instance the Dark Jak powers; they were given a Light Jak counterpart, which gave him defensive powers. Then there’re the guns, which were given a significant amount of new mods including a homing needle launcher, a grenade launches, a ricocheting round blaster and a fucking Nuke. One thing to note is that they vastly improved the racing by adding wheel based vehicles. They really smoothened out the racing mechanics, making them far more enjoyable than they were in the previous game. So that when I realized I was spending a lot, and I do mean a lot of time in the cars, I didn’t really care one bit.
You were also able to play with Daxter a lot more, which was fun. Little, orangy tons of fun.
Enter Jak Team Racing. I mean Jak X: Combat Racing. All they did really was take Crash Team Racing, replaced everything with Jak and slapped on a new paint job. Still, it’s a very good racing game that’s reminiscent of CTR and Burnout, in the sense that you can totally and utterly destroy your opponents as you race through old and new cities. The controls are fairly easy to understand but difficult to master, as you need to refine your handling every time you advance in difficulty.
In this game, you have different racing modes. Besides the standard: “be first, jackass”, there’s also one where you need to finish a lap in under thirty seconds by freezing time by snatching clocks or where you need to destroy as many dummy cars or where you need to drive head first in to as many cars as possible to reach the desired goal. Then there’s also Arena deathmatch, which is also a lot of fun, but very frustrating when you find the enemy is always on the other side of the fucking map.
In the end, it’s a very good game with a very good story, but ultimately falls short in some areas. I can’t help but wonder how it would be on the Playstation 3 where online play is a lot more accessible.
One thing is for sure, even if you aren’t a racing fan, you’ll enjoy this game.
Now, I can’t talk about the handheld games very much because I haven’t played them yet. I have seen playthroughs so I do have some feel for it. Daxter is a pretty straightforward simplified version of the Jak games. The Lost Frontier on the other hand tries its best to be a true Jak game by innovating and changing things up. Nevertheless, in the end it’s still a handheld game. More than half of the playtime you spend in this ridiculous plane that’s ultra slow, unresponsive and you’re fighting rock stupid A.I. and overgrown bosses. Gameplay is the same although the Eco powers have changed. But then there are the Dark Daxter levels. They are just stupid and only exist to add puzzles to the mix.
Quick Reviews:
Jak 1: Fun game, great platformers, definite evolution from Crash Bandicoot. 7/10
Jak 2: Amazing game, awesome platformer, way too fucking difficult. Really brings it down. 8/10
Jak 3: Perfect balance between Jak 1 & 2. Simply astonishing. Should be on everyone’s favorite games list. 9/10
Jak X: Fun racing game, Crash Team Racing meets Burnout, needed to be on Trey. 7/10
Daxter & Jak IV: They’re handheld games, good for what they are but nothing special. 7/10
Which brings my total to
8/10
For the Jak and Daxter series. Now, something that’s scored that high, because five is average, shouldn’t this get an HD release on the PS3? Or hell, a sequel? Because of this, I’m giving you all an assignment. Read up! Either spread this blog around so that as many people rally behind these games going to the Trey, or write your own blog. Let’s make this happen, people! Hoo-rah!
This has been Puddle Jumper reviewing the Jak series, peace out!
This has been Puddle Jumper reviewing the Jak series, peace out!
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