Daxter

Written by James Dauer  on January 23, 2006

First Impressions: Not quite a sequel to the bug swatting game from Mario PaintЕ

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Back in the winter of 2001, Naughty Dog released one of the best platformers the PS2 has seen yet. I'm talking, of course, about Jak and Daxter: The Precursor Legacy. Jak and Daxter featured a seamless level structure where the player could run from the beginning of the game straight to the end without so much as seeing one load time- a first for this current generation of video gaming. Jak and Daxter also displayed some of the most colorful graphics this side of the Game Cube. Now, half a decade later, the development team Ready at Dawn, a Naughty Dog off-shoot, is bringing us a portable package featuring all of the things that made Jak and Daxter great with a game simply titled УDaxterФ.

Daxter takes place soon after the original Jak and Daxter, but before Jak 2. In Daxter, Jak is being held prisoner and Daxter, the titular hero, must find him. However, Daxter's quest won't be so straightforward. Before he can save Jak, Daxter must first get settled in the newly discovered Haven City and find a job as, of all things, an exterminator. Being an exterminator means Daxter will be battling many bug-like enemies using his trusty fly swatter and a can of all-purpose bug spray, the only two weapons found in the game. While the fly swatter is Daxter's primary melee weapon, the bug spray is where many of the interesting gameplay elements emerge. Daxter can do many things with the can of bug spray from using the propulsion of the can to float, to burning things down with a little help from some nearby flames and the flammable toxic fumes of the spray. Daxter also features many of the same move sets as Jak before him. This means players can expect to perform the many rolls, double jumps, and other acrobatics commonly found in the Jak series.

Like in the other Jak games, Daxter features no load times between stages. While the game is all fairly linear, each stage is connected by a series of trampolines which will bounce Daxter far above Haven City and forcefully land him in the next stage. The game also features interesting bonus stages where Daxter falls asleep and dreams in mini-game form. Some of these stages will feature humorous pop-culture references such as a Matrix mini-game where the player will be required to hit specified buttons when they flash on screen. Other than the bonus stages, Daxter will be a straightforward linear platformer with little in the way of alternate game styles to break things up.

The graphics in Daxter stand well when compared with the game's PS2 counterparts. The framerate rarely ever drops, and Ready at Dawn has managed to pull out some great texture details and lighting effects from the PSP. While looking at the stills of the game it can be difficult to tell whether Daxter is a PSP title or a PS2 title; the graphics are just that good. The silky character animations also hold up to what one would expect from a Jak title. It's clear the developers have given Daxter some TLC in the visuals department.

Audio in Daxter has also been well cared for. The music and sound effects are on par with the series, and the game features many of the voices from the previous games, as it should. After all, what good is a game about Daxter where if he doesn't talk? That would be like a Mario game without coins, or a GTA without guns. It just wouldn't work.