"An incredibly fun game that's also a programming miracle"

The Jak and Daxter series have become one of the most popular videogame series that has appeared on the Playstation 2. Over time, the series evolved in surprising ways, changing focus from platforming in Jak and Daxter into a focus mostly in action and weapons by Jak 3. Naughty Dog – the company behind Jak and Daxter – then made a drastic change in Jak X, which was a destroy-them-all type racer. However, there comes a time where every hero must take a break... and let his sidekick take over for a little while. Enter Daxter, the PSP game featuring Jak's sidekick and mascot of the same name. However, due to the limitations of the PSP, some questions popped up about this game: how are the loading times of this new PSP game? What needed to be sacrificed graphics-wise in order to accommodate the handheld it was on? Most importantly, did the game live up to the quality that the Jak and Daxter fans enjoyed on Daxter's console brethren?

Before I go into the review, I must give the fans of Jak 2 and Jak 3 a warning: Daxter is a platforming game at heart. It does not have the focus on weapons and destruction that Jak 2 and 3 had. If you absolutely abhor platforming, you should not get this game

Graphics and Loading
Daxter does things with the PSP that I did not think was possible before. The character models are large, fluid, and incredibly detailed. Nearly every single item in the foreground has its own unique animation: The owner of the bug killer store twiddle his thumbs as he waits for Daxter to complete his latest mission; one of the vehicles that Daxter drives coughs up smoke as it hovers and increases the speed of its hovering fans as it accelerates. There's even activity occurring in the city, as hover cars zoom above Daxter as he runs or drives to his next mission. There is even a considerable amount of detail in Daxter's weapons, as electricity streams forth from Daxter's main weapon and small, rapid puffs of green gas poison pour out of Daxter's gas tank and poison his enemies.

The loading times in Daxter are the best in any current PSP game, bar none. In fact, loading times are nearly non-existent in this game, and only people who actually focus on finding the loading times will discover them. The loading times are well-hidden in the game, normally occurring when Daxter is, say, riding an elevator to the next level or waiting for a complexly-locked door to open. Another suprising feat is the quick transition from playing the game to watching one of the in-game cinemas. Most games normally have a long pause before the video plays; Daxter only has, literally, a one or two second waiting time at most, and the transition back to the game is just as fast.

Daxter's graphical faults are few and far between, and are mainly caused by the limitations of the PSP hardware. The graphics, while fluid, run at a slightly slower pace than those of the Playstation 2 games. Also, because of the lower PSP specs, there is no fur on Daxter's body in the actual game, just an orange “skin.” Another sacrifice made due to to the handheld's hardware is the reduction of number of people on screen. For example, while traversing the city, Daxter will rarely if ever come across other people, aside from the occasional hovering car.

There are no faults in loading time in this game, aside from the rare “hiccup” that occurs when the game tries to load when the player is actively doing something (i.e. Hopping around nonstop and messing with the camera continuously).

Sound
The voice acting in Daxter is on par with the Jak games. All the characters from the console games that appear in this game have their original voice-actors, and the new characters have received highly-talented actors who suit the character personalities perfectly. The music in the game fits the situation that Daxter is in perfectly, and most of the melodies are happy and upbeat. The sound effects used in the game are incredibly varied. For example, the sounds made by Daxter simply slapping a bug into oblivion and the sounds made by squishing said bug are different from each other, making the process of constantly wacking the daylights out of bugs much less repetitive.

There is one significant problem with Daxter's sound: the voice clips can sometimes become delayed. While this never happens during the movie scenes, it can happen in-game, when voices are loaded to follow on-screen text. Occasionally, this voice-loading also stops the background music, and the music does not come back on until several seconds after the voice clip stops. This for me is insignificant, but such a sound cap can annoy other players.

Gameplay and Storyline
Unlike the recent Jak games (excluding the racer Jak X), Daxter focuses primarily on platforming elements, similar to the first Jak and Daxter game. Daxter will hop around various unique levels, ranging from hotel floors that have been taken over by ottsel-eating plants and bugs, to construction sites where Daxter has to hang from a tied pile of poles while he is literally carried from area to area to eliminate the pesky bugs. Daxter includes the standard 3D platforming elements such as jumping over gaps and collecting various items or kill a certain number of enemies to accomplish various goals. However, Daxter includes several elements that place it on levels higher than the average platformer, particularly with the inclusion of the spray gun. There are several instances in the game where Daxter has to use his spray gun to propel himself over large chasms. This feat is harder than it sounds, as Daxter has a limited amount of time and gas while in the air, and the only way to improve the air time is to grab green balls to increase the pressure in his gas container. There are also other uses for the spray can; at some points Daxter is forced to light his spray on fire to burn off webs that block off other areas, for instance. These examples are only some of the unique situations the player will find him- or herself in when he plays the game. There are many more clever puzzles, and it is rather rare for a player to find himself in a situation that becomes repetitive and boring.

Daxter also includes a bevy of secret options, which is rather surprising considering the rather bare-bones approach that many PSP games have chosen to take in comparison. Many of Daxters moves and health extensions are gotten through dream sequences that are unlocked by collecting the precursor orbs scattered throughout the game. Others, such as cheats and other secrets, are gotten by simply collecting a high number of precursor orbs (such as 600 orbs). The dream sequences place Daxter in a world that parodies pop culture movies like the Matrix, and work through timed presses of randomized buttons indicated on screen. They can range from easy to surprisingly difficult, but may become redundant to some players thanks to the same button-pressing system being used for every dream. If a player can get past the repetition of the dream sequences however, he or she will find the replay value increased through the dreams and the orb collecting.

The storyline for Daxter occurs in the two years where Daxter is trying to rescue Jak from his prison (in the beginning of Jak 2). The story has a good amount of humor, and the great voice-acting helps the story flow naturally. The lightheartedness of this game may turn a few gamers off; it is significantly more upbeat than the second and third Jak games (even though those two games had their own bit of humor as well), and may catch gamers by surprise especially if they have not played the comparatively light-hearted first Jak and Daxter game.

Daxter is a game that takes the Jak series back to its original platforming roots. In terms of graphics and loading times, the game is a programming miracle, having incredibly detailed characters and items with minimal loading times at all. The sound fits the scenarios perfectly (although there are none that would stick in my head in the long run). The gameplay outdoes everything else though, as the platforming situations are very unique, the storyline captivating and humorous, and the dream sequences and orb collecting somewhat fun and refreshing. If you are a gamer who loves platformers, then you can not go wrong with this game. If a player can get past the lighthearted tone of this game and the throwback to the original Jak and Daxter style of platforming, he will be able to enjoy this game tremendously. Definitely a buy for platform-enjoying players everywhere.

Reviewer's Score: 9/10, Originally Posted: 04/04/06