Time passes. Franchises come, Franchises go. Some end when they could have gone longer. No where else is this as apparent than with Jak and Daxter.
With the success the game had both commercially and critically, its easy to see why the game got re-released under the Playstation’s “Greatest Hits Banner”. Image Source: Amazon.com
Jak and Daxter The Precursor Legacy was developed by Naughty Dog and released in 2001. The game was originally meant to be Naughty Dog’s first foray into deeper and more character centered story telling. The game focused on the young mute protagonist Jak and his snarky human-turned ottsel (yes Ottsel, a combination of weasel and an otter) companion. Together they try and change Daxter back into a human by finding the sage of Dark Eco, the material that turned Daxter into an ottsel to begin with. Along the way, the pair need to traverse the huge world made up of different hubs. Each hub is centered around a different colored eco that each has a different property (i.e. Green for health, Blue for Speed, Yellow for Energy blasts, etc.).
The first hub in the game is the village centered around Green Eco. Though not very smooth, the setting is still a fantastic marvel to look at. Image source: PlaystationPalo.wordpress.com
To get from place to place, the player needed to find “power cells”. These could be gained by going through a temple, doing a side mission, or performing some very skillful platforming. It was a fun and charming title. Having come out after Naughty Dog’s hit series Crash bandicoot, the game still held up and show’d their talent for more charcter focused games. For the sequel, the story became even more prevelant, but got MUCH darker. And in my opinion, even better.
One of the few times adding guns to a franchise doesn’t seem like its desperately trying to be edgy. Image Source: Amazon.com
Jak II came out on the Playstation 2 in 2004, upping the anti in a LOT of ways.First off: the story. Jak and Daxter, as well as a few side characters, find themselves being sucked into the future by a mysterious and enormous beast, who calls out Jak ominously. They soon find themselves in a dystopian future in the fascist Haven City, which is currently under the rule of the tyrannical Baron Praxis. Jak becomes a prisoner and is experimented on for two years until Daxter comes and frees him (What he was doing is shown in the PSP spinoff Daxter). Jak and Daxter then set out to get revenge on the Baron and free Haven City. Oh and Jak can talk now. Not a huge difference but hey, adds to character development and moves the plot along. The game has you talking to freedom fighters, criminals, and other interesting characters around Haven City, making it feel really alive.
The new Dark Jak form has a lot of uses, and can be made even stronger as the game goes on, giving a lot of room to grow. Image Source: Fanpop.com
The gameplay also is ramped up. Instead of focusing on different color eco for fighting, you now have an assortment of guns to deal with enemies. Also, Jak can now collect dark eco to turn into “Dark Jak”, a powerful and nearly unstoppable force, if only for a short while. The inclusion of more car based gameplay is also fantastic, as you can often take whatever ride you may want from the drivers of Haven City. Take from the wrong person however, and you may find yourself being the target of the city guards’ fury.
The sequel added so much and expanded so greatly on what made Jak and Daxter fun. Unfortunately the same could not be said for Jak III.
You’d think a match up of Jak and Daxter and Mad Max would be amazing right? One would think, but one would be wrong. Image Source: Amazon.com
Jak 3 comes out on the Ps2 only a year after the first, and it really shows. There was a three year difference between the first two games. Time to sit and time to innovate. With Jak 3, it felt slightly rushed. Am I saying it’s a bad game? God no. This game still looks great, plays great, and has a somewhat decent story. However, compared to Jak 2, not much has changed. The gun and fighting system is copy and paste, the story doesn’t break much new ground, here’s a “light” form for Jak now, and more focus on vehicles. Although they don’t hover this time. Woo hoo.
It suffers from resting on what works instead of trying anything new. I can’t entirely blame them because Jak 2 was a fantastic game that took a gamble and won. I just wish they took more time to think of something better and a little bit more creative.
What could have been a great game came out with too little WAY too late. Image Source Amazon.com
Thats not to say time work miracles, as Jak and Daxter The Lost Frontier would eventually surface after a racing game and the Daxter spin-off . They had a good idea of adding ariel combat and bigger stage story, however it came out too late in the Playstation 2’s lifecycle and got very little exposure. And this game came out in 2009! Three years after the Playstation 3 had come out. If they wanted this series to still stand chance they should have shifted focus to putting it on the next-gen console. Although its possible Sucker Punch wasn’t enthusiastic for the series to continue, as they were more focused on the Uncharted series, they gave the Lost Frontier over to High Impact Games. A few people in Sucker Punch wished they gave Jak a better send-off than he got, and I don’t blame them. The game felt like a half effort with minimal stakes in the story and not enough interesting in the gameplay to keep the dusty formula relevant again.
However, I have hope that one day we may see Jak and his snarky side-kick once again.
Image Source: Tumblr.com