Daxter takes center stage in his own platfomer that faithfully continues the Jak & Daxter series
Taking place in the 2 year gap at the start of Jak 2, J&D arrive in Haven City where Jak is capture right away, causing Daxter to flee. Flash forward about 2 years and Daxter is hanging out in a bar telling a story when Osmo, a bug exterminator who bumped into Daxter when he was fleeing after his arrival, offers Daxter a job as a bug exterminator. Daxter unwittingly accepts and the story begins. As usual, it starts out small but eventually erupts, with some cutscenes inbetween the action to update us on the story but also lay the seeds for the story of Jak 2. Some familiar and some new places will be visited, not to mention some new and old faces will be seen. There isn't quite as much to the story as there was in the Jak trilogy, but what's there is good and its nice to see Daxter get his moment to shine.
The gameplay in Daxter is alot like the main Jak trilogy, with Daxter using a bug spray, that eventually gets a flamethrower and sonic blast attachments, instead of a gun. Otherwise, its platforming adventure action just like the main trilogy. Double jumping, wall climbing, and all the other platforming standards are here, with a few new ones thanks to the bug spray. Defeating the bugs earns you gold gems, which actually don't do anything, except for a few levels where you need to earn XX many to complete the level. You also collect precursor orbs, just like the main trilogy. Here collecting orbs unlocks bonus content as well as bonus action sequences. These sequences might be the highlight of the game, mainly b/c they are simple, fun, and very funny. After collecting a certain number of orbs (1, 100, 200, 300, 400, 500), you unlock one of the 6 dream sequences which put Daxter in role of a famous movie character fighting enemies. Daxter takes on the roles of Neo from the Matrix trilogy, Gimli and Gandolf from the Lord of the Rings trilogy, Indiana Jones, and Braveheart. Each sequence is simple, when a enemy approaches hit the corresponding button that flashes under the enemies feet and Daxter will take out that enemy. Simple, but still fun and like I said, very funny seeing Daxter in those roles.
For a PSP game, the graphics are very nice. All the main characters look just as good as they were for the main Jak trilogy, with Daxter himself looking a little better than his console version. Haven City also looks almost as good as its console version, and the numerous areas/environments Daxter visits also look very good. Considering when Daxter came out, about a year ago now, the graphics still hold up very nicely.
I didn't notice much music in the game, there was some but it was subdued and nothing that would get on your nerves. The voice acting on the other hand is once again superb. Max Casella returns to voice Daxter and does a fabulous job as usual. The other voice actors do their part and round out a good cast.
Probably the only thing to complain about Daxter is its length, which clocks in just under 10 hours, but it is a very good 10 hours. Unlike its always compared to counterpart, Ratchet & Clank, Daxter doesn't feature as much bonus or extra content, but like any good platformer, there always is the hunt for all the precursor orbs, or getting high scores on the dream sequences. Overall Daxter is a great PSP game and a very worthwhile addition to the Jak and Daxter franchise. It tells a very good story that fills a gap in the main J&D trilogy's story allowing Daxter to take center stage. When it came out it was easily the best game on the PSP, and even a year later, it still is one of the best games for the PSP.