Being a sarcastic, obnoxious mutant rodent sure is a lot of fun!!
From Daxter's main menu you have four options, the first of which is called "New Game". When you first start out on Daxter this is where you want to go. Upon beginning your game, your main base of operations is Osmo's exterminator business, as well as the surrounding streets of Haven City. Every game level in Daxter is somehow accessed from these streets, and you can revisit them at any time after you initially complete them. There are about 25 game levels in total, including: Haven City Streets, Westside Hotel, Construction Site, Breezy Valley, Brewery, Transit System, Train Chase, Hive Queen 1, Strip Mine, Prison Zoomer Chase, Tanker 1, City Port, Distillery, Fish Cannery, Emerald Isle, Construction Site 2, Lumber Mill, Strip Mine 2, Hive Queen 2, Tanker 2, Baron's Palace, Prison, and Final Boss. I believe that makes 23, but you actually revisit both Breezy Valley and Emerald Isle once each, to make it a total of 25.
Each level is filled with various metallic bugs (and in the odd case, one single boss bug), you must use your melee weapon (your bug swatter) and your spray gun (full of a substance called green eco) to destroy these bugs and complete your jobs, keeping Osmo in business. As the levels progress your jobs get harder, and they turn more serious. It's not just about killing bugs, it's also about rescuing Jak and finding out what type of scheme this Kaeden character is running. As I mentioned earlier, helping you along the way is a sexy female named Taryn. She pops up in a few levels and offers upgrades to your spray gun, in total there are three of them. One upgrade allows you to use your spray gun to hover in mid-air, another is a flamethrower attachment, and the third is a sonic blaster attachment. These various attachments come in handy at different times, depending on the task at hand or the type of creature you're trying to destroy.
If you're feeling like a change of pace you can head to Osmo's shop and go lie down on the bed. Doing this will bring up the Dream Sequence menu. From here you can choose to play any unlocked Dream Sequence, of which there are 6 in total. In these sequences Daxter takes on the assumed guise of fictional heroes out of films like Indiana Jones, Lord of the Rings, Braveheart, The Matrix, etc., you then have to fend off waves of enemies by pressing buttons in the sequences displayed on the screen. If you complete the Dream Sequence without losing all of your health you win and unlock an upgrade. These upgrades come in the form of additional total health added to your health bar, or new combat moves with your bug swatter. After you complete a Dream Sequence you can go back and try to upgrade your performance to a higher ranking by defeating even more enemies. In total there are three levels: bronze, silver and gold. You get a bronze medal by default when you first defeat the sequence in question, but like I said you can go back and attempt an upgrade. Upgrading these Dream Sequences doesn't unlock any additional bonuses for you however. And that's pretty much the gist of the game!
Getting back to the main menu the second option there is called "Load Game". When you already have a game of Daxter in progress, this is where you go to load that game and resume your bug killing free for all.
The third option is "Delete Save Data" and allows you to access your PSP's memory card while you've got your Daxter game cued up. From here you can delete any of your saved game data, not only for Daxter, but for anything else you may have saved on your PSP system.
The fourth and final option on the game's main menu is "Bug Combat". When you bring this game mode up you will be faced with three sub-options: Single Player Bug Combat (play against the computer), Host Two Player Bug Combat (play locally against a buddy) and Connect to Bug Combat Host (play over the internet with people around the world). In Bug Combat you take any of the various combat bugs you've unlocked over the course of playing Daxter, and pit them against each other in a one on one battle. First you select which bug you want to use, then you apply the combat bug vial of your choice. These combat bug vials increase your bug's abilities in a number of areas including health, spit, claw, trap, etc. After selecting your combat bug vial you can then assign three combat bug tokens to your creature. These combat bug tokens give you a one off boost in your abilities in areas such as health, shield against certain attacks, canceling your opponent's tokens, immunity to certain attacks, etc. Once you equip your combat bug tokens you are taken to the battle. The fighting unfolds via a turn based system. You and your opponent each select which attack you want to use (there are three to choose from including spit, claw and trap), once your attack is chosen you then set your power meter and the attack is launched. Just before your bug attacks you have the option of utilizing any one of your three equipped combat bug tokens. Depending on the attacks used, the levels set on the power meters, and any combat bug tokens applied, the bugs will deal each other a certain level of damage in the attack. The first bug to drain the other of all it's health is the winner.
While making your way through the game of Daxter there are a number of things to look out for. First off are combat bugs (their icon comes in the form of a small wooden cage with black metal bars), combat bug vials (icon looks like a small potions vial) and combat bug tokens (icon appears as some sort of saw blade contraption). In most levels there are one of each of these to find, the purpose of them I have described above under the Bug Combat game mode. You will also be looking for metal bug gems, which look like golden eggs. These appear any time you destroy a metallic bug, and there are a certain number of them to collect in each level. Precursor orbs are the other main thing you have to seek out. These orbs look like orange eggs with hieroglyphics carved in to their surface. There are a certain number of them to collect in each level, and they are important to collect as they contribute to your overall game completion percentage, plus they are what unlocks all of Daxter's Dream Sequences. These precursor orbs are usually just hidden in and around your environment. None of the above items are ever found in boss levels. Another couple of important items to collect are health cubes and green eco refills. Health cubes are periodically released when you destroy bugs, whereas green eco refills are usually just strewn about your environment and replenish in the same spot over time. Health cubes come in the form of a grey cube with neon yellow + signs on it's side, while green eco refills are just a green orb of gas hovering above the ground to varying degrees. Each time you grab a health cube a portion of your health bar will be restored, and each time you grab a green eco refill your spray gun will fill up on ammo to a certain degree. Zoomers are another item that will help you through this game, they are basically small hover vehicles that get you around your environment a lot faster than Daxter can simply by walking. There is one in the Haven City Streets level that gets you where you need to go quickly, but they also appear in other parts of the game too, sometimes even playing a direct role in the unfolding game action. Lastly, there are some other random items that don't come along too often which you will be tasked with finding, such as crystals in the strip mine, or key cards in the prison.
The game screen for Daxter has a few things you need to pay attention to. Up in the top left corner of the screen is your health bar, which can grow if you complete the various Dream Sequences. Lose all of your health and Daxter perishes, you then have to restart at the last checkpoint. Lower down, along the left edge of the screen, is first a tally on how many metal bug gems you've collected in your current level, and then how many precursor orbs you've collected. Finally, in the bottom right corner of the screen is an icon representing your spray gun. It displays how much green eco your gun is currently loaded with, as well as which attachment you are using (the spray gun, flamethrower or sonic blaster). When you are in a level and haven't taken any damage or used your spray gun in a while, the game screen display will fade away until you need it again.
The pause menu is a little more complex than the game screen. When you pause the action a summary of how many metal bug gems and precursor orbs you have collected will be displayed. You are also given a number of options to choose from, seven to be exact. Those options include: Continue (resume your game), Save Game (save all progress up to your current point), Load Game (restart from your last save point or load an entirely different game), Delete Save Game Data (same as from the main menu, delete any game save data file you have on your PSP system), Quit Game (cancel your current game, losing all unsaved progress), Options (adjust various game settings such as camera angle, analog/directional buttons, subtitles on/off, autosave on/off, as well as sound fx/speech/music volumes) and Secrets. The Secrets option includes a lot of different things, here you can view and turn on/off any unlocked Cheats (website clues, outfits for Daxter, etc.), view Extras (trailers, movies, etc.), Play Level (switch directly to another level within Daxter, without having to finish/exit your current level), Play Movie (play any unlocked game movie) and Connect to Jak X: Combat Racing (there are additional bonus features available if you connect to this PS2 title).
The game controls for Daxter are somewhere in the middle, moderately complex but easy enough once you get used to them. The analog button is what you use to move Daxter around his environments. Holding the L button pans the camera to the right, while holding the R button pans to the left. Pressing the L and R buttons at the same time centers the camera. To jump press the X button, then press it again while you're in the air to double jump. The O button is used to fire your spray gun. Press this button after you jump to use your spray gun to hover in mid-air (for a short time only, unless you find green eco refills in your path). The Triangle button makes Daxter enter ottsel mode . . . meaning he gets down on all fours and can access small areas like ducts and pipes and what not. As for the Square button, it is what you use to initiate your melee attack and swing that bug swatter around! Press it while jumping in the air and you'll do a rotating spin move with you swatter, or you can press it twice after you jump to do a dive bomb move straight down at the ground. The directional buttons serve a purpose in this game too. Pressing left and right will cycle your spray gun through it's various available attachments. Press Up to enter zoom mode, which you can use to look at something further away. When in zoom mode use the analog button to pan around, Daxter cannot move while in this mode. To exit zoom mode press the down button. And finally, press the Start button to pause the game.
Daxter's presentation is really solid. This was actually my first foray in to the world of Jak & Daxter, I found the environments I explored very diverse, colourful and imaginative. The graphics were really good, the odd time there were a couple of rough lines or a lack of extra polish, but for the most part this game looks really, really nice. There isn't a soundtrack per se, there are some musical pieces that play during the more intense levels, as well as a great many sound effects, but the overall sound in this game I found to be a little more subdued than on others I've played recently. This didn't hurt the game in my opinion, sometimes a little bit of peace and quiet is nice for a change! As for the controls, no issues there, great response and an easy going camera control system too. This game was very well executed!
As for pros and cons, what I really liked about this game was it's uniqueness. Much like Ratchet & Clank, I think Jak & Daxter is something a little different from the norm and I really enjoyed it. The different types of structures, vehicles and characters you bump in to in this game are a breath of fresh air, very exciting and unusual. And of course as I just discussed this game looks and feels really good, no complaints there. One of the prime strengths of this title is the main character. Daxter is a sarcastic, obnoxious little guy, and it's a pleasure to listen to him work. The humour built in to the storyline was great to see. I also really like how Daxter is a somewhat complex game with lots of items to collect, enemies to smack down, and tricky sequences to navigate . . . but at the same time it doesn't feel like it drags on, I thought the game actually seemed shorter than it should have. As for cons, I had a hard time thinking of one, but I guess what I didn't really like was the Bug Combat alternate mode all that much. I found it difficult and just not as interesting as I felt it should have been. Another, better, alternate game mode would have gone a long way.
I do have a couple of tips and tricks I can offer future players of this game. First of all, when it comes to finding the precursor orbs, look around your environment completely, high and low. Most of these orbs are easy enough to find, but there are always a portion in each level that you really have to search for. Look under and behind objects, in the sky and down below, even look at the walls of your surroundings as sometimes the orbs can be hidden within and camouflaged. Also, when you are stuck make sure to remember that your spray gun and it's various attachments can sometimes have effects not only on your enemies, but also on certain environmental objects. The path is not always clear in this game, but if you experiment with the tools at hand you should figure it out.
Daxter is one of those games that comes as a pleasant surprise. I purchased it not knowing what to expect, and when I finally got around to playing it it looked good, felt good, was certainly long enough, had plenty of unlockable material to collect, was something a little different, and had a high fun factor. Not bad for a spur of the moment $9.99 Best Buy splurge!!