What would you do if your best friend got turned into an Otsel?
A couple of people I know got it and they all said it was great, so I brought myself to play it, and I'm glad I did. As far as Platform games go, Jak and Daxter is one of the best around.
The game starts with Jak and his human best friend Daxter on an island. One thing leads to another and Daxter falls into this goo called Dark Eco. Eco is an energy that Jak can use throughout the game. You get Blue, Green, Yellow, Red and Dark. All the others in the game enhance Jak's abilities, like make him faster, or make him shoot fire, but dark Eco is dangerous and alters whoever touches it.
When Daxter emerges from it, he becomes an Otsel, a squirrel like creature, but keeps his ability to talk.
After this, Jak and Daxter go to see Samos, the Green Eco sage, and he tells them that a person called Gol can turn him back to normal. Upon hearing this, Jak decides to help Daxter so they set out on their journey. Although Jak and Daxter are together throughout the game, you can only physically play Jak on the game, Daxter has no other purpose.
If you have to compare this game to Crash Bandicoot, all the basic elements are the same. You can still double jump for example, and you still have the spin attack, but Jak and Daxter is a completely different gaming experience.
Where as Crash Bandicoot games have levels, and all the levels have a set course for you to follow, Jak and Daxter is a complete free-roam 3D platformer. Instead of levels as such, there are worlds, and within these worlds are areas. The main goal of the game is to get as many Power cells as possible so you can progress through the world your on and go to the next one.
Each World has about three or four areas, and each area has 10 power cells. As well as this, each world has 10 Power Cells hidden within it. There are 100 Power Cells in the game, but you don't need them all to go against the last boss.
There is a boss at the end of each world, and they are all designed brilliantly. They are difficult too, so your getting your fare share.
If you have to go from one world to the next, you have to do some sort of mini game where your on a Speeder and you have to make it past all of the enemies and all the other dangers. Once you reach the next world, if you activate the portal there, in the future all you have to do to reach it is teleport there.
The story in this game is simple, but you never loose track of it as Daxter always goes on about him wanting to return to normal. There is a huge twist in the plot and you find out Gol is actually a bad guy, so Daxter has to decide whether to destroy Gol, or turn to his usual form.
The game is long as far as plat formers go. It will take you about 25 hours to finish this game, but that is mainly down to the fact that you have to collect things.
The graphics in this game were the best on offer on the PS2, when this game was released. They are not Cel-shaded, but they are pretty cartoony. The presentation is fantastic and the game sound fantastic too.
There are no loading times in Jak and Daxter. The game is run streaming, so the game loads as your character moves, but it's done to perfection and you never notice. It does also load up as your watching a cut scene, but again by the time the cut scene is over the game is ready to play again.
These games is brilliant, and if you're a fan of a good old platform game, then get this. It will be a worthy purchase for anyone's videogame collection. If you're not a fan of Platform games where you have to collect things, still get this game as it isn't as heavy on the collection side of things as other games that are similar to it.
Review by: James Widdowson
Score: 9.4/10