| Jak And Daxter: The Precursor Legacy Crash Bandicoot was one of the Psone's major carriers, it helped shift consoles and the orange guy also proved popular, like what Mario and Sonic did for their respected companies, the Bandicoot became a big star in what would soon become a crammed genre on the Psone. So away from the 1-year ago launch of PS2, Crash is back but with a brand new developer, so where did that leave Naughty Dog the original developers? With a new project, and it far surpasses the closed in levels of the Crash series. Goodbye Crash and here two new heroes are born by the names of Jak and Daxter, hence the title! So who are these brand new characters? The ones we will learn to like and hope to see again, well Jak has no personality to show whatsoever as he keeps his mouth tightly shut, and does the talking using his many moves on offer, he is a certain creation based off Japanese drawings, with his bizarre stylings, spiked yellow hair and big wide eyes, he would look more in place on a Jap RPG then a platformer, he lacks a sword though and of course that cold-on the edge personality. Daxter? Small, Orange, Weasel type thing who used to be a person actually, until he fell in to some dark eco (a powerful but dangerous substance) causing the description above, he is loud and always attempts a somewhat crappy joke. So, do these new heroes deserve a place in the platform character hall of fame? They certainly do, for many reasons, the only thing that lets the duo down is the lack of double moves, but Jak has enough moves himself to quash that latter mentioned and also one or two with Daxter, which of course I will tell you more about later on in the review, got any moves like the Bandicoot? Well read on to find out! Returning to the subject of moves (of course) there is a load on offer, which I have already mentioned minus the detail, so it's moves details this time. Jak is an athletic chap; he can jump (do I need to mention that?) But he can double jump too (which seems a little unresponsive at times, although still great), this move simply allows for a higher distance travelled in the sky, he can spin, well I'll repeat that Jak & Daxter can spin (think Crash Bandicoot, minus the Bandicoot but not the crash) he can jump and dive (think Croc without using his feet), this move can kill off an enemy or break boxes open, I think that's enough mentioned, oh and he can swim too and not forgetting the power you get to play with later on using Eco. It plays like a dream and that's perhaps a slight understatement, this is no dream it's virtual reality although it's all so real, in other words this is a virtual reality that deserves a lot of praise and attention for the sheer excellence in design meaning brilliant design. So what was all the fuss about? Many people in there right minds would have thought of this as a 3D platformer with jaw dropping visuals, as did I, until I got to play it. So is it a groundbreaking platformer? Does it offer anything new for this milked and dried genre? Questions to be answered will of course be answered. This is no ordinary platform game in a couple of aspects, but remains the same tried and tested in many other aspects, original if not totally original is the fact that you must undertake many missions to progress, instead of getting from A to B and collecting the same things along the way (although this also is part of J&D). The missions range from herding cattle in to their fields to defeating a monster sentry guarding a cannon, there is loads on offer and have many different things to do, but as J&D is a platform game at the end of the day it has some stuff that makes it true to the genre such as the already mentioned items that are picked up along the way these include Precursor Orbs, which have a red egg type appearance, they litter the levels and have a certain number target to be reached, think of these orbs as money as they can be traded with townsfolk for the most important item which is the power cells (keep reading to find out more). Scout Flies are found inside strong boxes, in which there are seven in each area, find them all, receive a power cell (wanting to know what those damn power cells are yet?). And finally the Power Cells, these are the reasons you are roaming the many lands do a good deed for one of the townsfolk and you'll receive one, trade some Precursor Orbs (and guess what?) you'll receive one, and you can even find them in difficult places, so obviously these are the important key to progression. The main beauty of J&D is without a doubt the lack of terrible loading times to move from level to level, the areas are huge and you can think of this game as one big level with different areas, while the areas in question on offer are what you would expect on a platformer, ranging from rich green environments to others such as the cold snow and the rather hot volcanic locations. As you may have already guessed maybe this game is different but the elements remain true to the genre..... PAGE 2 |
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