The Jak & Daxter Trilogy

FINALLY! Seriously. I’ve been watching HD trilogy after HD trilogy getting thrown casually onto the market and it’s about time Jak & Daxter made a glorious return to store shelves. I’m still waiting for Jak 4 to crawl it’s way into production and into my console but, with Naughty Dog busy arranging caviar-fuelled orgies on their yacht made of money, sailing upon an ocean of Uncharted sales receipts, I very much doubt that will ever happen. Therefore, it’s time to go back to the past and play some of the best platforming action the Playstation 2 has to offer… in HD!

I would like to start off by saying that you will get a ton of gameplay for your buck with this trilogy. Not Skyrim levels by any means, but for the £30 (RRP) there’s a lot of platforming to be had. Assuming you’re not a total completionist, you’re easily looking at 35 hours of gameplay. Want 100% on all three games? Probably pushing double that. I’d forgotten just how much stuff there is to do in these games. Between all the collectables, the general exploration, and trying to complete every single mini-game AND get all the newly added trophies, it can really drain your entire week. I know, it did mine, but what a fantastic way to spend six hours a night.

The HD graphics are beautiful; they haven’t been completely remade Halo: CE style, but some extra polish and shine to the old ones really does make all the difference in a game that focused more on bright, colourful environments than trying to be realistic. After the first 20 minutes into The Precursor Legacy I’d totally forgotten that I was playing a game that was over a decade old. Fans of the series will not be disappointed at all. Nostalgia may be a very powerful thing but the looks, the charm, the comedy, and the gameplay is just as satisfying and gleeful as it was back on the Playstation 2. If you’ve never played Jak & Daxter before then this is definitely the way I would recommend jumping on board. It’s totally and completely true to the originals. However, that does lead onto one or two problems…

While the gameplay, graphics, and general writing of the game is still as excellent now as it was then, there are one or two elements which you may remember as irritating then that are still irritating now as they have remained unchanged. The camera, and its subsequent angles, hate you – absolutely despise you to the point they want you to see nothing. Even if you’re using the manual adjustments it’s a pain, as the default camera setting for third person view is what in today’s standards we call inverted – even though the first person doesn’t do this. This was especially jarring in the first Jak & Daxter where if you change that in the settings the third person camera angle goes back to non-inverted (in today’s money) but the first person camera also swaps so now that’s inverted, and there is no way to individually change them so I had to keep swapping back whenever I had to use the first person for a mini-game or something. Speaking of the mini-games, they’re still super fun, but I’d forgotten how frustrating they could be. While I was playing a friend in the background was busy reminiscing of how she never passed the fishing mini-game, as most of the mini-games are required to continue the story, and so gave up. I laughed, but it took me a solid half an hour just to do this one horrendous fishing mini-game. It was satisfying when I eventually completed them when they cropped up, but I have to say I’m glad the trend of having most of these ideas now as optional is definitely an improvement in gaming a whole.

Overall, I still believe this is one of the best HD trilogies you can currently buy. Not only has Jak & Daxter held up extremely well for its age, but it brings more platforming games to the Playstation 3; a goal which I fully support. There are a few minor flaws which deserve mention but do not in anyway earn it damnation. An HD trilogy re-release which will not only satisfy old school fans, but new comers too is something to celebrate. An amazing trilogy, with a long, rich, fun platforming experience, all for a low price and caters to everyone. Now go buy this to show we want a Jak 4!