The Jak and Daxter series has always been a big part of my childhood. It was also part of my early gaming memories. I have personally played Jak and Daxter the Precursor Legacy over thirty times; and I enjoy each playthrough just as much as the first time I’ve played it, which is a rare feat to accomplish in any form of media. So with the announcement from Limited Run Games that they were going to be publishing physical copies of the game on PlayStation 4, I jumped on that opportunity and bought the collectors edition of all three mainline Jak games.

It should be noted, that the release of Jak and Daxter the Precursor Legacy on the PlayStation 4 are a port of the PlayStation 2 version, not the remastered on PlayStation 3 that was released in 2012. Jak and Daxter is a 3D platformer with a deceitfully simple story, but loveable and fun characters. The game starts off with Jak and Daxter disobeying Samos the sage and travelling to Misty Island. At Misty Island, they are confronted by a lurker, and Daxter is accidentally pushed into a pool of Dark Eco. As a result of this, Daxter is transformed into an Otsal. An Otsal is basically an otter crossed with a weasel.

After that, it is now up to Jak to travel north, traversing a myriad of diverse and colourful areas to seek out the Dark Eco sage Gol; in order to transform Daxter back. Jak jumps, punches, and spin kicks his way through obstacles on his mission to collect power cells. The power cells are important to further their quest. Interestingly enough, with each power cell obtained, both Jak and Daxter do a little charming jig that sums up their personality and life long friendship perfectly. The one gameplay element that differentiates Jak from other 3D platformers is the use of an element called Eco. There are three different types of eco: Blue speeds Jak up, Yellow makes him shoot projectiles and Red makes your attack stronger.

This adds an enjoyable and new element to the genre. The rest of the platforming feels tight and controllable, but the real only problem with it would have to be the stiff and unruly camera. The camera also comes with the inability to change the first-person camera view from inverted to non-inverted controls. Even with how many times I’ve played Jak and Daxter it is always a bit jarring when first booting the game back up.

In your travels, you will collect power cells, precursor orbs and scout files. Unfortunately, most of the collectibles don’t serve much more of a purpose than just being a MacGuffin that serves to move along the story. The precursor orbs are used as a type of currency to collect more power cells. After collecting all seven scout flies in an area you are treated to another power cell.  Power cells are the only important collectible in Jak and Daxter.

Jak and Daxter’s saving grace is that you will be enjoying a variety of different missions, from flying your zoomer, climbing the top of precursor robot, battling a kid-friendly version of Audrey II from Little Shop of Horrors, and protecting a redneck’s crops from rats. Jak and Daxter never gets old or stale; and with a roughly 10 hour play time, you’ll never find it outstaying it’s welcome.

Though having the Jak games on PlayStation 4 is a wonderful treat, it does have it’s drawbacks being a PlayStation 2 port rather than the PlayStation 3 remaster. Those drawbacks, would be the game’s frame rate and visuals. Having the PS2 versions visuals upraised to 1080p rather than the native resolution, leads you to you lose quite a bit of the colourful eyepopping visuals. Everything looks a little muddier because of it. This is definitely not a deal breaker by any means but if you have the means of playing Jak and Daxter on the PS3 then I would recommend sticking with those versions rather then the emulated PS2 version.

Jak and Daxter the Precursor Legacy is a still one of if not my personal favorite 3D platformer of all time and even with some rough framerate drops and a stiff camera Jak and Daxter is still well worth a revisit. It also works great for a younger gamer who is playing games like Crash Bandicoot N-Sane Trilogy and Spyro Reignited Trilogy. This is a perfect continuation of some great platforming experiences.

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Jak and Daxter the Precursor Legacy

0.00

8

Score

8.0/10

Pros

• Soild Platforming
• Fun Characters
• Charming

Cons

• Poor framrate
• Unruly Camera
• Muddy visuals