The bandicoot is dead. Long live Jak and Daxter. If you are one of the poor, unfortunate souls who forked out your hard earned money for Crash Bandicoot: The Wrath of Cortex before you realized that the Naughty Dog logo was nowhere to be found on it, you have my condolences. This is where Naughty Dog has been putting their hours of labor, creating an evolutionary adventure with (take note Wrath of Cortex) NO LOAD TIMES!
Notice I did say this game was evolutionary not revolutionary. It would be hard to say that spinning around to kill enemies and collection items (in this case, power cells) in a 3-D adventure is ground breaking. However, J&D's realm is set up just like a world, not simply a collection of levels. It has a feel and look no other platform/adventure games have ever really achieved. You can make a checklist of improvements that the platformer genre could benefit from and J&D clicks them off one by one. This isn't a coincidence. I've talked to the guys at Naughty Dog about dozens of issues I have had with other games and they were aware of them all, from radical stomach churning camera swings to less than intuitive controls. The slick look and feel of J&D is the result of years of research ending with sparkling results. Special bonus points to out to our brothers-in-80's-arms at Naughty Dog for casting Dee Snider of Twisted Sister in his best roles since "We're not gonna take it," as the voice of the villain. It is just one of the many voices that ring true throughout this adventure. The trip though the world of J&D is a exciting one that, on a sour note, ends in a frustrating barrage of levels that will test your skills along with your patience. This is a traditional Naughty Dog practice but the sudden ramp in difficulty and pixel perfect jumping in the final level mars the otherwise well balanced difficulty.
Jak and Daxter is a flexing of platformer muscles that we all knew Naughty Dog had. They have refined their skills and brought everything together in one effort. We all knew they had the expertise to produce a masterpiece, but that doesn't take way from them creating this exquisite release.
Create an Account
Member Login
