Jak & Daxter: The Lost Frontier review
Jak and his weird friend Daxter are back in another mind-bending cartoonish adventure, this time on the PSP.
The timing couldn’t come better, Sony are having a field day assaulting every platform they’re part of with games catering to everyone from hardcore nutjobs to toddlers in order to dominate this years end-of-year spending bonanza. Certainly, the PSP is not being left out, especially with this platformer.
Despite it’s, eh, pedigree being from a developer as prestigious as Naughty Dog, Jak & Daxter certainly have a popular history with PlayStation fans, and indeed platforming fans alike. Although never quite capturing the imagination in the same way Crash Bandicoot did, or even Mario (if you were so bold as to make that comparison), the Jak games always looked fantastic and pushed new boundaries, especially when it came to having somewhat open worlds to explore.
Shooting bits are a let down without any target lock-on system
It’s been about 5 years since the previous title in the series, a title which I don’t even remotely recall playing – but yet the developers of this one, High Impact Games, decided to have the opening cinematic apparently pick up exactly where we left off, without explaining where exactly we left off. Granted, the details in a game like this aren’t overly important. What’s important are fun graphics, gameplay and a few jokes to keep everyone chuckling along. But when your opening cinematic isn’t exactly short, it might be worth having some proper context to the story.
So, in typical platforming manner, the game starts with a loud thud, as the crew’s spaceship type thing smashes into the side of a rock. A plan is devised in which, amazingly, you have to go and platform your way around the brightly-lit world to collect some sort of materials to fix your striken vessel.
The basic story follows the line that the universe is on the brink of destruction because the eco-fuel that keeps everything moving is running out, so our heroes must go and find an alternative fuel source. Hilarious, and totally fictitious, too! Most kids won’t get what’s going on, but they probably also won’t care. The story will more then likely keep most tree hugging adults happy though, as there is a very nice moral message behind this one.
Que a huge variety of well-designed levels to jump around on, including moving platforms, still platforms with various height differentials and some rather satisfying flying and shooting levels too.
Some scenes are hilarious
Having said that, the very first mission requires you to platform your way over some large water-bound areas to get to the other side of a ridge, which contains something you need to collect. Upon completing this simple task, in which you encounter warthog-like foes to beat down, the game then tells you to turn back around and return to the ship. Easy, except the platforms you jumped across are now the other way around, so the first one is really high up making it difficult to jump onto easily. Of course, like all good platformers, you’re defeated by the mere sight of water.
This type of design wasn’t the only flaw. Not only do you have to retrace your steps, but with the PSP’s single analog stick, the camera work is awful. It takes some time to get used to the fact that the camera isn’t going to track around as you go back on your footsteps. In fact the easiest way to reposition the camera is to simply die. There are also several occasions where the camera obscures the view for obstacles you need to jump to, making life very difficult.
Gameplay wise, this is fun. When surrounded you can swing around like a loon, and of course charge and shoot. No lock-on means you often just run and gun, hoping for the best, but it’s never a huge issue. Until everything is dead, because quite often after a battle you’re left running around in eerily quiet areas with no distant sounds or enemies to fight – just you and your lonesome footsteps.
Enemies are varied but pretty much all the same difficulty. Run, fire, jump out of the way, continue. Nothing too taxing, which is odd because the platforming can be quite difficult at times.
To help add some flare to the gameplay, you have three special abilities: creating a bubble shield around you (that you can roll around in), raising platforms from the ground, and bullet-time mode.
You get a plethora of upgrades for both your abilities and your vehicles, which adds some nice RPG skill-point moments to the game. This works well but doesn’t necessarily add much to the game as the enemies don’t necessarily require a special power or weapon to kill. Your three special abilities are the only ones that impact the gameplay – and that’s only related to the platforming bit.
A fun part of the game is towards the end when Daxter gets mutated by some dark “eco”. It’s very reminiscent of Peter from Earthworm Jim, the friendly dog who turns into a giant angry purple monster when Jim stands on his foot. They add a nice break to the gameplay as it’s a free-for-all murder fest where you can throw balls of dark eco at enemies as well as turn into a mini hurricane to defeat enemies, all in an isometric viewpoint.
This game looks nice, too. Sometimes a bit basic, and maybe the number of enemies are a problem because of the hardware limitations. Either way, I think this game could have done with an end-of-development spit shine to make it just a little better because under the hood, this is not a bad title. Some frustrations with the camera are unforgivable in a title like this, but it sets the scene for future titles where hopefully a better tribute to Naughty Dogs work can be produced.
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