Posted: 6:19 AM - Feb 04, 2002
Review by: vidiot
Game: Jax and Daxter
Disks: 1 DVD
HA! Guess you never thought I would be posting here again eh? Hopefully ill beat some other games Ive done first impressions on finally. But, Tidus does need to get to Zanarkand. So it seems some of my time is going to be wasted![]()
So, we all know that Naughty Dog did sell the rights of Crash for this game. The question is...was it worth it? The answer: Yes. But Naughty Dog still has an uphill battle to
un-throne there previous game character.
Daxter falls in Dark Echo.
Daxter turns into "osstle"
Jak must now change Daxter back.
Jak and Daxter must also save the world.
Jak and Daxter is not exactly the most original game.
Like I said earlier, Jak and Daxter falls into the odd category (such as Klona, Mario, Spyro, and Crash) of games that are really hard to hate because of its immaturity. I really tried to hate the game while playing it, I tried to get pissed off by Daxter, but it was an almost futile attempt.![]()
Jak and Daxter will bring out the retard in you. The game is so damn immature and gags are barely on a 4th grade level. But its the games charm that will make you laugh along with Daxter as he makes fun of a fisherman because hes "stinky".![]()
GAMEPLAY:
Well, playstation gamers should be hugging them selves right now. They finally got a really good free-roaming platform game. While the N64 has had these types of games for years, playstation gamers had to wait for a system with the ability for actual 3D free-roaming games to actually be made. Jak and Daxter is one of the ultimate 3D free-roaming experiences on any console. This isnt a take off of Mario, or a stupid excuse to make a 3D platformer so they can get a hopeful mascot out (see: Glover) Not to say Jak and Daxter is revolutionary, it does add some things that are rather interesting that are new for the genre.
The first thing that is going to hit you when you start up this game is of course how HUGE these levels look. This is thanks to the fact that the horizon line has been stretched so far, you can actually see other levels in the background. The next thing is how smooth this game plays at. Its 60 fps, without any slowdown. I never experienced a hint of any frame glitches or frame changes even with an uncountable number of things going on at once, which is quite excellent. Jak and Daxter should win the award for most polished game of the year; you get the idea while playing the game that Naughty Dog knew what they were doing when they made this game. You take the control of Jak and Daxter, but you will be mainly controlling Jak. Jak can punch, uppercut, jump, and double jump. Jak with the aid of Daxter, can spin just like Crash could. (ND seems to have trouble leaving their poor previous series behind.)
Jak and Daxter can also gain powers with echo which basically gives them special powers. They can activate stuff with this too such as jump pads with Blue echo and shooting crap with Yellow echo, and, well Um, Im not going to bore you with that crap, Im just going to say that echo while not original was used well during this game.
Game play, while fun, can get repetitive fast. You do the exact same thing in each Hub (village) that you visit. To get to the next Hub, you must complete a series of mission objectives in other levels to gain power cells. You can also give
Precursor orbs to a variety to different characters in villages to gain power cells. There is a required number of power cells needed to get to the other Hub. This is the basic game play of Jak and Daxter. Thats about it, unless you consider the driving on a bike that flies in some levels a change of pace, really getting power cells and going to another hub gets pretty boring. And annoying, I wish ND could have put more boss fights. Getting power cells other than getting them from villagers can be pretty fun. ND brought in some very neat and different objectives to get them, but sadly even with a bunch of neat mini games to break up the repetitive game play, doesnt reallybreak up the repetitive gameplay, no matter how many different ways you look at it, Jak and Daxter is just really repetitive gameplay wise. A bunch of neat ideas are used, but never are actually continued on. Some are even repeated.
GRAPHICS:
Nice. That word can pretty much sum up the games graphics. ND when out of their way to make each level looking different from the rest. None of the levels look at all the same; the structures and environments look great. The animation and the character designs look great as well. A nice Disney quality is thru out the game. The animations are excellent, and are very expressive. I also enjoyed the day and night effects that went off in real time.
SOUND:
If there is one big problem with Jak and Daxter, its the music thats in it. After hearing some great music tracks in the tons of trailers and commercials for the game, I was surprised that it wasnt even in the final game! Instead, there are a ton of slow moving and utterly unimaginable nor any remembered tracks that I can think of after playing it. Very discouraging, never does the music give life to the area around you, the player gets the feeling that ND didnt even have to put music in the game at all.
The voice acting is mediocre. The voices were fine, you cant really complain about annoying voices for characters that are supposed to be annoying.
VIDIOTS TIME TO PICK OUT THE PROBLEMS:
Other than the repetitive gameplay, and the lack of good music. You would think that there would be no other problems, BUT of course Mr. Vidiot has to find something horribly wrong with this game eh?
The ending sucks. I feel, with all the polish Naughty Dog did to the game, that they rushed the ending way too much. Also, there is no real point on getting all 101 power cells, unless you want to see a two second movie which probably shows the beginning of the obvious sequel. Bummer. The story is shit also, the only times it gets interesting is the beginning and at the end. The camera system can be good some times, yet shit other times. Some times the camera is placed at pre-made locations, which could screw you up. Oh, well.
FINAL VERDICT:
Even with all these problems, I like Jak and Daxter more than Crash. After playing the new Crash game (which was crap!) and playing this, I can easily say that Jak and Daxter even with all its faults was an enjoyable experience. Its hard to not like this game, and its one of those games that youre going to need to play for 2002.
Controls: 4/5
Graphics: 5/5
Sound: 1/5
Presentation: 4/5
Fun: 4/5
Replay value: 3/5
Score: 21
It got game!
-vidiot-
Game: Jax and Daxter
Disks: 1 DVD
HA! Guess you never thought I would be posting here again eh? Hopefully ill beat some other games Ive done first impressions on finally. But, Tidus does need to get to Zanarkand. So it seems some of my time is going to be wasted
So, we all know that Naughty Dog did sell the rights of Crash for this game. The question is...was it worth it? The answer: Yes. But Naughty Dog still has an uphill battle to
un-throne there previous game character.
Daxter falls in Dark Echo.
Daxter turns into "osstle"
Jak must now change Daxter back.
Jak and Daxter must also save the world.
Jak and Daxter is not exactly the most original game.
Like I said earlier, Jak and Daxter falls into the odd category (such as Klona, Mario, Spyro, and Crash) of games that are really hard to hate because of its immaturity. I really tried to hate the game while playing it, I tried to get pissed off by Daxter, but it was an almost futile attempt.
Jak and Daxter will bring out the retard in you. The game is so damn immature and gags are barely on a 4th grade level. But its the games charm that will make you laugh along with Daxter as he makes fun of a fisherman because hes "stinky".
GAMEPLAY:
Well, playstation gamers should be hugging them selves right now. They finally got a really good free-roaming platform game. While the N64 has had these types of games for years, playstation gamers had to wait for a system with the ability for actual 3D free-roaming games to actually be made. Jak and Daxter is one of the ultimate 3D free-roaming experiences on any console. This isnt a take off of Mario, or a stupid excuse to make a 3D platformer so they can get a hopeful mascot out (see: Glover) Not to say Jak and Daxter is revolutionary, it does add some things that are rather interesting that are new for the genre.
The first thing that is going to hit you when you start up this game is of course how HUGE these levels look. This is thanks to the fact that the horizon line has been stretched so far, you can actually see other levels in the background. The next thing is how smooth this game plays at. Its 60 fps, without any slowdown. I never experienced a hint of any frame glitches or frame changes even with an uncountable number of things going on at once, which is quite excellent. Jak and Daxter should win the award for most polished game of the year; you get the idea while playing the game that Naughty Dog knew what they were doing when they made this game. You take the control of Jak and Daxter, but you will be mainly controlling Jak. Jak can punch, uppercut, jump, and double jump. Jak with the aid of Daxter, can spin just like Crash could. (ND seems to have trouble leaving their poor previous series behind.)
Jak and Daxter can also gain powers with echo which basically gives them special powers. They can activate stuff with this too such as jump pads with Blue echo and shooting crap with Yellow echo, and, well Um, Im not going to bore you with that crap, Im just going to say that echo while not original was used well during this game.
Game play, while fun, can get repetitive fast. You do the exact same thing in each Hub (village) that you visit. To get to the next Hub, you must complete a series of mission objectives in other levels to gain power cells. You can also give
Precursor orbs to a variety to different characters in villages to gain power cells. There is a required number of power cells needed to get to the other Hub. This is the basic game play of Jak and Daxter. Thats about it, unless you consider the driving on a bike that flies in some levels a change of pace, really getting power cells and going to another hub gets pretty boring. And annoying, I wish ND could have put more boss fights. Getting power cells other than getting them from villagers can be pretty fun. ND brought in some very neat and different objectives to get them, but sadly even with a bunch of neat mini games to break up the repetitive game play, doesnt reallybreak up the repetitive gameplay, no matter how many different ways you look at it, Jak and Daxter is just really repetitive gameplay wise. A bunch of neat ideas are used, but never are actually continued on. Some are even repeated.
GRAPHICS:
Nice. That word can pretty much sum up the games graphics. ND when out of their way to make each level looking different from the rest. None of the levels look at all the same; the structures and environments look great. The animation and the character designs look great as well. A nice Disney quality is thru out the game. The animations are excellent, and are very expressive. I also enjoyed the day and night effects that went off in real time.
SOUND:
If there is one big problem with Jak and Daxter, its the music thats in it. After hearing some great music tracks in the tons of trailers and commercials for the game, I was surprised that it wasnt even in the final game! Instead, there are a ton of slow moving and utterly unimaginable nor any remembered tracks that I can think of after playing it. Very discouraging, never does the music give life to the area around you, the player gets the feeling that ND didnt even have to put music in the game at all.
The voice acting is mediocre. The voices were fine, you cant really complain about annoying voices for characters that are supposed to be annoying.
VIDIOTS TIME TO PICK OUT THE PROBLEMS:
Other than the repetitive gameplay, and the lack of good music. You would think that there would be no other problems, BUT of course Mr. Vidiot has to find something horribly wrong with this game eh?
The ending sucks. I feel, with all the polish Naughty Dog did to the game, that they rushed the ending way too much. Also, there is no real point on getting all 101 power cells, unless you want to see a two second movie which probably shows the beginning of the obvious sequel. Bummer. The story is shit also, the only times it gets interesting is the beginning and at the end. The camera system can be good some times, yet shit other times. Some times the camera is placed at pre-made locations, which could screw you up. Oh, well.
FINAL VERDICT:
Even with all these problems, I like Jak and Daxter more than Crash. After playing the new Crash game (which was crap!) and playing this, I can easily say that Jak and Daxter even with all its faults was an enjoyable experience. Its hard to not like this game, and its one of those games that youre going to need to play for 2002.
Controls: 4/5
Graphics: 5/5
Sound: 1/5
Presentation: 4/5
Fun: 4/5
Replay value: 3/5
Score: 21
It got game!
-vidiot-