"Daxter Review"

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Daxter Review
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*Pros*: Perfect controls, great production values, almost non-existent loading times, Bug Combat!

*Cons*: Not much really except that its so short. Camera is for the most part nice except for the last few missions :-(. A bit too short (did I already say that?). Most extras are not worth it :-(. You need Jak X Racing to get everything (not a very nice ploy guys).

Full Review:

I just got a copy of Daxter and I must say, it lives up to the standards set by the Jak and Daxter franchise and now set the bar pretty high for future platformers and PSP games in general. Its nothing short of a technological breakthrough.

The game tells the story of what happened between the original "Jak and Daxter" and its excellent sequel "Jak II", the time where Jak is put in jail and Daxter is left to fend for himself. Now you might be wondering what sort of adventure a tiny ottsel could undertake and the game provides for a fairly realistic (in the game sense mind you) scenario. He gets a job an old bugger (pun intended) as an exterminator where he is tasked to go to remove insect infestations from different locations in the city.

The game is pure eye-candy and shows off the potential of the PSP. Characters are nicely animated and the environments are rich and varied. The effects are nice and everything is just fun to look at. I was unable to find any issues in the graphics except until the end of the game when I started racking in the secrets (more on this later) where when enabled, a certain optional item clipped through Daxter's skin when in a very specific position :-)).

The music is nice to listen to though is nothing to write home about. The voice acting however is good and is among the best I've seen in years (not because its that good but because most voice acting these recent years leaves much to be improved).

The game itself is always fun. The learning curve is just about right though, in my opinion, it is a bit on the easy side. You'll find only a few relatively difficult areas and the respawn point often is set right before the said areas which makes dying a non-issue. The developers really made it a point to remove the tedium in this game at the expense of length. Well I prefer this over games which make put the save points to few and far apart just to make a game longer than it should be. All in all, Daxter only has two weapons in total, his trusty fly swatter and his bug-spray.

The fly swatter is your standard bashing (or to be more accurate, squishing) implement. You start out with the standard X, X, X combo but soon learn a couple more moves.

The bug spray on the other hand is more that just a weapon. As its power grows but it serves another much more different purpose. By default, it is only able to kill very small insects and stun others though in a while, Daxter will receive a couple of attachments which will give him standard platformer abilities like the hovering and wall-breaking to name a few.

The game follows a relatively logical progression where you receive the required implements right before the levels where you are required to use them. This results in a game that remains fun as you go along. Almost every level presents something new. The initial levels have you jumping across platforms and bug bashing (standard platformer fair). Pretty soon you'll be going through stages where you are required to hover from one place to another. Others have you dodging giant saws, while others have you jumping atop one subway train to another. There are also some driving levels which are varied as well. One level has you spraying bugs (yes even driving you go against bugs), while another has you dodging stuff.

In between these levels you also have rythm games which cast Daxter as heroes in well known movies such as The Matrix, Lord of the Rings, etc. These are unlocked by collecting stuff as you go through the game and is played similar to the dancing game in GTA:SA if you played it or like DDR only using your hands. They are fun for a while though admittedly they get a bit boring after a bit and after you probably won't play them again once you get everything you can but it adds to the variety and this is definitely one case where more is better than less.

Now we come to the two most important things in a 3D platformer: controls and camera placement. The controls are very tight and responsive and move as you would expect of an ottsel. You won't find yourself blaming the controls when you lose, that's for sure.

Camera placement is another story though. For the most part, it follows you around perfectly and you won't have problems seeing where you need to go. There are a handful of points though where the camera hinders your moving forward somewhat. These are points where the game dictates the location of the camera. At certain points, the computer just puts the camera at a static angle from you and it removes you ability to move the camera. In some of these points, platforming would have been much simpler if you could rotate the camera somewhat. All in all though, its not a game breaker though. Between the save points and the tight controls, you won't find these points too irritating. I must say though, I must've spent most of the the time at these points in the game.

As I've said, the game is nothing short of a technological breakthrough. This is in part because of the fact that it is a very rich game in terms of variety and gameplay but thats not mainly it. It does what no other PSP game has achieved yet. It achieved all the good points above with very little load time. There are still load times however but this is ingeniously hidden and you probably won't recognize it as such until much later in the game. This is done via the different doors and portals in the game. Doors are setup like those airlocks in that there is an inner door and outer door. When you enter the outer door, it takes about 5 seconds for the inner door to open. The game is loaded in these 5 seconds. This is the same with elevators as well. This is superbly done and again sets that bar high for future PSP games.

So, does anything break the game? I would say not much except that theres not much game in the game. The storyline missions end in about 8 hours. It will probably take you another 8 hours through the same levels to get all the unlockables as well. There's also the multiplayer bug combat which is pretty exciting for some but a bit boring for others. I below to the first group though admittedly its hard to find anybody else to play with :-). All in all the game is pretty short. In my opinion, its not a big deal though simply because you'll want to play it again and again.

All in all, I would say this is one of the best, if not the best title the PSP has ever had and this will make a great addition to everybodies game library.

- Summary -------------------
Graphics: 9.5 / 10
Sound: 8.5 / 10
Gameplay: 10.0 / 10
Longevity: 7.0 / 10
(Tilt: 9.0 / 10)
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Overall: 8.6 / 10
(Overall with Tilt: 8.7 / 10)
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Reviewer's Score: 9/10, Originally Posted: 04/28/06