What did you think of the Jak and Daxter series?

[MrDumpkins]

Easily the best games Naughty Dog has released.

Jak and Daxter was a great platformer with no loading on death, making every mistake more of a learning experience than disappointment. The world was vibrant, the fluid movement (the roll leap is the most satisfying jump I've ever seen in a game, it just clicked with me) and level transition. It felt ahead of it's time and is one of the only games I've ever 100%ed.

Jak II was very different take on a platformer changing basically everything. I loved it though, the character were always my favorite so it didn't really matter to me if the gameplay and world changed, as long as it was good. I remember some levels being hard but I never had too much trouble but I still had a lot of fun.

I didn't play Jak III until a few years after it came out having gotten rid of my PS 2, when I finally got around to it I couldn't believe I'd missed it. Basically taking the vision of Jak II and expanding the scope, they did it perfectly. The Desert city was awesome and the vehicle sections were great. My favorite vehicle of all time is the jump buggy from this game. Just so much fun to jump everywhere. The story wraps up nicely and even though the atmosphere became a little darker. The ending proved that these games were always lighthearted and fun.

Jak X Combat Racing was really fun as well. I always like carting games so the gameplay was great. Once again my favorite part about the Jak and Daxter universe is the characters, and the story mode I felt delivered 100%. I had a blast with that game and if they release these 4 games on PS4 I'd probably buy one just to play them again.

Jak and Daxter the lost frontier wasn't developed by naughty dog, and was made for PS2 and PSP, so the graphics weren't great, the awesome smooth loading was still there, and all the gameplay. But something just didn't feel right about it. I never completed it because it just didn't feel right. Kiera was very strange, as well as Jak and Daxter, it didn't feel like them. And the new character just didn't jive with me. While it is a good game I kind of wish it didn't exist, and that the developers made something else instead.

Never played Daxter on PSP, but I heard it was great and I read the story on wiki, maybe someday I'll get an old PSP to give it a go.

 

[Casual Shinji]

I wouldn't call them bad, but they're pretty flawed. Especially Jak 2 where more than half the missions felt dependend on luck. Jak 3 was the most enjoyable for me, but even that one going back to it has terrible controls. And there was always a certain teenage grunge to those games that I found a bit distasteful.

Definately not the best games Naughty Dog has ever made. That spot is already taken by The Last of Us followed by the first 3 Crash games.

 

[Dandark]

Some of my favourite games of all times and easily my favourite games on the PS2 tied with Ratchet and Clank.

The precursor legacy was one of the first games I have played and still remains one of the best, it's my favourite platformer of all time and has so much going for it. I enjoyed the gameplay, the world, the story and characters, the exploration and pretty much everything about it. The last boss fight also remains in my head as one of the most epic boss fights (This may just be because it was my first epic boss fight but I still love it).

Thinking back if they did with a game sequel now what they did with Jak 2 I would probably be furious and fully ready to hate it but back then I didn't care or even notice a difference really. They tried to copy GTA but luckily they actually did a pretty good job of it. I think they managed to keep the heart and soul of the series so that it was still the same kind of game but in a different setting.

I enjoyed the first game and the later games I different ways but I still love the second and third games. Again they managed to nail pretty much everything so that I enjoyed the entire experience only this time I loved the world even more. I loved exploring Haven city, I really enjoyed the vehicles and the new gunplay and this was only improved in Jak 3. In fact I recall enjoying free roam exploring Jak 2 more than I did in GTA at the time.

I should probably stop now because I could rant on about how much I loved that series for ages. I'll summarise by saying that I loved the series, they did so much right across the board and remain one of my all time favourites. Just talking about them now makes me want to buy them on PS3 so that I can play them again. I cannot in anyway choose a favourite either, I have tried but I Just cannot manage it. I love all three of the game but each one has things I like that the other doesn't, nostalgia is probably a huge part in this but they are the games I played in my childhood that made me love gaming and I get more enjoyment just thinking about them than I do playing some of the modern "AAA" crap that they throw out now.

 

[Raggedstar]

Jak X was actually a pretty competent racing game. It also tries to have its own story. More related to Krew and his dealings. Some of the character beats though are off but the game itself I feel is a pretty solid racing game as far as kart racing games go.

I don't doubt that it's a competent racing game, but I also have a few friends who had the save glitch. If it was ported to PS3 with the others and was fixed, then I would try it.

 

[lord.jeff]

I enjoyed every game enough to finish them but I really wish they stuck with the gameplay style of the first game instead of shoe horning in open worlds, guns and dark themes because it was oh so modern, it nearly ruined the second game.

 

[klaynexas3]

To me, this was Naughty Dog's magnum opus. It had the perfect blend of fun gameplay, interesting story, well fleshed out world, and enough humor to, even at its most gritty moments, keep it from another generic edge fest. It really is disappointing that the follow up series has is Uncharted, and on top of that, it's that series that they choose to continue past a trilogy, instead of Jak and Daxter. It's a slap in the case if you ask me. I wish they'd go back to having fun, lighthearted games with some seriousness sprinkled in, not the other way around. Also I miss the gameplay.

 

[scorptatious]

I have mixed thoughts on the Jak and Daxter series.

Jak and Daxter I felt was quite good. Sure, it was your typical 3D platformer involving collecting a bunch of stuff, but between the wonderful level design, the fun characters, and the varied gameplay, it definitely had it's charms.

Jak 2 I thought was the bee's knees back in the day. It took the series in a radical direction and placed it in a depressing and oppressive environment. Complete with swearing, guns, political corruption, ect. Looking back however, I feel it kinda was a weird decision for Naughty Dog to make, shifting a colorful platformer to basically GTA lite, but again, it had it's own sense of charm.

The story was pretty interesting and there were quite a few interesting characters. What I didn't really like about it is it's uneven difficulty curve and sparse checkpoint placement. I mean, I didn't want a super easy game, but so many things in this game made me rage like crazy.

Jak 3 I felt was the weakest in the series overall. The game kinda felt more like an expansion to Jak 2 rather then a true sequel, and it made a couple of gameplay refinements that I felt made the game a BIT too easy. Like the blaster upgrade that has bullets bouncing all over the place and practically homing in on their targets, or Light Jak's ability to heal himself completely.

Story wise, it had some interesting ideas, such as the whole Wastelander thing and Damos, I HATED what they did with some of the characters however. Keira, who was a pretty important character in the past two games and Jak's love interst, got reduced to a side character with barely any lines. And for some reason, the writers thought it would be a good idea to pair Jak up with Ashelin instead. Hell, in the developer commentary, the creators actually admitted to not giving Keira or Torn any or at least very little frames of animation during the ending sequence. And their excuse? "system limitations" which I felt was kinda bullshit.

Jak 2 and 3's plots I feel have a bunch of holes in them as well. Like:

Spoiler

What was the point of the Precursor stone in Jak 2 if the Precursors were actually still alive and orchestrating practically everything? How did Aerol know about Jak before he landed in the future? What happened with the time machine at the end of Jak 2 if it went back to the past right before the events of the first game??

Looking back, Daxter's rather humorous quote "The more you think about it, the more it hurts" feels like an off-handed remark by the writers towards those who point out the holes in their story.

Maybe I'm delving too deeply into this. But that's just how I feel.

Overall, I liked the Jak and Daxter series. It's undeniably flawed overall, but it has a lot of good points too.

 

[Risingblade]

This series taught me that guns and stealing make anything better.

 

[KazeAizen]

Jak X was actually a pretty competent racing game. It also tries to have its own story. More related to Krew and his dealings. Some of the character beats though are off but the game itself I feel is a pretty solid racing game as far as kart racing games go.

I don't doubt that it's a competent racing game, but I also have a few friends who had the save glitch. If it was ported to PS3 with the others and was fixed, then I would try it.

Hmmm...I wasn't aware there was a save glitch. When the Jak collection came out I was partially disappointed. I thought they should've included Daxter, Jax X, and Lost Frontier (despite its infamy) in it as well.

 

[Blitsie]

Love them all to bits, although 2 was way too sadistic sometimes (fuck that mission where you race through the city). I never played Jak X or Lost Frontier though, I didn't enjoy Jak for its vehicular parts really so didn't bother with X and Lost Frontier just sounds better off never being played from what I've heard.

 

[Diddy_Mao]

Jak II & III were some of my favorite games of their generation. Which is weird because I can't stand Jak & Daxter. The first game is just another one of those 3D adventure games where you have to collect X number of widgets to open the next arena to collect more widgets (See also: Spyro)

 

[Raggedstar]

Jak X was actually a pretty competent racing game. It also tries to have its own story. More related to Krew and his dealings. Some of the character beats though are off but the game itself I feel is a pretty solid racing game as far as kart racing games go.

I don't doubt that it's a competent racing game, but I also have a few friends who had the save glitch. If it was ported to PS3 with the others and was fixed, then I would try it.

Hmmm...I wasn't aware there was a save glitch. When the Jak collection came out I was partially disappointed. I thought they should've included Daxter, Jax X, and Lost Frontier (despite its infamy) in it as well.

From Wiki:
"Early copies of Jak X contained a programming glitch that can potentially affect a PlayStation 2 Memory Card. The first symptom of the glitch occurs sometimes after a race, during which the Autosave feature will continue to blink for a much longer duration than usual, or when the player goes to the garage before the race begins. Sometimes the game will no longer load and must be reset, while at other times the game will continue to run as normal. This glitch can potentially corrupt the Jak X save data, causing the game to no longer recognize the data at all. In some extreme cases, the entire memory card can be completely corrupted, or be filled up with space that cannot be deleted or written to. The only solution is to delete the data in the PS2 System Browser and restart the game from scratch."

Not everyone had this glitch, but I've had 3 friends have it on their games.

I don't think there was an exact reason with the Jak and Daxter collection, but I know for Ratchet's, Deadlocked was omitted due to space and cost. Deadlocked was eventually released digitally almost a year later, but the port was just so broken (speaking of which, it also had a save-eating glitch). I guess another problem for the other games would be that the games were made by other people (though Lost Frontier's REAL problem would be that a huge portion of the fanbase denies it's existence and they'd see no money from the port).

 

[StormShaun]

When it comes to the Sony console area, Jak and Daxter take the cake for "best series"
When it comes to Naughty Dog, it is the best series they have done, for me anyway. Jesus, they blow The Last of Us out of the water, and they pretty much execute the Uncharted series.

It will always be one of my highest series, especially since it made my childhood really fun.

The first game is where many things started, the open world, the platforming, the humour, THE characters!
Everything was great for me, it even holds up to this day. (And still scares me with the damn water parts)
It had one of the best boss fights in history.

The second game, Jak II (Weirdly enough it is called Jak: Renegade) now that is what really placed the series on the map. A platformer with an open world, and they gave the mute characters a voice, that was quite amazing back then, even now where mute characters are still here. They gave Jak a bigger and darker personality, dark powers, and a awesome little futuristic dystopia city to play around in. Overall, it is really rememberable.

Jak 3. Now that was a game I waited for in my childhood, it felt like years for it to release. Then when I finally got it, the taste was so much sweeter. They pretty much made everything better. New area (more for cars), new characters, new powers, and a great end story. Not much to say except that it takes everything further.

The other games, the racing game was pretty fun for fans, it was good. Now all I want is another Jak game.

[sub][sub][sub]The Lost Frontier never, NEVER existed.[/sub][/sub][/sub]

 

[Nathan Josephs]

see ya all mentioning the lost frontier but no love for daxter on psp? thought it was a more solid jak and daxter title than lost frontier was.

 

[Signa]

All I know is I never got a PS3 because they never announced Jak 4. I think everyone else covered my positive feelings towards the series.

 

[Archangel768]

Jak and Daxter was amazing.

Jak 2 and 3 were enjoyable but I never did finish them. Definitely should have stuck with the style of the first game. The gameplay and world was much more interesting and memorable.