Review: Daxter (PSP)

There is a shortage of platforming titles on the PSP, which is somewhat surprising considering the extent to which the genre proliferates the PS2's catalogue. Daxter is a pretty good start and is very playable despite its flaws. Compared to the forced darkness of the later Jak games, Daxter is also refreshingly charming and breezy.

Daxter is set shortly before Jak II, detailing the events that happened prior to Jak's rescue by his lutrine sidekick, and revealing a little bit of backstory on some of the characters in Jak II and 3. The self-styled "Daxternator" is given a job as a pest controller, his diminutive stature allowing him to go where the human exterminators cannot. The player's task is to explore Haven City and its surrounding countryside, ridding it of some mysterious new bugs far stronger than any the exterminators have encountered before. To this end you're equipped with an electric fly-swatter, and three different kinds of bug spray that double as jetpack thrusters.

To a twenty-six-inch Ottsel, everything human-sized is an obstacle; making Haven City's environments one big platform-hopping adventure. Behind the many and detailed environments (from industrial fish canneries, breweries and construction sites to lush valleys and forests), all of which are of near-PS2 prettiness, is plenty of simple and old-school fun. Little Daxter can scale walls like a gecko, squeeze through ventilation shafts, slide down ziplines and can cross large gaps by firing his spray gun straight down and riding it. He also has three different kinds of spray at his disposal (stun, flamethrower and electromagnetic). As each acts as weapon, jetpack and activator of certain objects, knowing when is best to use each one is important.

Daxter is a well-balanced adventure that doesn't sprawl, and keeps you quickly going from place to place without feeling harried around. Mixing up the already-varied platforming antics are vehicle chases (in some of which you're the driver and in others you're the tailgunner), boss battles and even a bit in which you control Daxter's own sidekick Tik the termite. Everything's polished and nothing feels cheaply tacked-on.

In addition to the main game, there are also "dream sequences" unlocked by collecting enough Precursor orbs (the Jak & Daxter series' currency). These are all rather amusing send-ups of popular films, and simply but addictively involve hitting buttons at the correct time. Clearing dream sequences yields more health points and melee moves for Daxter. If you can be bothered, you can also try for gold medals in these minigames; these will net you a code you can redeem at the dialup-killing Daxter website and exchange for some wallpapers and forum avatars that look average at best.

Daxter also features a two-player minigame called Bug Combat, which is basically scissors-paper-stone and isn't saved much by the inclusion of stat-buffing potions (hidden throughout the main game) and attack-boosting tokens. Since you and your PSP-playing friend obviously both have hands, you might as well save your batteries and just play the old-school version.

Gamestyle's enjoyment of the game was at times marred by the controls. Controlling Daxter felt very slippery at first, and switching to d-pad control was even worse. To be fair, though, this is more a fault with the PSP itself - its thumbstick has to be among the worst we've ever used. The hardware limitations further confound the experience when riding a vehicle. L is used to make a vehicle jump and R is used to deploy its weapon if it has one. These buttons are also used to control the camera, so it's impossible to pan the camera around in a hovercar without wasting ammo or having the vehicle lurch annoyingly. We've little praise for the camera in the first place: it's good enough, but it's not good.

Daxter is obviously aimed at the Jak fanatics (it can link to Jak X to unlock goodies in both games) and platforming addicts, both of whom will enjoy it. It's compelling and a rather sweet little game to boot. It may win over those who felt that the Jak titles were too difficult and bloated and had gone too far from their platforming core, but it probably won't win over those who normally eschew platformers. It does nothing to shake off the genre's toony image, and with its disappointingly short lifespan and sometimes awkward controls it may be off-putting to newcomers. It's not worth buying a PSP for, but is definitely worth considering as an addition to your existing games library.

Rating: 7 / 10

Words by Anna Ghislaine