Homemademech - PSP Daxter reviews

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Daxter

If I had to weight in on the top dozen PS2 title franchises worth owning (now that you can probably find all of them cheap on the bargain bin at your favorite gaming store like GameStop), two of those I have to give kudos to would be the Ratchet & Clank franchise (one of my favorite platformers ever) and the Jax franchise. Four PS2 games apiece, and a guest appearance as playable golfer/caddy in Hot Shots Golf Fore!, these two have made the leap from PS2 to PSP (and one is even making a leap to the PS3 as we speak).

These are the reviews of these two games first (and possibly last) PSP outings.

Behind every great hero there’s often a sidekick, wisecracking or not.
Batman had Robin, which in turn gave DC Comics one of it’s greatest lessons ever in the dept. of what happens when you give your readers the power of life or death over whiney bitchy naggy characters nobody likes (Jason Todd aka Robin II). No, giving them the choice of life or death won’t make fans suddenly love the character that everyone has told point blank to your face they hate. What were you thinking.

Another life affirming (or faith disaffirming) lesson came from MARVEL, and the WWII pairing of Captain America and Bucky (he who we were all certain they’d never resurrect… until MARVEL Ultimate Alliance where I am certain Winter Soldier is Bucky… sure it’s possibly Ultimate MARVEL Bucky and all but apparently MARVEL is not above digging up every last decesased character possible if only to squeeze as much money out of the event as possible, even if they only do it in the Ultimate universe).
Doesn’t give me much faith though in Quesada not taking out the blasphemy shovel and pulling a Death of Superman return for Captain America sometime in the near or not so near future.

So, with this all in mind, we catch up with this hero/sidekick duo… minus the hero, in Daxter for the PSP.
Remember that time between the Jax games when Jax went to prison (do not pass go, do not collect 200 credits) for so long in the franchise timeline? This game takes place while Jax is away in prison, with a free (but rather down on his luck) Daxter reduced to hanging about a bar “entertaining” the patrons with his ramblings of his past heroics with Jax. Not good even if he is a not too beloved sidekick in terms of sidekick history. His luck takes a twist when he is approached by the old owner of a small pest extermination business in need of a new exterminator (which Daxter takes on), little knowing how this experience will impact on his life (or his quest to save Jax from prison).

This, by the way, can also apply to the way you become surprised by the content of the game once you get ahold of it and realize how good it is. You won’t know how this game will impact on your idea of platforming games on the PSP until you’ve given it a spin and tried it’s favors out for yourself. Daxter is a rarity amongst PSP platformers, mostly in that it’s a game well worth owning (and playing). It is for the most part easy to control, loaded with abit of explorable area, and is addictively fun.

For work you’ll find yourself sent out on jobs to eliminate all the bugs in a set area, sometimes culminating in a “boss” battle (which is mostly because the bug epidemic you’re facing is not a random occurance or a mere coincidence). All these areas highlight the way this platformer is well constructed, packed with a nice thick content of platforming challenge and button mashing action. There is also a large amount of content, though on a minus side said content is all scripted (without any freeform gameplay though occasionally you can pick which of two or so tasks you want to take on at one time).

Controls are easy to pick up and master, making gameplay easy to get into. If there was also a flaw in this, however, it’s that while handling Daxter on foot is easy the same can’t be said for handling Daxter while he pilots the different crafts in the game. Driving controls are hard to get a good grasp on, making the vechiles handle rather sloppily which isn’t good as some areas using vechiles are manditory. Driving could have, and should have, been tighter (making it easier to work). Expect to play driving sequences a few times over as the learning curve of these areas are rather sharp and tight.

You don’t have much in the way of toys to work with, but what you have does it job well and makes it easy to rack up your bug enemies and take them out. Leveling up is done well enough, and you earn abit of “currency”/special egg shaped objects which unlock certain things (like dream sequences which I’ll go into later and unlockable content). So that’s all well and good. Still, the lack of freeform gameplay and the tightly scripted gameplay does remove a little bit of the playablity from the game.

That brings us up to one of the most innovative things I’ve seen in a platformer, Daxter’s ability to dream.
You’ll find Daxter can take naps between jobs, allowing him to relive his (or to be more precise his game programmers) favorite movie scenes. The Matrix, Braveheart, Lord of the Rings : Two Towers (the battle of Helm’s Deep), Indiana Jones, they’re all represented here in mini game format (which unlocks new moves or upgraded stats with each success). If there is a flaw in this (seems to be a flaw here or there in the game) it’s that these dream sequences have this overall sameness to the gameplay (button tapping set to certain themes). The themes do change as the game progresses, but it is still an overall sameness to it until the 2nd Matrix dream where the button mashing takes a most distinctive change.

Overall, Daxter is a must have for PSP owners who are serious about owning a serious collection of fun games for their PSP. Lots of levels to explore, lots of platforming/button mashing fun to challenge your reflexes on, and a likeable cast that makes the game a must have. Oh, and the fact this game is now available for $20 (in Greatest Hits format) only makes it that much more playable (and ownable).

Sure, the driving controls kinda blow, and did we really need the token surfer dude nephew character in this game? But still, at the end of the day it’s still a fun game worth having so be sure to snap up a copy for your collection ASAP. Daxter fumigates for 4 squashed bugs out of 5.

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