Jak and Daxter: the lost frontier Demo. first thoughts

[hydrallx]

Due to the fact that I fancy myself a reviewer and that I don't have acess to the reviewing section of the forums, I am forced to post what reviews I come up with here. No doubt my efforts will be for naught as this review will be pulled off or something but whatever. So without further ado, Jak and Daxter: the lost frontier Demo, first thoughts.

Story

I have always been skeptical of large franchises warping to handhelds, and finding a demo of the latest installment in the Jak and Daxter on psp network only furthered my skepticsm. It all starts with Jak, Daxter and Kira flying through the air in a plane that isn't very well explained how they got it. literally in the first cutscene they talk about what they're doing quickly and excrutiatingly. It's like they knew that we were in the cockpit and just retold their past five days. So apparently Kira wants to become a sage, there's an eco shortage, and Jak and Daxter are coming along for the hell of it. after some sky bandits attach hooks to their ship, a bunch of them slide down and walk on the wing as though it was no more than a sidewalk when in reality they should have been sent flying across the sky. But apparently someone forgot to tell them that because Jak opens the cockpit and combats them. after a while, he starts to turn into Dark Jak scaring off the bandits. After they get themselves shot down by Daxter, the crash land. after grabbing an eco crystal and recharging their ship, they find that the bandits are attacking a huge airship. after saving them, the captain offers them a place to repair and get some R and R. they meet some leader or something who will offer them a precursor artifact that'll do....something important I'm sure. But the must first do an arbitrary platforming mission a la gun range first. after that, they get the artifact, Jak needs some rest, and then Daxter falls into a hole in the sewer. then Daxter gets soaked in dark eco which oddly enough, makes him into a cross between sonic unleashed's hedgewolf ("Were" means human so that would make him a human hog so I call it a hedgewolf) and crash bandicoot. after fighting mutants and doing some confusing puzzles, the demo was over.

Gameplay

You'd think that it would be hard to screw up a Jak and Daxter game's control's right? well they found a way. it isn't the worst but it could be a hell of a lot better. the jumping is choppy and too quick, you can't roll anymore and running seems too slow. This is something I like to call "Size Matters syndrome". when a big franchise goes handheld, they seem to have the need to dumb down the controls. Of course ratchet and clank: Size Matters makes it's way in here. Same with crash tag team racing. Daxter barely gets it's way in there because it was kinda good*. You start out with a weapon called the gunstaff. which is wierd because it doesn't shoot anything until you get to the gun range. you can still punch and spin but you do it all while holding the gun which is like getting in a fist fight while holding a dull sword. Going on to the flying section, it was actually okay considering that this was the first flying section for a Jak game. The shooting section was kind wierd because you shoot with the triangle button. It took me a while to get used to this but what was worse were the targets. It's like any other shooting range in Jak with the cutouts popping outta the ground butbecause we haven't seen the enemies before I kept on shooting civilian cutouts too. Now onto the Dark Dax section. First off, you can't jump which I thought was wierd but It's okay. you can shoot dark eco and go tazmanian devil but this drains your dark eco meter which can be recharged by slamming into dark eco crystals. to be honest, I cleared through this section without a scratch on me so I'm not sure what to think of it. There were some puzzles but they were pretty easy.

Graphics

There's not much I can say here except the gameplay graphics would look SO much better on a PS2 or 3. This is another symptom of "Size Matters syndrome". They prettied up all of the cutscenes only to be crapped back on the actual gameplay. There were times (once again) the PSP's camera system gave me the middle finger and had been looking at the absolute opposite direction I was looking at.

Conclusion

I have to say that I wouldn't really buy this game. Don't get me wrong, I freaking love the Jak games but this one's case of Size Matters syndrome is too severe. I've only played the demo and I think that I'd blow through this one in about 5 hours. So, I don't expect you to listen to me, but I expect you to know that I'm right and you're wrong.......nananananana....