Daxter, as you'd expect, stars Daxter as the protagonist. Taking place right after the beginning of Jak II where Jak gets abducted after travelling to Haven City. Daxter is left alone to fend for himself and also find a way to save his best friend. Two years later, we see Daxter become a bug exterminator, which are just scaled down versions of the Metal Heads from Jak II. Daxter will get called on to exterminate various areas of bugs, so you get to traverse a variety of environments such as underground, sewers and forests. The game manages to retain the charm and humor of Daxter, without ever crossing the line. The cutscenes will give you more than a few chuckles and while it features a simple story, it works well and allows the game to be a solid bridge to explain the period skipped over in Jak II. However, this also means the story doesn't try anything daring and it is only in the final acts where it becomes relevant. Daxter is a platforming game, where Daxter uses an electric swatter for a weapon. He will eventually get additional equipment such as a gas sprayer to stun enemies, while it also doubles up as a temporary jet pack. It's quite cool and you'll get attachments to further convert it into a flamethrower and grenade launcher. The handling is perfect, smooth and intuitive.
The game has linear levels and features a good blend of difficulty. None of the areas are particularly hard but the game does slowly creep up in difficulty with more platforming and different more powerful enemies. The last few levels shine in fun and complexity. Even when you die, the checkpoints are well placed and you don't have to repeat too much stuff, although it gets annoying when you die in the instant death areas (jumping over water, Dark Eco etc) because you will have to redo the whole jumping section again and most probably trigger another instant death. The weakest aspect of Daxter is the camera, since it is controlled by the shoulder buttons which is the best is can do due to the limited hardware. This will become awkward and hard to control at times, causing you to occasionally die from poor camera angles which did not allow you to judge distance properly or even see where the next platform is. The issue is somewhat alleviated if you're playing Daxter on a Vita, which maps the shoulder buttons and thus the camera control, onto the right stick. Daxter has further variety in its gameplay such as controlling a hoverbike, where the control isn't as horrible as it was in Jak II, but still takes some getting used to.
One of the best elements is the inclusion of dream sequences which are button minigames. They're great fun and also funny at the same time since it parodies movies such as The Matrix, Indiana Jones and Lord of the Rings. Boss battles occur but are not frequent. These battles follow platformer cliches but Daxter brings back the great feelings of classic platformers with these battles. Technically, Daxter has an explorable "open world" but it is just a small portion of Haven City, which will be familiar to anyone who has played the Jak and Daxter agmes. Daxter has some of the best graphics on the PSP, with heaps of detail in the environments; it can stun you at times. Sadly, the game is a tad bit on the short side with the story only taking around 7 hours to finish. It tries to increase the longevity with the inclusion of collections such as Precursor Orbs and Metal Head gems. Collecting enough of these will unlock extras and cheats. Overall, Daxter is a fantastic platformer filled to the brim with charm, wit and excellent gameplay. The levels are smooth and fun to play, with enough challenge to keep you engaged but not too hard to frustrate. Daxter is highly recommended especially if you are a fan of classic platformers.
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