CES 2006: Daxter Hands-On

Source IGN

Everybody's favorite sarcastic sidekick is finally getting his own adventure. That's right, Daxter is off on his own without the help from his old friend Jak, but he hasn't lost his rather deranged sense of humor and loud mouth, which is exactly why we love him.

Daxter begins the game with a simple flyswatter, which acts as his main melee weapon against a horde of robotic spiders (and whatever else may lie ahead). A few levels into the game, Daxter will find himself in possession of a canister of bug spray, which does more than just kill robo-spiders. By using it as something of a propellant, you're able to hover and glide over long gaps, or by igniting it in a nearby flame, turn the canister into a makeshift flame flower.

Aside from his unique canister, the rest of Daxter's movement repertoire mimics that of his buddy Jak. He has a double-jump at his disposal, the ability to cling to ledges, perform air-stomps from above and more. If Jak could do it (in the original game, at least), Daxter probably can as well.


One thing that the series has undoubtedly excelled at is animation quality, and Daxter is no different. The animation fidelity here is absolutely fantastic, with Daxter having what is easily the best and most realistic motions we've seen on the PSP thus far. As we've mostly dealt with robotic spiders, it's hard to judge how his opponents will fair, but we doubt it'll be any less excellent. Really, this is AAA animation quality that you only find in a handful of console games.

Along with excellent animation, the Jak & Daxter series has also always had spot-on controls, and again, Daxter has seen this implemented to perfection. The controls are extremely tight, and though Daxter's animations are all blended together for smooth animation, it in no way inhibits your control over him.

This is partly due to the excellent framerate, which in the sections of the game we've seen is smooth as silk. Never a hitch in sight, we're easily reminded of the PS2 series' fantastic visual silkiness. That's not to say that its visuals have suffered for this as the game looks quite good, implementing the classic style from the franchise that we all love. Granted, much of what we played took place in a wine cellar or some such, replete with steam pipes and bottomless pits for whatever reason, but what we've seen looks great.

Though a wine cellar doesn't sound like the most interesting of places for an early section of the game to take place in, along with the aforementioned steam pipes and bottomless pits you'll find plenty of platforms, crazy ramps and such to navigate. This is a platform game through and through, focusing at least as much on hopping from place to place as it does at puzzle solving.

The early puzzles we witnessed were all fairly simple, but we can see some promise here. For instance, the robotic spiders have left cobwebs everywhere (even though they're robots, which really makes no sense, but you're also in control of a rat-lizard or something so whatever), and to get rid of them you have to find a nearby fire, set your poisonous gas afire and keep it lit until you make it to the obstructed area.

One cool aspect of the game is that Daxter will find himself dreaming of various heroic situations every now and then, like the Burly Man Brawl from The Matrix: Reloaded. These dreams sequences are minigames of sorts and play much differently than the main sections of the game. For instance, in the Matrix sequence, as enemies approach you you'll see a symbol with one of the four face buttons appear on the ground, and when the enemy reaches the button, you simply press it to unleash Daxter's martial arts skills. It gets fairly fast and hectic, where you'll have to move quickly and press multiple buttons simultaneously.

The little bit we've seen of Daxter looks great. We're all fans of the series, but the first Jak & Daxter is one of our favorites as it combined classic platforming with modern technology. Daxter looks to be a throwback to this style of gameplay, which warms our hearts. Stay tuned as we'll have more on Daxter shortly. (Get it? Because he's short...)

Screens and more at IGN