Our story begins as Jak and his pal Daxter go to explore the coast of Misty Island. They are sneaking around, when Daxter is knocked into a vat of boiling "Eco." Eco is a very peculiar substance. It has been known to take on a variety of colors and attributes to match. This would be all fine and dandy for Daxter, had it been any other kind of Eco, but alas, this was Dark Eco we are talking about. Moments after falling into the tub, Daxter is spit out. But something about him has changed…he is now a foot tall, furry, and orange. The only thing that hasn't changed about Daxter is his abnormally big mouth that allows hundreds of quips spew forth. How will Daxter change back? Can his polar opposite, Jak help him get back to normal? Jak is the standard hero type: powerful, quick, and silent. Their adventure will take them from one side of the continent to the other, all the while discovering a massive evil plan to resurrect the "Precursor" technology. With a little bit of word play, you could realize that the "Precursors" are in fact the same ones in respects to the current civilization. Exciting stuff, indeed.

Jax and Daxter definitely doesn't include the most inventive play mechanics and steals liberally from past successes. Naughty Dog openly admits all of this, stating that they didn't intend on changing the genre, but rather to improve upon it. Stealing from the likes of Super Mario 64 to their very own masterpiece, Crash Bandicoot, Naughty Dog was able to come up with a huge conglomerate of gameplay. You move through a totally three dimensional world, jumping, punching and spinning. The main goal of it all is to find these rare bundles of energy called "Power Cells." The power cells are usually obtained by completing various odd jobs for townsfolk, finding them or causing some sort of unhealthy destruction. The power cells are integral to the quest as they allow Jax and Daxter to move to the next area of exploration. Jak has plenty of moves to help him on his way, such as the double jump, dragon punch, and flying head smash. These actions will get you quite far, but that's not the extent of it. By picking up different colors of Eco, Jak can absorb them, and use them to his advantage. Such as using Yellow Eco to shoot forth homing fireballs and the like.

But wait! There's more! A few times throughout the adventure, Jax and Daxter will be make use of different modes of transporation including a hover bike, and a "Flut Flut" bird which . The hover bike's inclusion is one of the best aspects of Jax and Daxter which allows you fly around and run down enemies respectively; just a token of the fun experiences you'll engage. The Flut Flut is a bird that has a nice jumping capability but pales in comparison to the hover bike. Both are used only a handful of times throughout the story, but each time they make a stronger impression. Needless to say, Daxter's character is only included as comic relief. He does nothing more than sit on Jak's shoulder and hangs on for dear life. While he's funny about 90% of the time, his character is pretty much wasted gameplay wise. I'd love to see some mini quests exclusively designed for Daxter, perhaps crawling off into some dingy dungeon. It's ashame that so many possibilities were present could've been explored, but were not persued.

Perhaps the best aspect of Jax and Daxter is the world that everyone inhabits. I could say that I have never really played in a world this sprawling before. What gives me this impression is the fact that Naughty Dog strived for a "no loading" world. One that streams from one area to another flawlessly. A world that feels like its living and breathing, goes from day to night, and is chock full of intriguing and humorous personalities. In this world, you can basically take on any given objective whenever you'd like. The world is huge, and there are quite a few nooks and crannies to explore. And boy, does it look good! Everything is modeled down to the slightest detail; Jax and Daxter is really a marvel of technology graphics wise. From the subtle sands of Sentinel Beach to the gooey muck of Boggy Swamp, this world is a pleasure to step into. Since the world is completely connected, you can see far off in the distance and view all the objectives you have completed already, further enhancing the feeling of a united land. You can see anything you have done to change the geography of the terrain in real time. You're going to have to search everywhere if you hope to find all 100 power cells to achieve the final area, and if ones things for sure, you won't have sore eyes afterwards…unless it's from not blinking so you don't miss a thing!

Where Jax and Daxter falters, it does so...hard. The music is one of the most mundane things I've pretty much heard in a game, ever. While it doesn't intrude on the game much, Jax and Daxter deserves such a grand soundtrack to complete the package. You will definitely miss this aspect of Jax and Daxter quite a bit, because the game lends itself so strongly to this. Other than this, Jax and Daxter supports some truly fantastic voice acting. All of the characters are brilliantly acted out, and done so to a tee. Daxter had to be acted perfectly to get any effect out of the character at all, and it worked. Jak is perfect as he doesn't have any speaking parts at all in the game. A genuinely brilliant move.

You going to have quite a bit of work ahead of you when you embark on Jax and Daxter but you're going to have a great time with it all. Although it doesn't introduce any new revolutionary gameplay mechanics, Jax and Daxter features an ample degree of meat on the bone to pick at, enough to keep you nibbling on for awhile. If not for the poor soundtrack, Jak and Daxter could be acknowledged as the perfect package. Nevertheless, Jax and Daxter is an impressive start for Naughty Dog which serves as a solid indication of better things to come.

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