Jak and Daxter tells the story of two friends, one of which (Daxter) is slightly furrier than he should be. You see, while Jak and Daxter were hanging out at the forbidden Misty Island, Daxter fell into a mysterious substance call Dark Eco. For whatever reason, this substance turned poor Daxter into a half-boy, half-rodent. After speaking to a local wise man and learning what they need to do, the two pals strike out on a journey to bring Daxter back to normal - or at least as normal as Daxter can be. Their journey takes them to many interesting places, and like most platformers, their paths cross with many villagers that need their help.

Sure the storys not great, but who plays these games for a good story anyways? Anyone remember what the heck Mario 64 was about?

The first thing youll notice about the game are its outstanding visuals. While no one element may be outstanding by itself, all of the aspects put together equal a colorful, vivid game that looks like no platform adventure before it. Each character has their own unique design, thats nicely detailed and reflects their personality. If you looked at a picture or a short clip of Daxter, even without sound, you could get a good grasp on what type of character he is. This holds true for many of the people you meet throughout the adventure, each one brings something special to the game.

Perhaps the most striking visual aspect of the game is its levels. In a shame on you for not trying harder to other developers, all of the levels in the game load with nary more than a hiccup. Its almost as if Naughty Dog is thumbing its nose directly at the new Crash Bandicoot game and its minute-plus loads times for each level. What makes this lack of load times even more impressive is the incredible sense of size that the vast world conveys. The draw distance seems to go on forever, and its possible to see far off parts of the world if you climb high up in another part.

The game also features a vibrant, colorful look that is more reminiscent of a Disney Movie than a videogame. If no load times and a superb draw distance werent enough, the game moves along at speedy framerate, chugging along at only the busiest of outdoor areas. It all adds up to create a fantastic cartoon-like world that really puts to shame any 3D platfomer world to this point. The games camera, while far from the worst camera in a game, isnt really as good as it could have been. It does move quickly, but as a result you often end up disoriented. It can be adjusted by using the right analog stick, but this becomes quite tedious and impractical in many areas.

Almost anytime I have to talk about voice-acting in a videogame I try and jump out my window because it brings up all-too painful images of games past. Very few developers take the time to find good voice talent, and even fewer still are able to write a coherent script to compliment the voice talent. As luck would have it, Jak and Daxter is one of those few games that manages to get it right. All of the characters feature top-notch voice acting, which is again akin more to a Disney movie than a videogame.

The music, which is suitably catchy, and fits in well with the games theme was written by Mark Mothersbaugh, one of the founders of the 80s group Devo (Thanks to Jim Giorgio for the info). Mothersbaugh has also penned the scores for several Hollywood films including Rushmore, and his skills are well represented in the games music. Other sound effects, be them characters walking on different surfaces, running water, or birds chirping are all well-done, and only help to further immerse the gamer in the world of Jak and Daxter.

The first thing I noticed upon starting the game was Hey this feels just like Crash Bandicoot! and that thought isnt far from the truth at all. Jak has got a spin move, and even spends quite a bit of time pouncing on things to break them open. Fortunately the lame one hit and youre dead trait of Crash has not been inherited by Daxter, which immediately reduced the number of times I wanted to fling the controller around the room.

Jak and Daxter also borrows heavily from Mario 64 and Banjo Kazooie in its gameplay. It is similar to Mario in that there are often several objectives to be accomplished in each area. Unlike Mario, the completion of one objective does not reset any progress youve made in clearing other goals in the same level. J & D is similar to Banjo in the large amount of things there are too collect. To its credit, the collecting here never gets quite as tedious as it tends to do in Rares platform games.

Of course theres more to do than run and jump across the games 18 levels. There are several areas where you must do things like: catch fish in a net, fly a bird, and drive the A-GraV Zoomer. These stages along with various other mini-games add some much needed variety to the game, and keep it from getting stale too quickly.

Jak and Daxter is a good game, and definitely one of the top three platformers on the Playstation2 alongside Rayman and Klonoa. Unfortunately, other than a few nifty programming tricks, it doesnt do much that hasnt already been done before. Many people who have played less 3D platformers than myself are likely to be thrilled with the action that this game brings to the Playstation2. As a whole, the game does show that theres still some life left in platform genre, and its one of the better games to come out this past holiday season.