Jak II Gather around ottsel-cosplayers and eco-addicts, because Christmas is coming early this year: The rest of the Jak and Daxter PS2 classics—specifically Jak II, Jak 3 and Jak X: Combat Racing —are staging a remastered return on PS4 just in time for stockings, mistletoe and your aunt Edna’s chewy green bean casserole. Mmmmm., Jak and Daxter: The Precursor Legacy, the first game in Naughty Dog’s seminal open-world 3D platforming series, received a shiny makeover for modern hardware, a remaster sporting Trophies, 1080p up-rendering and Shareplay functionality. This development had me feeling ecstatic, seeing as I’m a retro gamer at heart but also because Precursor Legacy is my favorite J&D entry. I always loved how bright the original title was, how very ‘90s the mood and aesthetic were. For most intents and purposes, The Precursor Legacy was a a proper spiritual successor to the PS1 Crash Bandicoot games. Interestingly, back in 2001, I actually returned my unopened original Xbox for a PS2 just so I could play it. Rez and Metal Gear Solid 2: Sons of Liberty were also huge factors, but really, I needed my Naughty Dog fix.
Jak X: Combat Racing Review. Jak X is a fun combat-racing game; the story will appeal to fans of the franchise, and there are a lot of cool secrets and unlockables.
Jak 3 Fast forward to today and the Jak and Daxter PS2-on-PS4 HD quartet is finally complete (minus The Last Frontier PSP port, but that wasn’t developed by Naughty Dog, but rather High Impact Games). To be completely honest, my fervor for the series started to wane with Jak II. It’s not a bad game, not by any stretch of the imagination, but it deviated pretty strongly from its predecessor. Gone were the colorful graphics, the breezy sensibilities and the family-friendly accessibility. This was now Sony’s fantastical take on Grand Theft Auto 3, complete with a now-vocal Jak, a sprawling city, some relatively extreme difficulty and a Teen ESRB rating. The writing was still great and the overall experience bore the expected Naughty Dog polish, but it wasn’t exactly what I wanted in a 3D platformer.
While fun, it was too drab. Too pandering to industry trends, perhaps. The mature theming continued with Jak 3, an equally polished experience that saw the development team really spreading its wings in terms of gameplay complexity and storytelling. In fact, you can start to see the beginnings of what would eventually coalesce into the first Uncharted game, and when I look at it in this way, I’m less bothered by the direction Naughty Dog took.
They simply couldn’t be confined to simple 3D platformers anymore; the studio was capable of much more and evolved in the only way it saw fit. The team would, however, create Jak X: Combat Racing before moving onto the PS3 hardware, a kind of gritty Crash Team Racing that had characters from the Jak and Daxter universe commandeering slapdash dune buggies through a Mad Max -style dystopia. Jak X: Combat Racing And now you can relive Naughty Dog’s gradual move toward Nathan Drake industry dominance in breathtaking high definition.
The only real bummer about this bundle? Network features for Jak X: Combat Racing have been disabled. While it’s somewhat expected, especially given that the PS2 servers went offline almost a decade ago, I was holding onto a small wisp of hope that Sony would get something up and running for the re-release. Sure, the single player mode is solid (if not infuriatingly difficult at times) and two player split-screen should still be present and functional, but man, would an 8-player online revival have been awesome. I’d have even settled for 4-player split-screen optimized for PS4 hardware.
Oh well., and are all available individually for $14.99 on the PlayStation Store as well as in for $39.99.
SEE ALSO: Crash Bandicoot is probably the most memorable of these efforts — as evidenced by its imminent HD re-release — but don't forget about Jak and Daxter. The series offered a PlayStation-centric answer to Nintendo franchises with its colorful starring duo and catch-all gameplay. Now, Sony has announced plans to re-release Jak and Daxter: The Precursor Legacy, Jak II, Jak 3, and Jak X: Combat Racing — with spruced up graphics, of course — on PlayStation 4 in 2017. The four games represent all of Naughty Dog's contributions to the series. Jak X is the only multiplayer game of the bunch and it will support splitscreen play, but not online. All four games will benefit from 1080p 'up-rendering' — meaning they're ports rather than full-on remakes — and all the social features that you get with a PS4.
Jak X: Combat Racing
The individual games will be coming to the PlayStation Store — no disc release from the sound of things — later this year. For now, enjoy the just-released trailer's walk down memory lane.