We're putting respect on this series legacy today, boys-
The Super Mario 64 and Banjo-Kazooie-inspired first game has been overglazed literally forever, so I don't need to speak on it as much. Its sequels though are among and have been considered by many as the most graphically impressive games on PS2 (which why would this be surprising considering these were the CB and soon-to-be Uncharted guys), esp during their release. It is proVably the most polished trilogy of its two main contemporaries (easy to assess with the hate lens replaced). Real quickly- I love how haters of the series always only points out its sub-genre mix-up, while egregiously and disingenuously ignoring Sly's series also abandoning the collectathon sub-genre mid-series and Ratchet & Clank—which made the conscious foundational decision to avoid being a collectathon after the later-starting devs advantageously assessed the evolving gaming market/decline of collectathon platformers at the time—not knowing what it wanted to be between platforming vs shooting every single entry (we can also get into Sly 2 having a much darker story + adopting openworld-esque levels and Ratchet having an entire characterization overhaul in R&C2). Okay, back on track. The (frankly over-pedestalized) Uncharted and TLOU IP, which ironically both started out as new Jak games, would absolutely not exist without Jak regardless of those incapable and too distressed to accept that fact (even Sony has admitted it from time to time). Plus you can effortlessly see Jak's DNA in all their IPs (even Intergalatic has modified scrapped concept from the cancelled Jak 4). There has not and still is not a game series like Jak and Daxter [specifically its sequels] in gaming history. Speaking of which, those anciently outdated ongoing "GTA clone" and "R&C wannabe" regurgitated bottom tier takes are nothing but insanely uneducated, surface level misunderstandings (and hatred) of the type of games the sequels actually are. Also believe it or not but the series has influenced numerous games over the generations: from smaller games like Pumpkin Jack and Duskfade, to flagship IPs from top companies like Sonic The Hedgehog games and seemingly The Legend of Zelda games (which if nothing else at least a TON of gamers have constantly compared specific TLoZ entries like "Twilight Princess" and especially Breath of the Wild" duology" to Jak's trilogy), etc, and get this, Ratchet & Clank! Insomniac Games admitted that in the 2000s they envied Jak's sequels having the superior sales, and then employed similar conventions from Jak's IP into their later R&C games to achieve higher sales. I can easily go on but this has gotten long. The uninformed "controls aged poorly" complaint is so laughable in itself that it forgoes even being entertained.
The Staff/A.Writer's personal negative interjection on the sequels was completely inessential and only serves as a weird distraction to the positive news and revelation here involving this goated series (which yes means the first game ~and~ its more charming, more humorous, more ambitious, more indepth-written, story-richer, characters-deeper, mechanically-superior, content-wider, graphically-evolved, definitely much cooler, surely more intriguing, tonally more satisfying, and far more immersive sequels).
Beyond that evidently the comment section is pretty littered with a lot of questionable takes and warped views on the sequels as well. The unchanged immature 2000s' hate mentality against the sequels still going strong in the 2020s, eh (the butchered PS4 emulations of the first four PS2 entries don't help). The Jak and Daxter series is and always has been officially and definitively one of PS2's top franchises (and for extra fun, the highest selling between itself, Ratchet & Clank's series, and especially Sly Cooper's during that golden generation).
(Apparently had to shorten my larger post. Must however preserve-)
Reminder too: Disappointingly the most accessible versions of the series ever—the sorry PS4 emulations [JaD:TPL, J2, J3, JX]—did not faithfully preserve the greatness of the original releases; they're of actually lower quality compared to their original counterparts: lower framerate, graphical bugs, reduced directional movement (which affects aiming, driving, running, anything control related), and etc. The PS3 versions also has a few notorious issues of its own, a few being somehow decreased dune buggy controls (so you lose control more often than you should compared to PS2) and of course the infamous rng punch bug. The fact that the PS4's has been the most accessible versions for 9yrs straight is disgusting, especially for one of PS2's best and defining IPs. Sony absolutely need to get a handle on giving them quality re-releases under their newer emulation program, at least mirroring the quality of Tomb Raider: Anniversary and the Sly trilogy if not their original PS2 versions.
@Toilet_Goat You hit the nail dead-center and produced easily the best post in this entire comment section so far - and that's no exaggeration.
(I just probably wouldn't generalize under "millennials", as they're the same group most responsible for Jak 2 having commonly been referred to as the best in the series for decades (anyone who hasn't spent all their internet lives in a single echo chamber, or two, would know that fact instead of being dumb-founded upon hearing it). Not the newer fans, especially via those subpar, worse-playing PS4 Jak 1-X Emulations that stain the legacy of the series. Naturally you're still half right those a portion of them also make up the uninformed haters.)
Comments 3
Re: PS5 Fans Vote Jak & Daxter As Their Most Wanted PlayStation Revival
We're putting respect on this series legacy today, boys-
The Super Mario 64 and Banjo-Kazooie-inspired first game has been overglazed literally forever, so I don't need to speak on it as much. Its sequels though are among and have been considered by many as the most graphically impressive games on PS2 (which why would this be surprising considering these were the CB and soon-to-be Uncharted guys), esp during their release.
It is proVably the most polished trilogy of its two main contemporaries (easy to assess with the hate lens replaced).
Real quickly- I love how haters of the series always only points out its sub-genre mix-up, while egregiously and disingenuously ignoring Sly's series also abandoning the collectathon sub-genre mid-series and Ratchet & Clank—which made the conscious foundational decision to avoid being a collectathon after the later-starting devs advantageously assessed the evolving gaming market/decline of collectathon platformers at the time—not knowing what it wanted to be between platforming vs shooting every single entry (we can also get into Sly 2 having a much darker story + adopting openworld-esque levels and Ratchet having an entire characterization overhaul in R&C2).
Okay, back on track. The (frankly over-pedestalized) Uncharted and TLOU IP, which ironically both started out as new Jak games, would absolutely not exist without Jak regardless of those incapable and too distressed to accept that fact (even Sony has admitted it from time to time). Plus you can effortlessly see Jak's DNA in all their IPs (even Intergalatic has modified scrapped concept from the cancelled Jak 4).
There has not and still is not a game series like Jak and Daxter [specifically its sequels] in gaming history. Speaking of which, those anciently outdated ongoing "GTA clone" and "R&C wannabe" regurgitated bottom tier takes are nothing but insanely uneducated, surface level misunderstandings (and hatred) of the type of games the sequels actually are.
Also believe it or not but the series has influenced numerous games over the generations: from smaller games like Pumpkin Jack and Duskfade, to flagship IPs from top companies like Sonic The Hedgehog games and seemingly The Legend of Zelda games (which if nothing else at least a TON of gamers have constantly compared specific TLoZ entries like "Twilight Princess" and especially Breath of the Wild" duology" to Jak's trilogy), etc, and get this, Ratchet & Clank! Insomniac Games admitted that in the 2000s they envied Jak's sequels having the superior sales, and then employed similar conventions from Jak's IP into their later R&C games to achieve higher sales. I can easily go on but this has gotten long. The uninformed "controls aged poorly" complaint is so laughable in itself that it forgoes even being entertained.
Re: PS5 Fans Vote Jak & Daxter As Their Most Wanted PlayStation Revival
The Staff/A.Writer's personal negative interjection on the sequels was completely inessential and only serves as a weird distraction to the positive news and revelation here involving this goated series (which yes means the first game ~and~ its more charming, more humorous, more ambitious, more indepth-written, story-richer, characters-deeper, mechanically-superior, content-wider, graphically-evolved, definitely much cooler, surely more intriguing, tonally more satisfying, and far more immersive sequels).
Beyond that evidently the comment section is pretty littered with a lot of questionable takes and warped views on the sequels as well. The unchanged immature 2000s' hate mentality against the sequels still going strong in the 2020s, eh (the butchered PS4 emulations of the first four PS2 entries don't help). The Jak and Daxter series is and always has been officially and definitively one of PS2's top franchises (and for extra fun, the highest selling between itself, Ratchet & Clank's series, and especially Sly Cooper's during that golden generation).
(Apparently had to shorten my larger post. Must however preserve-)
Reminder too: Disappointingly the most accessible versions of the series ever—the sorry PS4 emulations [JaD:TPL, J2, J3, JX]—did not faithfully preserve the greatness of the original releases; they're of actually lower quality compared to their original counterparts: lower framerate, graphical bugs, reduced directional movement (which affects aiming, driving, running, anything control related), and etc. The PS3 versions also has a few notorious issues of its own, a few being somehow decreased dune buggy controls (so you lose control more often than you should compared to PS2) and of course the infamous rng punch bug.
The fact that the PS4's has been the most accessible versions for 9yrs straight is disgusting, especially for one of PS2's best and defining IPs. Sony absolutely need to get a handle on giving them quality re-releases under their newer emulation program, at least mirroring the quality of Tomb Raider: Anniversary and the Sly trilogy if not their original PS2 versions.
Re: PS5 Fans Vote Jak & Daxter As Their Most Wanted PlayStation Revival
@Toilet_Goat You hit the nail dead-center and produced easily the best post in this entire comment section so far - and that's no exaggeration.
(I just probably wouldn't generalize under "millennials", as they're the same group most responsible for Jak 2 having commonly been referred to as the best in the series for decades (anyone who hasn't spent all their internet lives in a single echo chamber, or two, would know that fact instead of being dumb-founded upon hearing it). Not the newer fans, especially via those subpar, worse-playing PS4 Jak 1-X Emulations that stain the legacy of the series. Naturally you're still half right those a portion of them also make up the uninformed haters.)