Precursor to Adolescence

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End Credits (Alternate) - Jak and Daxter OST

Jak and Daxter, in many ways, represents the natural aging progression of the 90s kid. Rebellious attitude and witty one-liners were becoming less cool and more campy. With the launch of the PlayStation 2 in a brand new millennium, Naughty Dog found themselves in a strange place. Much like Nintendo with Super Mario 64, Naughty Dog found themselves reinventing the wheel for a brand new console.

An Era of Transition

While I only played the first Jak and Daxter game, the series progression is fascinating to me.

Compare and contrast the cover art for each Jak and Daxter game.

Jak 1 is vibrant and colorful. The game is largely a collect-a-thon reminiscent of Spyro, Crash, Banjo, and Mario. While there are definitely some darker elements present, the game doesn't stray too far off the beaten path...in game design at least. Where Jak 1 chose to innovate was in the story direction. Jak himself is a silent protagonist (until he isn't), yet every other character is fully voiced. Daxter takes on the mantle of witty dialogue, and this change was intentional. Being the comic relief side character, Daxter represents Naughty Dog's first crack in what was the norm at the time. The wise-cracking, spunky kid with attitude is made a mockery in favor of the older, more serious stoic protagonist. This is definitely a duo that would attract the slightly older kids on the block moreso.

While it's fun to poke fun now, in the early 2000s, "edgy" WAS cool! (We'll dive more into that in a future post.) From my perspective, Jak and Daxter appears to be a safe middleground between what developer Naughty Dog wanted to publish and what Sony was willing to publish. Further proof of this is the hard shift in tone and story that Jak 2 and Jak 3 would take. Having proven themselves and seeing the market trend towards "edgy" material and characters, Sony gave more and more freedom to Naughty Dog.

Given that I've never seen this series through to completion, I can't comment too much on the story. However, I will say that there is a secret ending which suggested a sequel, so I think Naughty Dog always had the story planned out.

Memory Problems

Discussing this game without discussing memory cards is impossible. Why? Because this way my first PS2 game, and I didn't have a memory card. In fact, I wouldn't get one until a couple weeks later. So, I pretty much replayed the beginning of the game for two weeks straight. It was great.

What is a Hero?

One final note: what does this game say about heroism? I mentioned in previous posts that characters like Sonic, Cloud, and Spyro were or became heroes through their actions. But there's more to it than that. Sonic already was a hero at the start of the game. While maybe not a full-fledged hero, Cloud was making heroic choices as early as five hours into the game. Spyro's literal first game is being a hero and rescuing the imprisoned dragons. Yet, for Jak, things aren't as clear.

Jak and Daxter doesn't begin with some evil scientist or corporation planning doom for the world. In fact, there's very little connection between Jak and Daxter and the villains of the game. Heck, Jak starts out collecting precursor orbs for the Green Sage so they can travel to another city. As the game progresses, Jak certainly becomes a hero (and even moreso in the sequels), but unlike prior games, the game builds up to that moment.

Honestly, now that I'm sitting and reflecting, this game really did bring some innovative story-telling to a genre that desparately needed it. It's subtle, nuanced even, but you can clearly see Naughty Dog attemting to test the waters of what a video game story can get away with.

All-in-all, I have fond memories of this game. I wouldn't necessarily revisit it today, but it's fascinating to see the beginnings of what would be monumental tone and atmosphere changes in gaming as a whole starting right here. Although...I wouldn't count the 90s hero out just yet...