I recently had the pleasure of visiting Ready at Dawn Studios, and after getting a briefing on Daxter from company founder Didier Malenfant I was able to get some hands-on time with the game. The first thing that struck me about the game is that the graphics are really good. Malenfant had said that Ready at Dawn’s goal was to make a PS2 quality game on the PSP and it certainly looks like they’ve succeeded. The cutscenes are of the same high quality you’d expect from any Jak, er, Daxter game, and even use the same voice actors that appeared in the PS2 games including Max Casella as the voice of Daxter. The game levels show the same level of quality and attention to detail as the cutscenes, and create a rich and colorful environment for Daxter’s adventures. Even the game’s story itself is worthy of its PS2 predecessors, taking place between Jak & Daxter and Jak II. In fact, the stories are so integrated that Daxter ends right at the moment that Jak II begins. You can finish Daxter and then jump right into Jak II without missing a beat!

So what is the story in Daxter? Well Daxter is on his own this time out, what with Jak being in jail and all that. As the game opens Daxter finds himself working as an exterminator. Why an exterminator you ask? Well, first of all he kind of backed his way into the job with his enthusiastic boasting and didn’t want to lose face by backing down. Secondly, there is the perk of a salary. And what was the third? Oh yeah, because working as an exterminator would give him access to the kind of places he needs to get into if he is ever going to rescue Jak.

Daxter’s job requires him to be sent to one bug-infested level after another. His basic tool of extermination is a bug swatter, but this is not your average plastic flyswatter. It is more of a flyswatter / bug zapper combined into one. The swatter crackles with blue energy and when you hit a bug with it it unleashes a jolt of electric shock. That will teach those darn bugs! Daxter’s other extermination tool is a bug sprayer. This sprayer stuns bugs, allowing you to switch to the swatter to deal the final blow to the dazed bug.

Platform games on portable systems have a long tradition of providing highly repetitive and unimaginative levels. Daxter breaks that mold by bringing you 18 distinct levels, a hub city that gives you access to these levels, three boss levels, and lastly six special levels that take place in the dreams of our self-obsessed hero. Not all of the levels were available for play at Ready for Dawn, but the ones I was able to play gave me a glimpse at the variety of play that the game will provide. Each level has its own theme and a unique play mechanic. For example, a fish packing plant is home to one of the levels and is filled with plenty of ice to keep those fish fresh. Daxter’s trusty spray can be upgraded to a flamethrower and in this level that proves to be a pretty useful feature because it can be used to melt the ice. Ice can be melted to open passages, create or resize platforms, and more. The flamethrower mode also proves useful in a level that takes place within a large skyscraper that is sill under construction. Some platforms are attached to giant coils and when the flamethrower is applied to the coils they expand and cause the platforms to rotate. You need to move quickly though as the coils will soon begin to cool, swinging the platforms back to their original positions. The bug sprayer can also be used as a kind of flying pogo stick, but it can only keep Daxter airborne for short bursts at a time. In order to keep flying, you have to grab onto special power-ups that give your sprayer more juice. These are strategically placed throughout the levels when you need to go on short flights and in some areas are strung together so you can cover long stretches in the air.

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