All screenshots and gameplay here were captured from the 2024 PS5 digital version of the game.
As someone who liked but didn’t love Naughty Dog’s Crash Bandicoot games on PS1, I was only moderately excited for Jak and Daxter in 2001. But I did end up playing it at launch, and I was blown away. Coming off of N64 and PS1 3D platformers, I couldn’t believe the responsiveness, smooth framerate, and sprawling, gorgeous world. It became my favorite 3D platformer to date, and remains one of my favorite PS2 games. So how was revisiting it in 2025?
As I mentioned at the start of the post, I went with the PS5 version for this replay. This version runs well and includes a few nice QoL features such as visual filters (I used “modern retro”) and rewind. I didn’t lean on rewind too much, but it was a nice time saver in a few moments.
I played through the game in two days, finishing with 77% completion. Honestly, once I started playing, it was really all I wanted to do. The intuitive level design leads you from one fun moment to the next, but there are plenty of ways to diverge from the main path. By mid-game you have a great deal of freedom in how to go about getting the 72 (out of 100) power cells required to enter the final area of the game.
Platforming challenges and exploration are consistently fun thanks to the game’s responsive controls and useful moveset. As expected from a game of this era, the camera works against you at times, but it’s never as egregious as something like Mario Sunshine.
I have to mention the game’s soundtrack, which is something I appreciated even more on this playthrough. Composed by Josh Mancell (Crash Bandicoot series) and Mark Mothersbaugh (Devo), the music is understated compared to many platformer OSTs, but it perfectly creates a unique atmosphere for each area. It’s not the first game to do seamless music transitions between areas, but it’s done extremely effectively, which adds to the game’s top tier presentation.
The only area where Jak and Daxter’s presentation falters is in the (unskippable) cutscenes. The game actually has some interesting lore and thoughtful world-building, but the cutscenes undermine this with irritating characters and grating humor. The “hillbilly” characters are particularly painful, and no amount of snide comments from Daxter can help make those cutscenes more bearable (it actually makes them worse). However, I will say Jak as a silent protagonist works well here, as he has some extremely impressively-animated reactions.
Despite my issues with the story and cutscenes (a negligible portion of the game to be honest), it was a blast returning to Jak and Daxter after all these years. It was easy to immerse myself back in the world thanks to the strong design, and the PS5 version was great for a casual player like myself. None of the sequels have really captured the experience of the first game, so this remains a unique 3D platformer that I would still consider a must-play for anyone with even a passing interest in the genre or Naughty Dog’s history.
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