Exterminator Orange – Daxter Review
Developer: Ready at Dawn | Platform: PSP (PS5) | Playtime and Platinum: 7:05
Continuing the trend of dipping into their gold mine, Daxter has found his way onto the PS Premium service. Releasing three years prior to last months rerelease, Daxter is seen as the better of the two PSP released spin offs and I can certainly see why.
Set in the last week or so of the two year gap at the start of Jak II, Daxter’s loud mouth finds himself under the employ of an old man by the name of Osmo who runs a Metalhead bug extermination shop. That’s pretty much it. There’s not much the story can do here by nature of it being an in-between game released after the trilogy was complete. There are some cool scenes that tie things together, such as a cutscene starring the antagonists of Jak 3 - Errol and Count Veger but also weird ones where we see Kor decide to pose as an old man to trick Jak at the start of Jak II. A weird Game of Thrones/Star Wars like cutscene.
Gameplay is refreshingly simple, following the structure of the two later games. Taking place in a hub (Haven City), you travel back and forth to each mission. The general goal is killing a number of bugs in each level, making sure you collect the gem as proof of completion. That being said, It’s a bizarre choice that the Metal Head gems collected from the bugs you kill have no actual function. The vast majority of levels have you collecting half or two thirds what have you of the available gem count to progress, but any collected after that serves no purpose other than completion. There’s nothing wrong with completion for completions sake of course, I just feel like it’s somewhat removed from the story. Osmo says it pays for services which is a fair enough lore reason but there’s no gameplay tangibility. In levels where the objective is tangentially related to the main theme like having to collect Eco Crystals in the Strip Mine because the Miner is scared, there’s no reason to collect any gems whatsoever. The enemies just become enemies again, rather than collectibles. This might be by design, a change of pace perhaps but it feels again, removed. If the collected gems had an impact on Osmo’s shop/the hub or could be used for upgrades for Daxter then I think that would have given them more purpose.
Precursor Orbs once again return, acting as collectibles same as every game post The Precursor Legacy. There is some use to them here though – they unlock Dreams. The first one comes as part of the story, but the rest are unlocked at 100 Precusor Orb milestones, up to 500 for 6 in total. In these dreams, which are all variations of the same quick time events, Daxter takes the starring role in a famous movie – Indiana Jones, Lord of the Rings, The Matrix and Braveheart. Completing each grants a reward for Daxter like a new move. I never used the new moves but the health bonus from one was appreciated. I have to commend the clever usage of Gol and the Precursor Robot from the first game as stand ins for the parodied characters, that was a neat touch.
A shorter review, but there’s not much to talk about - Daxter is a short but very fun experience which can exist on its own as well as being a wonderful accompaniment to the series. Now that everything is on Playstation, you could even play it between Jak II and 3. Regardless of why, Daxter is a fun session of gaming for sure.
