We find Jak and Daxter travelling with Keira on a quest to find Eco, the source of all power in their world. After being boarded by sky pirates and some awful shooting by Daxter they crashland at the edge of the world, only to find that they are near the legendary site where all Eco originated from.

 

 

The Lost Frontier is classic Jak and Daxter through and through which is high praise to High Impact Games for capturing the essence of Naughty Dogs originals. The platform elements are untouched with lots of jumping and fighting going on plus the return of hub areas which allow you to run around and complete mini quests like locating hidden Precursor Eggs allowing you to activate cheats plus shops to upgrade your ship, weapons and moves. As you open quests you can travel to new areas that push your fighting and platform skills to the limit, allowing you to use Jaks new skills like slow motion and a shield to progress through the levels. Jak and Daxter games have always had some vehicle based levels in the past and this is no exception as you get to fly an aircraft and do battle with loads of enemies.

 

The ship handles really well with the ability to invert controls to make it more suited to flying. Each craft can be upgraded with the scrap collected from downed enemies, these can be used on areas like armour and missiles. Most of these levels are dogfights and require lots of sharp flying and dodging by using the barrel-rolls and loops on the d-pad. The controls on the ship are tight and handle perfectly, the initial ship may feel a bit sluggish at first but once you have purchased a few upgrades or even a new ship you will be cutting through the sky with ease.

 

Playing as Jak is just like it's PS2 counterparts, double jumps, spins and attacks all make a welcome return with a couple of combos like a ground pound and uppercut so you can mix it up a bit when in the heat of battle. Jaks weapon of choice this time around is a staff which can be modded later in the game with ranged projectiles. It can get a little tricky to control this as there is no aim-lock but it does not deter too much from the enjoyment.

 

The games graphics and sound really work well on the handheld, the overall quality surpasses the PS2 with crisp characters, some great environments with good draw distance and it can easily deal with the action when it gets heavy. The camera follows you well most of the time, requiring the occasional tweak with the shoulder buttons when you get turned around. The game is cut with the occasional FMV clip which looks great and has some very impressive animation. As before Daxter offers the light relief in the game and there are loads of classic comedy moments in here.

 

 

It's not all about controlling Jak in this game as you also get a chance to run around as Daxter. After getting in contact with some Dark Eco Daxter turns to Dark Daxter, bulking out and becoming a huge monster. These levels are little more than running around hitting things but just like the flight levels, breaks up the action nicely.

 

The PSP has been crying out for a good platformer for some time and Jak and Daxer sure fills the hole with a game that both newcomers and fans of the original will enjoy from start to finish.