Jak and Daxter: The Precursor Legacy (2001)

I'm playing this and it's neat! Compared to Jak 3, my only other experience with the series, I really appreciate how straightforward and polished everything feels here. Rather than clumsily bouncing between identities as a platformer and a shooter and a racing game and a GTA clone, The Precursor Legacy confidently focuses on collecting shiny orbs and watching silly animations. Sometimes that's plenty.

Just a heads up to anyone that, like me, tried emulating PS2 games once like 10+ years ago and wrote it off as a nightmare not worth messing with and forgot to check back in, PS2 emulation today in 2026 seems completely solved. I'm sure I'm late to the party on this one, but it was news to me, and it's news that has made me very happy.

Was wanting to play through the Sly and Jak trilogy and messing around with the two standard options I had available which was either download whatever Sony emulated version was available on PS5, or stream that same version on PC through the PS+ PC app. The streaming looks like crap and even the downloaded version on PS5 didn't look as good as I hoped or control as well as I remember from an actual PS2.

Emulated version on PCSX2 look amazing upscaled to 4K and control is tight and responsive just like how I remember. What a joyous day.

Started this a few days ago - I couldn't turn down the HD Trilogy being on sale! - so I've been putting in a few hours here and there. It's a lot of fun, though ironically I've had to get used to the camera controls which are the opposite of what I'm used to. It's ironic because I had to get used to my current scheme when I moved from Jak 3 on PS2 to Gears of War when I got an Xbox 360. Ho Hum.

Anyway, the gameplay is tight. Jack is nimble and the platforming sections feel challenging while remaining fair. There's also nothing more satisfying than breaking open boxes and Jak's punch feels hard and explosive.

I can definitely feel and see the evolution of Banjo-Kazooie and Mario design, but I am having difficulty recognising Legend of Zelda influence in the gameplay (maybe in the world building, I'm not sure). The three of these games were mentioned in an interview with Naughty Dog as influences way back in the day when it was first coming out.

But yeah, so far, so fun. I'm a little under half way (sitting on 42%) so it's definitely not a very big game. I should theoretically finish it before school starts up again.