‘Jak and Daxter: The Lost Frontier’ is the newest installment in the much admired Jak and Daxter series originally developed by Naughty Dog, yup thats right the same Naughty Dog of Uncharted fame TLF is set sometime after the events of ‘Jak X’ (the racing game of the series ) and follows the heroes’ journey to find the cause of the world’s recent eco recession (‘eco’ for those unfamiliar to the series is the energy source used in the J&D world).

Their adventure takes them to ‘The Brink’, an area at the edge of the world, ridden with sky pirates and otherworldly beings. The last game in the series to come out was the PSP’s ‘Daxter’, which was a spin-off to the original series and developed by the little brother company of Naughty Dog, Ready-at-Dawn and Daxter was a pretty good game. This game has both a PS2 and a PSP version.

Jak and Daxter: The Lost Frontier on the otherhand is designed by a different company again High Impact Games and the result is somewhat mixed. Which is disappointing given the high production values of Jak 2 & 3. With the former game arguably the best ever platformer on the PS2. Since Jak 3 fans of the series longed for another great title that wasn’t a racing or PSP spin-off, but actually part of the series.

Jak and Daxter: The Lost Frontier is the next title but it has failed to achieve the heights of its illustrious predecessors. The gameplay just feels cumbersome with lazy camera angles and unresponsive vehicle controls, the characters are cliché and add nothing to the Jak & Daxter lore. The overall plot is plodding and at times fails to make any sense.

For example, not to far into the game, Keira (Love interest) is kidnapped by Sky pirates, whom Jak and Daxter immediately pursue. As a result you battle a huge flying pirate ship (made more difficult than it should be because of the awkward controls). Jak finds Keira aboard the ship, where she stands up for the kidnapper, which confuses Jak (and the player).

Darn it Lost Frontier could have been better

Jak then has to accompany the sky pirate, who only moments ago was an enemy to retrieve an artefact from a volcano, all the while waiting for an explanation for why Keira now is on the sky pirate’s side, however no answer is ever given. Jak just inexplicably swaps sides from the enemies of the Sky Pirates (An upper class bunch living in a city that looks big but is never really given the opportunity to be explored) to the pirates themselves for the remainder of the game, and no real reason is given as to why, other than Keira said so.

The most disappointing thing about the game is that it has lost its identity, if Jak, Daxter and Keira were replaced with 3 other characters (Lets say Burt, Ernie and Big Bird) and the word ‘eco’ was changed to the word ‘energy’, than it would be an entirely different game, and no one would ever realise that it was related to the J&D series. Why? Because Jak, Daxter and Keira are the only 3 characters in the game that were in any of the others. Gone are characters like Torn, the loveable anti-hero leader, Ashelin, the sassy female rogue, Sig, the rough, tough monster killer and most notably, Samos the sage (Father of Keira, who narrates 3 of the total 6 games) is not even mentioned.

With the exception of Baron Praxis and Erol, two of the antagonists from Jak 2 and 3, who are only seen for a few quick seconds in a flashback which is just a clip from the start of Jak 2, all the much loved aforementioned characters are not in the game. Characters were what made these games so special, and the lack of them is what makes this game feel like it simply doesn’t belong in the series.

On the good side however is the inclusion of aircraft in this game, while hard to control, they are still a lot of fun and a redeeming feature, one of the few in the game. The premise to the story (Eco recession) is cool and had a LOT of potential, if only it was done correctly, using characters, gameplay methods and environments from the previous games. ‘Jak and Daxter: The Lost Frontier’ then is a game trying to live up to its predecessors, but fails to put more than one or two elements into it from the last adventures.

It is disappointing to fans of the series, and probably to newcomers as well and does not add anything really to the franchise. More importantly it tragically takes away the rascally mischievous element of the game the element that saw Jak and specifically Daxter get away with behaviour that could be consider suspect by many a parent, a modern day Dennis the Menace thing.

So the glorious days of high-jacking flying cars, free roaming around huge cities and deserts and being immersed into an amazingly crafted story is gone. They have been replaced with a mish-mash of cliché story elements, annoying characters and an overall feeling that well the developer missed the mark.