I’ve been a fan of the “Jak and Daxter” series since it came out in 2001. I’ve played every game, including the spinoffs, and have loved them all (even that kart racer one). Later this year High Impact Games takes the reigns on one of my favorite series and continues the story on the Playstation Portable with “Jak and Daxter: The Lost Frontier” While I’m more than happy to have more Jak in my life, my excitement is currently restrained based on the short, but varied demos of the title.

“The Lost Frontier” follows the events of “Jak 3”, and sees our heroes on a quest to discover more sources of Eco. Seems the stuff has all but run out, and pirates are stealing what little remains. Jak’s journey takes him to the edge of the world, where supposedly the Precursors stopped making the planet (imagine a sharp dropoff, like if our world was flat like people thought pre-Magellan).

I took the liberty of getting video of two of the levels to save me the trouble of explaining them in detail. There are some more detailed writeups of the demos on other sites, but I figured I’d let you just see them for yourselves, and I’ll jot down some quick thoughts. Wasn’t that generous of me?

Each of the three levels focuses on a different aspect of gameplay. The platforming level, Seeking the Seeker, is pretty standard fare for the series. Jak runs around — Daxter on his shoulder — shooting everything in sight. He’s got these new Eco powers which allow him to do things like rocket jump straight up, or build bridges over lava chasms. The gameplay is familiar, if not a bit limited for the demo. It seems like High Impact is keeping true to form though. In fact, the wilderness based levels are more reminiscent of the first game, which is kind of nice. I was a little tired of the gritty cityscapes of the sequels.

Most people in the industry have played the platforming level at E3, but this newest demo includes a level called Aeropa Sewers, which features a new gameplay element: Dark Daxter.

Now I’m a little torn on the idea. I like Daxter. He’s small, wisecracking, and cute. Dark Daxter is a big, spikey, brutish character, who speaks like he’s a caveman, or Frankenstein’s monster. The demo level is not very impressive either. Dark Daxter shoots energy bolts, and can spin in a tornado to kill giant bugs, but the gameplay is so limited that it just feels kind of flat. He waddles around through the level, solving simplistic puzzles and beating up enemies that go down without a fight. The tornado is hard to control, and Daxter bounces around out of control, getting hurt by electricity and gun turrets because of it. I assume this is a short, mini-game type of level, repeated maybe only a couple times throughout the entire game. I have to hope that High Impact is not intending to make Dark Daxter a bulk of the gameplay or story, despite the fact that I know some of you want porn of him already (for shame!).

“Jak and Daxter: The Lost Frontier” doesn’t come out until November, but at this point most of the gameplay design is likely finalized. I can hope that the developers make the Dark Daxter levels a little more fast paced, and maybe clean up the dialogue. Keeping the fingers crossed here, folks. The platforming levels and the flying portions that I didn’t get video seem pretty fun though, so I’m still looking forward to the title.

And because I’m a nice guy, here’s some Dark Daxter concept art for you traitors to drool over.