Customer Reviews

Jak & Daxter: The Lost Frontier

5 star:		(2)
4 star:		(4)
3 star:		(4)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

What happened here? This Jak & Daxter game for the PSP was developed by High Impact Games, the same developer who created the two awesome Ratchet and Clank games for the PSP. But something went amiss with The Lost Frontier. It doesn't even come close to matching the quality of the two Ratchet and Clank games, and it's hands down the worst Jak & Daxter game to date. Not to say that it's unplayable; it can be quite entertaining in places. But the game as a whole suffers from a lack of polish and sloppy gameplay mechanics.

The biggest problems with the game are the camera and using the d-pad to change weapon modes and eco powers. The camera is programmed to switch into preset positions at certain parts in the levels, and this often causes problems. It would have been much better if High Impact had just allowed the player total camera control at all times. Let the player screw it up, not the game itself. The problem with the d-pad is that there are simply too many functions mapped to it, and it's too awkward to use in the heat of combat. The player uses the d-pad to do three things: change weapon modes, change eco powers, and activate an eco power. Having to take your thumb off the analog nub to do this means Jak is a sitting duck to attacking enemies. A much better solution would have been to have a quick select system as in the Ratchet and Clank games. One button pauses the game and brings up a quick select ring with the available weapon modes and eco powers. The player chooses with the analog nub and quickly resumes gameplay. The L and R shoulder buttons could have been used to switch back and forth between a weapon ring and an eco power ring. How somebody didn't think of this is baffling.

Another annoying problem is that the game does not display Jak's weapon mode and eco power at all times. The only time that information gets displayed is when the player changes weapon modes and eco power. Every time the player begins engaging an enemy, you have to fiddle with the d-pad to see what abilities you have equipped. It's just a big pain in the butt.

The sky combat is fun, but way too easy. The game practically just gives the player everthing. Rather than being the grandiose Jak and Daxter game I was hoping for, The Lost Frontier is little more than a few day's diversion. Worst of all, there's no Ashelin: an unforgiveable crime. Rent this one, or wait until it drops in price.

I have been waiting for this game for quite a while. I was hoping for the game to be on PS3 with great graphics like Ratchet and Clank. Then when I found out that Naughty Dog was not producing this game I had a feeling the game would not be as good and I was right. The graphics are OK for the PSP, but lacking for the PS2. The story line is OK. The camera is not very good. No first person view. I'm not enjoying this game as I did with past games. I hope Naughty Dog will reclaim J&D and give us the great games we have come to expect.

this game was good and the order came fast and extreamly wraped lol but it was in brand new condition i will definitly buy from this person again!

fun to go back to the original setup of jack and daxter but to be able to play on the psp. great for the price but not my favorite with all the air combat

After an extremely long wait for a new entry to the "Jak and Daxter" series, finally "The Lost Frontier" arrives in 2009. However, there are too many problems with this game that prevent it from holding a candle to the other games in the series. The biggest problems come from 2 factors: Jak's new voice actor(Josh Keaton), and the introduction of Dark Daxter. Josh Keaton's voice acting is among the worst I've ever heard . . . period. Where was Mike Erwin for this title? And Dark Daxter is nothing but a sick joke and I'll just leave it at that. In addition, the story feels like something that was regurgitated during the course of a 30-minute board meeting.

But there are some good aspects that still made the game a fairly decent distraction as I continue waiting for the quality "Jak and Daxter" experience I'm looking for. For instance, the musical score is fantastic, the best heard in any of the games so far(it's only too bad that the music was more epic than the story actually was...in that sense it was sorta mismatched). The flying missions, which consumes 60% of game time, is actually a ton of fun and I didn't mind that this was how the majority of the game played. This was where the game earned most of its value. And of course, being a Daxter fan, I absolutely loved how realistically fuzzy Daxter appeared in the cutscenes. I suspect other big Daxter fans will feel the same.



OVERALL

Pros: excellent score, the flying missions, fuzzy Daxter, polished cutscenes
Cons: Josh Keaton as Jak, Dark Daxter, lackluster story

I bought this game two nights ago and finished it earlier today. Everything about this game is as good as the others, only complaint is no Dark Jak and the not enough Dark Daxter. The story is solid and gameplay is like traditional games, the camera can be a little frustrating at times but youll get use to it. The length of the game is what kills it for me. I spend [...] bucks on it and feel like i didnt get my moneys worth because I beat it so fast, i could have waited if they would have made it longer and added Dark/Light Jak.

I was very reluctant to believe the mediocre reviews this game received since

1) I LOVED Daxter on the PSP,
2) I liked the PS2 Jak & Daxter Games,
3) I like High Impact's Ratchet & Clank game,
4) I generally love platforming action-adventure type games, and
5) I'm always excited when a promising game is released on the PSP.

Well, unfortunately, Jak & Daxter disappointed. It's hard to put my finger on exactly why though. A lot of the traditional platforming and gameplay from early J&D games was there, and those functioned fine. Generally, the game was moderately challenging, and there were some interesting innovations (e.g., the set of Dark Eco powers).

Nevertheless, there were some problems with the game that kept making the experience less than it should have been. The entire game suffers from a lack of coherence. There are several different parts of the game: platforming and fighting as Jak, dogfights in the sky, bizarre "Dark Daxter" sequences, and Daxter-disarming-planes quick time minigames. Unfortunately, none of these different gameplay parts are really linked together well. More explanation and smoother transitions from the developer could have made the different parts of the game a bit smoother. It seems like all the parts of the story weren't totally completed when this game was released.

Also, while most of the dogfights were really easy, there were occasional difficulty spikes that threw off the normal pacing of the game.

Others have complained about the camera controls, but I think this is something you can get used to fairly easily.

The control scheme also wasn't the best (as another reviewer pointed out, using your left thumb to switch weapons and Eco powers as well as controlling movement was a poor design decision...nevertheless, that wasn't too bad either).

All in all, the Lost Frontier isn't a terrible game, but after seeing how good other, similar games were on the PSP (e.g., Daxter, Ratchet & Clank: Size Matters), it was disappointing that such a promising game didn't quite turn out as good as it could have been.

My nephew has all type of video games, but for some reason he cant seem to put this one down.

im a huge fan of these games. its a must buy for all psp owners. it really one of the best psp games out right now.

liked the game.Keep rolling them out! Service to get it was great and fast. Would order games again.