Today is the 10th anniversary of the release of Jak & Daxter: The Precursor Legacy on PlayStation 2. Naughty Dog, the game’s studio, took a look back at the game’s decade of service and wants to be sure it’s remembered for its technical merit, too.
“With each outing in the Jak and Daxter series, we set out to create a game that offered the player a new experience that built on the previous game,” writes Evan Wells, the co-president of Naughty Dog. He means in ways more than just the story of the previous game. “As you go from Jak and Daxter: The Precursor Legacy to Jak 3, the story will connect across the titles as the gameplay and technical aspects of the games and the tools used to create them evolved.”
That involved bump-mapping in terrain rendering, cloth dynamics and ragdoll physics, things taken for granted in the current console generation. Wells points out the gameplay changes made to the series, too, taking Jak & Daxter from a platformer to action-adventure, shooter and driving.
“Looking back at the old code and comparing it to this newly-minted code is pretty amazing. Our beloved Jak and Daxter franchise and its colourful cast of characters looks, and still plays, truly awesome,” Wells said.
Next year will see the release of The Jak and Daxter Collection, which will remaster the original games for high definition and stereoscopic 3D presentation. The collection is currently due for a February release.
Naughty Dog Remembers 10 Years of Jak and Daxter [PlayStation Blog]
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