Jak and Daxter: The Lost Frontier

Last updated
Jak and Daxter: The Lost Frontier
Jak and Daxter- The Lost Frontier.jpg
North American PlayStation Portable box art
Developer(s) High Impact Games
Publisher(s) Sony Computer Entertainment
Designer(s) Dave Goodrich
Artist(s) Atsuko Kubota
Writer(s) Richard Lemarchand, Neil Druckmann, Daniel Arey
Composer(s) James Dooley
Series Jak and Daxter
Platform(s) PlayStation 2
PlayStation Portable
Release
  • NA: November 3, 2009 [1]
  • AU: November 19, 2009
  • EU: November 20, 2009
Genre(s) Platform
Mode(s) Single-player

Jak and Daxter: The Lost Frontier is a 2009 platform game developed by High Impact Games and published by Sony Computer Entertainment. The game is the sixth and final game in the Jak and Daxter series. The player assumes the role of Jak, the angst-ridden hero enhanced by his exposure to Light and Dark Eco.

Contents

Jak and Daxter: The Lost Frontier was announced on April 1, 2009, and was released for PlayStation 2 and PlayStation Portable on November 3, 2009. [2] The game received generally mixed reviews from critics, but there was praise for the graphics, gameplay, and aerial fights.

The game was made available for purchase on PlayStation 4 and PlayStation 5 in April 2024, featuring new unlockable trophies.

Gameplay

Similar to other games in the series, The Lost Frontier features a Hero Mode where players are able to replay the game. [3] Weapons, armor, powers, secrets, and unspent Precursor orbs are retained through each playthrough.

Plot

The game begins with Jak and Daxter, escorting Keira on her journey to become a Sage and help to find the reason for a worldwide Eco shortage. After an encounter with Captain Phoenix, an Eco-seeking Sky Pirate, Jak crash-lands on an island at the Brink (the edge of their world) and sets off in search of Eco with which to repair his Hellcat. After a successful take-off, Jak must fight off Sky Pirates attacking the ACS Behemoth, an aerial warship captained by Duke Skyheed of Aeropa. Jak is given an instrument called the Eco Seeker which would lead to an "Eco Core". He is unable to power it because the Eco instability prevents him from using his own Eco powers (including preventing him from turning into Dark Jak), but Keira is granted permission to study it for a week if Jak proves himself in a test of his fighting skills in the city's danger course. Daxter falls into the sewers of Aeropa on the way back, where he discovers that there is Dark Eco in the city. He ends up being tainted further by Dark Eco flowing out of a pipe and is temporarily transformed into "Dark Daxter"; he becomes black, spiky, and in no mood for "soft underpants."

Then, Captain Phoenix attacks the building and steals both the Eco Seeker and Keira. Jak and Daxter chase Phoenix but are led into a trap, resulting in them crash-landing back on the Island again. On the Island the duo meet a Castaway, who knows that Jak has been touched by Dark Eco but can't remember who he was or why he was on the island. He mentions that he built several robots the duo encountered on the Island, but they turned against him. He also offers to fix Jak's Hellcat, but requires a Velonium Power Pod from the most dangerous robot he created, the Uber-bot 888. After Jak and Daxter get the Power Pod, the Castaway fixes his ship, and later sneaks on board. When Jak and Daxter take off they manage to disable Phoenix's ship and land. On board, Jak and Phoenix argue and tip the Eco Seeker overboard accidentally, so both return to the Island once more to retrieve it from a volcanic crater; Keira intervenes and makes them call a truce and shake hands. The Eco Seeker needs more Light Eco to work and they travel to an old research rig used by the Aeropans. At the rig, Jak comes across a testing table. Suddenly remembering his own experience with the same device during his time in Baron Praxis' prison, he realizes that someone has been experimenting with Dark Eco, vowing to destroy those responsible. After finding the Light Eco, Daxter is separated from the group again and transformed into Dark Daxter once more.

After the Light Eco is inserted into the Seeker, Jak finds out that it is missing three parts, and they travel to the pirate town Far Drop to get one piece from a pirate. When they travel to an Old Aeropan Barracks, where they find one of the Coordinates, the Castaway reveals that he is (or once was) a Dark Eco Sage and that he built the facility for the Aeropans. Phoenix reveals that he was once the commander of the Aeropan Air Forces. He was put in charge of a secret weapons program to make a new kind of warrior. When he found out what they were doing, he refused and tried to stop the program, but Skyheed wouldn't hear of it. So, he took the only option left and kidnapped the program's chief scientist, the Castaway. In the scuffle, the Castaway took a blow to his head and suffered amnesia; he was marooned on Brink Island in an attempt to hide his work from the Aeropans. Phoenix further explains that Skyheed spread the dark power to all the Aeropans, who declared him an outlaw and he vowed to destroy all dark warriors, including Jak. Keira protests, saying that Jak isn't a monster, even though Phoenix had seen what Jak was; Keira ultimately gives Phoenix an ultimatum to spare Jak if he cared for her at all. The Castaway says that Jak can be used to undo the damage that the Aeropans had done, being "a warrior who proves that Dark Eco can be controlled, or at least managed." They agree to take on the Aeropans.

When the location of the third coordinate sphere is found, the duo flies the Phantom Blade to Sector Zero, a mysterious location beyond the edge of the world. Jak and Daxter get the third sphere, but the Behemoth attacks their ship and Jak has to defend it. Back on board, Jak, Daxter, Keira, Phoenix and the crew fix the Eco Seeker, which points back to the abandoned research rig. Phoenix recalls that the rig was built over strange formations, later revealed to be an ancient Precursor facility. When they reach the Eco Core, Keira tries to fix it. Shortly after, Phoenix's right-hand man, Klout, arrives with Skyheed and reveals he was paid off by Skyheed in exchange for the location of the Core. Skyheed orders everyone killed except Jak, because he wants to study his control over Dark Eco. However, Keira activates an energy discharge from the Eco Core. The Eco radiation kills Klout and stuns Skyheed while Jak, Daxter, Keira, and Phoenix escape.

They receive a message stating that the Aeropans have laid siege to Far Drop. Jak and Daxter are sent to defeat the Aeropan Shock Troops at Far Drop, but the Behemoth appears to destroy it. Jak and Daxter successfully cause the Aeropans to retreat by destroying their weapons. Phoenix wants revenge on Skyheed for the attack. Then another message is transmitted anonymously, telling them to use the old Barracks warp gate. The group get through the warp gate while Daxter becomes Dark Daxter once again to hold off the Aeropan soldiers before catching up with the others. Upon arriving in Aeropa, Jak has to destroy the Weapons Control System to get his weapons working again, then head up to the palace to defeat Skyheed. But when Jak encounters the duke, Skyheed begins absorbing massive amounts of Dark Eco which transform him into a giant Dark Eco monster. Skyheed's chancellor Ruskin shows up and reveals he helped the heroes feeling what Skyheed had done to his own people was wrong; Skyheed responds by shooting Ruskin with an energy blast, causing him to fall to his death. Jak tries to defeat him but Skyheed escapes on an Airship and retreats to the Behemoth with the intention of using the Eco Core to ensure both Aeropa's survival and dominance of the world.

During the confrontation at the Eco Core, the Phantom Blade disables the shields surrounding the Behemoth, while Jak destroys the weapon systems and Eco Crystals. Phoenix then flies the Phantom Blade between the Eco Core and Behemoth to prevent them from draining the Core, sacrificing himself in the process; cutting off the Eco flow leaves the Behemoth vulnerable to attacks. A forlorn Keira then installs a Light Eco Beam in the Hellcat to finish the Behemoth off, destroying Skyheed and the Aeropans. With Aeropa finally defeated, the balance of Eco is restored. Keira then activates the Eco Core which channels energy which travels to Eco Vents around the world, ending the Eco shortage and reduces the storm and quake activity in all directions. In the process, Keira finds she is now able to channel Eco, with Tym (the Castaway) informing her that she may be turning into a Sage. She also sees that one vent flows out beyond the Brink and she, Jak and Daxter decide to investigate.

Soundtrack

Jak and Daxter: The Lost Frontier Original Soundtrack
Soundtrack album by
ReleasedNovember 3, 2009
Genre Video game soundtrack
Length38:44
Label Sony Computer Entertainment

Jak and Daxter: The Lost Frontier Original Soundtrack, composed by James Dooley, was released for digital download by Sony Computer Entertainment on November 2, 2009. [4]

Track listing

No.TitleLength
1."Hellcat to the Rescue"2:04
2."The Brink"3:23
3."Galleon Conflict"2:06
4."Laser Defense"3:31
5."Sounds of Fardrop"3:24
6."Dark Eco Warrior Training Camp"3:18
7."Super-Dark-Daxter Rampage, Go!"3:19
8."Behemoth Air Battle"2:39
9."Parallel Universe"4:18
10."Voices of Aeropa"2:38
11."Ambushed"2:40
12."A Captain's Sacrifice"2:11
13."Daxterball"3:40
14."Jak vs. the Arborcider"1:33
Total length:38:44

Development

Following the release of Jak X: Combat Racing in 2005, Naughty Dog began development of The Lost Frontier under the working title Jak PSP. The game was originally planned as a PlayStation Portable exclusive and was in the process of being developed by Naughty Dog when it was cancelled. Evan Wells revealed that they were unable to sustain the game's development alongside Uncharted: Drake's Fortune and made the decision to pass the project onto High Impact Games. [5]


Reception

Jak and Daxter: The Lost Frontier received "mixed or average" reviews from critics, according to review aggregator website Metacritic. [6] [7]

GameSpot gave the game 7.5/10, calling it "a good addition to Sony's much-loved series" and went on to praise the "solid gameplay, challenging platform puzzles and wacky humour" though felt that the "Dark Daxter levels feel tacked on." [12] IGN said, "There's fun to be had here, but it could've been polished a bit more to bring out the value" and awarded it 7.4/10. [14] Eurogamer felt "Jak & Daxter: The Lost Frontier is one of the best platformers available for PSP/PS2" and continued "It also stands as evidence that there's life in the old Naughty Dog series yet." [9]

Related Research Articles

In video games, a power-up is an object that adds temporary benefits or extra abilities to the player character as a game mechanic. This is in contrast to an item, which may or may not have a permanent benefit that can be used at any time chosen by the player. Although often collected directly through touch, power-ups can sometimes only be gained by collecting several related items, such as the floating letters of the word 'EXTEND' in Bubble Bobble. Well known examples of power-ups that have entered popular culture include the power pellets from Pac-Man and the Super Mushroom from Super Mario Bros., which ranked first in UGO Networks' Top 11 Video Game Powerups.

<i>Jak and Daxter</i> Video game series

Jak and Daxter is an action-adventure video game franchise created by Andy Gavin and Jason Rubin and owned by Sony Interactive Entertainment. The series was originally developed by Naughty Dog with a number of installments being outsourced to Ready at Dawn and High Impact Games. The first game, Jak and Daxter: The Precursor Legacy, released on December 3, 2001, was one of the earliest titles for the PlayStation 2, and is regarded as a defining franchise for the console.

Naughty Dog, LLC is an American first-party video game developer based in Santa Monica, California. Founded by Andy Gavin and Jason Rubin in 1984, the studio was acquired by Sony Computer Entertainment in 2001. Gavin and Rubin produced a sequence of progressively more successful games, including Rings of Power and Way of the Warrior in the early 1990s. The latter game prompted Universal Interactive Studios to sign the duo to a three-title contract and fund the expansion of the company.

<i>Ratchet & Clank</i> (2002 video game) 2002 video game

Ratchet & Clank is a third-person shooter platform video game developed by Insomniac Games and published by Sony Computer Entertainment for the PlayStation 2 in 2002. It is the first game in the Ratchet & Clank series.

<i>Jak II</i> 2003 video game

Jak II is an action-adventure video game developed by Naughty Dog and published by Sony Computer Entertainment for the PlayStation 2 in 2003. It is the second game of the Jak and Daxter series and a sequel to Jak and Daxter: The Precursor Legacy. It was followed by Jak 3 the following year in 2004.

<i>Jak 3</i> 2004 platforming video game

Jak 3 is a 2004 action-adventure video game developed by Naughty Dog and published by Sony Computer Entertainment for the PlayStation 2. The game is the sequel to Jak II and serves as the conclusion of the trilogy. The story of the previous games continues as the player takes on the dual role of recurring protagonists Jak and Daxter. It adds new weapons, devices and playable areas. The game was followed by Jak X: Combat Racing.

<i>Jak X: Combat Racing</i> 2005 combat racing video game

Jak X: Combat Racing is a 2005 vehicular combat video game developed by Naughty Dog and published by Sony Computer Entertainment for the PlayStation 2 console. It is the fourth installment in the Jak and Daxter series. The plot follows protagonist Jak and his allies who, after having been poisoned, must partake in a championship of the fictional sport of "combat racing" in an effort to obtain an antidote.

<i>Jak and Daxter: The Precursor Legacy</i> 2001 video game

Jak and Daxter: The Precursor Legacy is a 2001 platform video game developed by Naughty Dog and published by Sony Computer Entertainment for the Sony PlayStation 2 on December 4, 2001, as the first game of the Jak and Daxter series. The game follows the protagonists, a young teenager named Jak, as he tries to help his friend Daxter after he is transformed into an "ottsel", a fictional hybrid of an otter and a weasel. With the help of Samos the Sage, a master of the mysterious energy called 'Eco' created by an ancient race known as the Precursors, the pair learn that they must save their world from the rogue sages Gol and Maia Acheron, who plan to flood the world with "Dark Eco", a mysterious substance which corrupts all it touches.

<i>Daxter</i> (video game) 2006 video game

Daxter is a 2006 platform video game developed by Ready at Dawn and published by Sony Computer Entertainment on the PlayStation Portable on March 14, 2006. A spin-off of the Jak and Daxter series, Daxter takes place during the two-year timeskip occurring during the opening cutscene of Jak II; unlike the other installments of the franchise focusing primarily on Jak, the game focuses on the adventures of his sidekick Daxter while Jak is imprisoned.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Andy Gavin</span> American video game programmer

Andrew Scott Gavin is an American video game programmer, entrepreneur, and novelist. Gavin co-founded the video game company Naughty Dog with childhood friend Jason Rubin in 1986, which released games including Crash Bandicoot and Jak and Daxter. Prior to founding Naughty Dog, Gavin worked in LISP at the MIT Artificial Intelligence Laboratory.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">High Impact Games</span> Video game developer

High Impact Games was an American video game developer based in Burbank, California, formed in 2004 by former members of Insomniac Games and Naughty Dog. In 2007, the company released Ratchet & Clank: Size Matters for the PlayStation Portable, with a PlayStation 2 port released the next year, and Secret Agent Clank in 2008, also for the PlayStation Portable. On November 3, 2009, the company released its third game, Jak and Daxter: The Lost Frontier, for the PlayStation Portable and PlayStation 2. The game was based on the Jak & Daxter series made by Naughty Dog. In 2010, High Impact Games was developing a remake of Crash Team Racing for PlayStation 3, Xbox 360 and Wii, but the game was canceled by Activision before the prototype initial. In 2011 an environmental artist, who had worked on some games, revealed that High Impact Games was working on a new project for the Wii. This game was revealed to be Phineas and Ferb: Across the 2nd Dimension.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Jason Rubin</span> American video game director

Jason Rubin is an American video game director, writer, and comic book creator. He is best known for the Crash Bandicoot and Jak and Daxter series of games which were produced by Naughty Dog, the game development studio he co-founded with partner and childhood friend Andy Gavin in 1986. He was the president of THQ before its closure due to bankruptcy on January 23, 2013. Rubin is the vice president of Metaverse Content at Meta Platforms.

Characters of the <i>Jak and Daxter</i> series Fictional character

This is a list of characters in the Jak and Daxter series, a video game franchise originally developed by Naughty Dog for the PlayStation 2. Currently, six games in the series have been released, with Jak as the primary playable character in all except Daxter for the PlayStation Portable.

<i>PlayStation Move Heroes</i> 2011 video game

PlayStation Move Heroes, known in Japan as Gachinko Heroes, is a 2011 action-adventure video game developed by Nihilistic Software and published by Sony Computer Entertainment for the PlayStation 3 video game console utilizing the PlayStation Move. It is a crossover of the Ratchet & Clank, Jak and Daxter, and Sly Cooper franchises to form a total of six main characters.

<i>Jak and Daxter Collection</i> 2012 video game

Jak and Daxter Collection is a 2012 collection of the remastered ports of the first three games in the Jak and Daxter series. The remasters were developed by Mass Media Games, with grounds on the originals by Naughty Dog, and published by Sony Computer Entertainment.

Babak "Bob" Rafei is an Iranian video game art director, character animator and concept artist. He is the CEO of Big Red Button Entertainment, a video game development studio he co-founded with Jeff Lander in 2009.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Bruce Straley</span> American video game designer

Bruce Straley is an American game director, artist, designer, and studio director. He previously worked for the video game developer Naughty Dog, known for his work on the video games The Last of Us and Uncharted 4: A Thief's End. Straley's first video game work was as an artist at Western Technologies Inc, where he worked on the Menacer six-game cartridge (1992) and X-Men (1993). Following this, he formed a company, Pacific Softscape, where he worked as a designer on Generations Lost (1994). After the company disbanded, Straley was eventually hired at Crystal Dynamics, where he worked as a designer on Gex: Enter the Gecko (1998) and was initially game director for Gex 3: Deep Cover Gecko (1999); he left the company partway through development of the latter.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Air pirate</span> Type of stock character from science fiction and fantasy

Air pirates are a class of stock character from science fiction and fantasy.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Evan Wells</span> American video game designer

Evan Wells is an American video game designer and programmer and co-president of Naughty Dog. Wells' first video game was at Sega, where he worked on ToeJam & Earl in Panic on Funkotron, before moving to Crystal Dynamics in 1995 to work on Gex and Gex: Enter the Gecko. He was employed at Naughty Dog in 1998, working on several Crash Bandicoot and Jak and Daxter titles before becoming co-president of the company alongside Stephen White in 2005; White was replaced the following year by Christophe Balestra, who retired in 2017. The two oversaw the release of the Uncharted series, and The Last of Us. Wells remained the sole president, overseeing the release of The Last of Us Part II, until Neil Druckmann's promotion to co-president in 2020. Wells announced his retirement in 2023.

References

    1. Brendan Sinclair (October 9, 2009). "Jak and Daxter reuniting Nov. 3 - PSP News at GameSpot". GameSpot. Archived from the original on 2022-02-08. Retrieved 2023-06-01.
    2. Mathieson, Lesley (1 April 2009). "Jak & Daxter Are BACK!". PlayStation Blog. Archived from the original on 23 May 2012. Retrieved 20 July 2012.
    3. Shaw, Melissa (6 December 2009). "Game Review: "Jak and Daxter: The Lost Frontier" for the PS2". Fantasy Magazine. Archived from the original on 19 April 2016. Retrieved 25 February 2016. TLF has a surprising amount of replay value in Hero Mode, which becomes available once you have finished the game
    4. iTunes - Music - Jak and Daxter: The Lost Frontier (Original Soundtrack from the Video Game) Archived 2015-11-06 at the Wayback Machine iTunes Retrieved March 4, 2015
    5. Colin Moriarty (4 October 2013). "Rising to Greatness: The History of Naughty Dog Page 13". IGN. Archived from the original on 6 June 2021. Retrieved January 29, 2014.
    6. 1 2 "Jak and Daxter: The Lost Frontier". Metacritic. Archived from the original on 23 October 2012. Retrieved 28 March 2018.
    7. 1 2 "Jak and Daxter: The Lost Frontier". Metacritic. Archived from the original on 26 August 2010. Retrieved 28 March 2018.
    8. "Jak & Daxter Lost Frontier Review for PSP from 1UP.com". Archived from the original on 2016-03-05. Retrieved 2011-08-05.
    9. 1 2 "Jak & Daxter: The Lost Frontier • Page 2". Eurogamer . 13 November 2009. Archived from the original on 8 March 2010. Retrieved 5 August 2011.
    10. "G4TV". www.g4tv.com. Archived from the original on 3 March 2016. Retrieved 28 March 2018.
    11. "Jak and Daxter Review: Jak Journeys to the End of the World in This Solid Sequel". Game Informer .
    12. 1 2 "Jak and Daxter: The Lost Frontier". GameSpot. Archived from the original on 15 July 2019. Retrieved 19 December 2019.
    13. "Jak and Daxter: The Lost Frontier - IGN.com". Archived from the original on 24 March 2012. Retrieved 28 March 2018.
    14. 1 2 "Jak and Daxter: The Lost Frontier - IGN.com". Archived from the original on 4 April 2012. Retrieved 28 March 2018.