Daxter

Daxter for the PSP is a 2006 action-platform game developed by Ready at Dawn and published by Sony Computer Entertainment. It is a spin-off of the Jak and Daxter series that places the fast-talking orange ottsel Daxter in the leading role rather than his usual partner, Jak. The story occupies the long gap between the opening events of Jak II and Daxter’s rescue of Jak, returning players to the futuristic city of Haven City while showing what Daxter did after escaping the Krimzon Guard.

The adventure begins with Daxter alone in Haven City, searching for the imprisoned Jak. His trail brings him to Osmo, an exterminator who offers him work clearing the city’s dangerous Metal Bugs. Missions are accessed from a connected city hub and send Daxter into self-contained locations ranging from industrial facilities to transit routes and guarded areas. Completing them advances both the extermination work and the search for Jak, with story scenes connecting the portable game to the wider Jak and Daxter timeline.

Daxter plays as a third-person platformer built around running, jumping, climbing, balancing, squeezing through tight passages, and moving across ziplines and other environmental routes. Daxter can double-jump and grab ledges, while vehicles provide a different way to travel through parts of Haven City. The game also uses portals and gateways to take the player from the hub into missions, keeping the focus on individual platforming and combat challenges without treating every destination as a separate game world.

Combat starts with Daxter’s electric bug swatter, a close-range tool that can be used in combinations against Metal Bugs. He later acquires an extermination tank that fires bug spray and can be upgraded with additional functions. Its equipment expands Daxter’s options against enemies and obstacles, including aerial movement and more forceful attacks. Health and ammunition resources are tied to the game’s eco-based pickups, so exploration helps sustain Daxter as well as uncover paths through each mission.

Collecting is another important part of the PSP game. Golden Bug-Gems and Precursor Orbs are hidden around Haven City and its missions, rewarding careful movement and revisiting areas. Precursor Orbs unlock extras, while concealed picture frames can reveal further items. The game also includes dream sequences in which Daxter imagines himself as the hero of exaggerated movie-inspired scenarios, giving the campaign short diversions that match the character’s comic perspective. A local wireless Bug Combat option lets two PSP players use collected and trained bugs in battles.

As the first release from Ready at Dawn, Daxter was designed specifically for Sony’s handheld rather than as a direct port of a console Jak and Daxter game. Its character-led story fills in a point that Jak II deliberately leaves unexplained, while its missions, hub travel, collectibles, and equipment preserve the series’ mix of action and platforming for the PSP. The original PSP version later returned through a PlayStation 4 and PlayStation 5 conversion in 2024, where Sony added modern presentation and convenience features such as up-rendering, rewind, quick save, and video filters.