The "Jak and Daxter" series was one of my favorites as a kid. I played through all three multiple times, enjoying just about everything I could get out of them. And I'm happy to say that the first entry in the series still holds up pretty damn well.

The game is short, sweet, and a whole lot of fun. Its nice to play a game that I can 100% in under 8 hours. (Granted, I know where just about everything is, but still, I've come to enjoy short games like this as I get older). And the actual gameplay during those 8 hours was pretty nice too, albeit a bit clunky.

There's an occasional jump that feels off, a few times where I got hit when I was positive I should have been fine, and of course, the godforsaken camera that you sometimes have to violently force to work with you by entering the awkward first person mode. There are a bunch of little problems that really hold this game back sadly.

But the game makes up for that by being pretty darn easy combat wise and forgiving in terms of checkpoints. Most enemies only take one hit to kill like in the "Crash Bandicoot" series, so even if you have to fight with the controls, its usually pretty easy to work around them.

But what really stood out to me this time around was the animations. For a game from 2001, "Jak and Daxter" looks amazing! Sure, the models aren't that great, and the design of everything screams early PS2; but the amazingly smooth animations more than make up for that. The characters, despite being pretty one-note, felt so alive thanks to the way they all moved. Even if I got frustrated by a bad jump or an annoying hit, I could at least appreciate how fluid everything looked and felt.

Overall, a fun game from my childhood that I was happy to play again. I actually prefer "Jak II" the most, but this one still has a special place in my heart. Its short, fun, and full of energy. And in my opinion, this was Naughty Dog's best video game series by far. Its nice to look back and see what they used to make before the modern era.

Minus half a star for the choppy framerate and Gamecube graphics. That aside, this is fantastic. This is about as deep as monster collectors get but it still seems pretty newbie friendly: the number of permutations between monsters (who all have multiple innate passives) and the fact you can graft any 3 skill paths onto anyone is insane but you can't really screw up too bad: rescouting becomes super easy as you progress and you have 1000 monster slots to work with, so getting the right skills on the right monster isn't too tough. Monsterpedia is excellent: if you're worried you need a synthesis guide they really give you a lot of recommended combos, you can check family trees in case you've forgotten past synthesis, etc. Really user-friendly without being handholdy. As long as people play ladder (and it's never been easier to make great, unique monsters), it'll never get stale.

This is a BIG game too: my memory may be foggy but I feel like the campaign is about twice as long as past entries. The story strikes a nice balance between telling a solid isolated narrative and being a geeky fanservice what-if prequel for the Zenithian trilogy freaks (Why is Toilen Trubble a main character here? I dunno man but he's a piece of shit and I'm happy he's here to rob everyone in the name of science).

Localization slaps. Took a screenshot every time they announced a new arena fighter, dialogue is insanely dumb in the best way. Anyways eat your damn heart out, Pokemon.