Sony sequel galore

Aside from Rise to Honor, the nearly all of Sony’s other titles are sequels. Here’s a quick run-down.

Jak and Daxter II

Jak II is the follow-up to Jak and Daxter. Despite being called Jak II, Daxter is still in the game. We don’t really know why the title has changed, but we’re happy that it’s shorter since it means less typing. Perhaps it is to differentiate itself from the other Sony “buddy” game Ratchet and Clank II. Anyway, back to Jak II – this new chapter is supposed to be darker than the first game. Colors are still exploding everywhere in fine Naughty Dog fashion, but the story and protagonist have a more cynical and hardened edge. Just take a look at that screenshot of Dark Jak; he doesn’t look kind and gentle…and Daxter looks pretty stoned).

Darkness

Flame on

Graphically, the game is instantly recognizable as being a Jak (and Daxter) game. This makes perfect sense, as Naughty Dog is using the same base engine with a few upgrades to power Jak II. Poly-counts have been upped, and it really shows during the character animation in the cut-scenes. The original Jak and Daxter had 4000 polygons per character, whereas Jak II will have 15,000 polygons per character.

Bring it, chump

Aim high

Take off

From what we’ve experienced in our demo version, Jak II looks to be the “safe sequel” to Jak and Daxter. That seems to be Naughty Dog’s formula – make an excellent, original game and pile on the sequels. See: Crash Bandicoot.