Weird things happen when a cheery 3D platformer comes down with ‘GTA Fever’

Way before Naughty Dog became ‘The Studio of Perpetual Last of Us Re-releases,’ it actually had a pretty diverse portfolio. There was Crash Bandicoot on PS1, there was a derpy digitised fighting game called Way of the Warrior in 1994, and even an isometric RPG for the Genesis with a very naughty intro.

A little more recently however, there was the well loved ‘Jak’ trilogy, spanning three PS2 games between 2001 and 2004. What was interesting about this trilogy is that instead of immortalising its protagonists—the pointy-eared human Jak, and his ‘ottsel’ (that’s weasel + otter) friend Daxter—the characters actually aged with each game, and the tone of the game changed with them.

The most drastic tonal leap in the Jak trilogy, however, was between the first game, Jak and Daxter, and its sequel Jak 2. Where the original game was a vibrant 3D platformer very much in the lineage of Rare’s work on the N64—your Banjo-Kazooie’s and your Conkers—the sequel took on a grittier tone, set in a grimy dystopian world where instead of hopping around tropical islands and caves glimmering with blue crystals, you’re trudging through slums, factories, and islands ravaged by heavy industrialisation.