Jak and Daxter: The Precursor Legacy

A game's got a long way to go to bring me around if it reminds me of Bubsy 3D, which The Precursor Legacy did almost immediately. It's modeled on the same basic idea - an open world disguised as a platformer, with a storyline and gameplay mechanic driven by collectables scattered across the environment. But actually, this ain't half bad.

What this game does very well, like all the best of its kind, is use the collectables which sit at its core to encourage you to explore the world fully, and make it worth your time to do so. Chasing around after floating eggs might sound dumb, but the way it challenges you to find a way to reach some of them is surprisingly fulfilling, and in doing so you'll find yourself running across a whole host of side-quests given to you by NPCs. Which it's got a fixed, linear storyline, you have a certain amount of freedom when it comes to choosing how you will progress from one level to the next, with the game merely telling you that you need a certain number of power cells to get there and allowing you to get hold of them however you wish (some are just lying around in hard-to-reach areas, some are rewards for completing side-missions, and some can be traded for precursor orbs, a more common type of collectable). When twinned with the diversity of the side-missions - shooting games, races, fights, and hunting games all appear - it means that a player can happily skip the odd quest that doesn't take their fancy and not be punished for it. In a game that feels like it was designed for kids, as the bright colorful world means this one does, that's crucial; it wants you to have fun but isn't going to dictate to you how you're going to have it.

It's certainly not perfect, with a few too many of the characters crossing the line from 'over the top' to 'outright annoying', and the difficulty curve of the missions isn't great, with the game sometimes giving you one that's insultingly easy and another that's completely unforgiving from two guys stood right next to each other. It's aged well enough and is still a fun playthrough these days, though, which is more than can be said of quite a few platformers of its time.