Naughty Dog may be best known for its hyper-realistic and mature story-driven games, but this wasn't always the case. Indeed, long before Uncharted and The Last of Us were franchises like Crash Bandicoot and Jak & Daxter, which hasn't seen a full, mainline entry since Jak 3, 20 years ago.
Launched on the PS2 in 2004, Jak 3 followed in the footsteps of its immediate predecessor, doubling down on typical open-world adventure and action tropes and pivoting away from the more colorful, all-ages platforming of the first game. Players follow the titular Jak and his sidekick Daxter as they make their way through the Wasteland, an inhospitable stretch of desert that seems to take more than a few cues from the Mad Max franchise, albeit with a fair injection of high fantasy and PG-13 violence. It's not exactly a game that audiences were expecting, but many look back on it fondly all these years later. Moreover, it's remembered as a bittersweet pitstop in PlayStation history, as few could have predicted that this would have been the last full Jak & Daxter game to come to market.
Jak 3: Naughty Dog's Unexpected Farewell to Its Modus Operandi
Jak 3 Is Hard to Forget
Jak 3 is something of a time capsule for a specific era of gaming. Released around the same time as infamous but endearingly edgy games like Shadow the Hedgehog, it adopts a surprisingly dark and quasi-mature tone, with gunplay, carjacking, and cartoon violence forming the bulk of its gameplay structure. Indeed, Jak 3 can feel a bit like "GTA for kids" at times, as players are presented with a huge open-world to explore, (flying) cars to steal, and a bevy of inventive sci-fi guns with which to shoot bad guys.
It was a fairly ambitious game for its time, too, with graphics and animations that still hold up surprisingly well today, solid gunplay similar to the likes of Ratchet and Clank, and a sandbox rife with opportunities for varied gameplay. With Jak 3, Naughty Dog began to shed the conventions of its earlier releases and moved in a more adult direction, making the game an unexpected precursor to what the studio would eventually become much better known for.
Jak 3 Wound Up Being a Swansong for a Definitive Era of Naughty Dog
Naughty Dog is a developer that needs little introduction at this point. Its two leading franchises, The Last of Us and Uncharted, have become two of Sony's crown jewels, serving as blockbuster showcases for the strength of new consoles thanks to their remarkable fidelity, character animations, and attention to detail. It's almost hard to remember that the company was once known for making action-platformers and action-adventure games targeted at a younger audience.
Jak 3, for all intents and purposes, is the last of this kind of Naughty Dog title. Yes, Naughty Dog released the Jak X: Combat Spin-Off a year later, and two PSP spin-offs followed in 2006 and 2009, but these weren't mainline entries. Additionally, the PSP games weren't even developed by Naughty Dog. Just three years after the launch of Jak 3 came Uncharted: Drake's Fortune which, while not perfect, would come to define the future of the company for well over a decade.
Maybe Jak 3's mature tone was an early sign of Naughty Dog's desire to tell more adult stories in games, or perhaps the studio just fell out of love with the series. Either way, the leap from Jak 3 to the first Uncharted was shocking at the time, and historic in hindsight. It's not clear whether the gaming world will ever be blessed with another Jak & Daxter, but for now, Jak 3 is a mighty fine exit point.
- Released
- November 9, 2004
- ESRB
- T For Teen Due To Fantasy Violence, Language, Suggestive Themes, Use of Tobacco
- Developer(s)
- Naughty Dog
- Publisher(s)
- Sony Computer Entertainment
- Engine
- Kinetica
WHERE TO PLAY
Jak and his faithful companion Daxter are thrust in the middle of an unforgiving Wasteland where survival of the fittest takes on new meaning. With potent weapons, armor, and vehicles, Jak also discovers that there is an emerging power inside him - the ability to balance Dark Jak and Light Jak. Questions about the mysterious Precursors, the mythical Mar, the fate of the world and the enigmatic Jak himself will be answered, as this most exciting adventure unfolds.
- Franchise
- Jak and Daxter
- Genre(s)
- Platformer, Action-Adventure
- How Long To Beat
- 12 Hours
- PS Plus Availability
- Premium
