Jak and Daxter in HD

Naughty Dog’s Jak and Daxter series is coming to PS3 with the usual HD bells and whistles.

The Jak and Daxter: Collection comes with the first three games in the series, remastered in 720p and stereoscopic 3D. That’s Jak and Daxter: The Precursor Legacy, Jak 2 and Jak 3 – unfortunately the surprisingly good Jak X: Combat Racing and the PSP spinoffs didn’t make the cut.

The original Jak and Daxter: The Precursor Legacy was a cutesy platformer in the vein of Banjo Kazooie. The second dropped Daxter from the title, turned the ‘grim’ dial up to eleven – the first sentence muttered by previously silent protagonist Jak was a promise of murderous retribution – and added open-world vehicle missions. It was a jarring change, but it ultimately proved successful. The third game toned down the angst a little, and brought the series to a surprisingly emotional conclusion. Naughty Dog followed that up with the obligatory kart-racing game, then passed the series off to other developers in favor of the vastly more successful Uncharted series.

Is this collection strictly necessary? Probably not. Aside from a severe case of the jaggies – which, let’s face it, turn up in pretty much every game from the PS2 era – the series’ visuals are as fresh as they were back in 2001, thanks to some superb, expressive animation. Still, those who balk at sub HD resolutions, delight in the collection of trophies and other digital doodads or, like me, tended to pile their PS2 disks on top of each other in horrifying, scratchy death mounds, will want to pick up the collection when it’s released next February.