To set the scene, when this game came into my life, I was about three years old. At this point in my life, about the only game I have a firm memory of playing before Jak is Crash Bandicoot, and at that point, all I could do was press one button at a time. I was running, passing the controller onto someone who could actually jump over a gap for me, then running to the next gap. It was through 3D platformers that I first experienced video games, and ultimately through Jak & Daxter: The Precursor Legacy that I gained a firm appreciation for what it meant to play a video game for myself. To have a video game to myself.

I believe that Jak & Daxter planted in me the seeds for the things I’d come to appreciate most in other video games. Exploration and the joy of a world fresh and open to discovering new things, experimenting with the environment – these are things that continue to grip me in video games to this day. Precursor Legacy being a seamless open-world gave it (and still gives it) the impression of a living world. There were no noticeable seams – to me, the world might as well have been real, and I was experiencing it vicariously, a portal to a world just as real as my own. It sounds immensely childish now of course, but for quite some time when I was young, I wondered how the game developers managed to get the game characters to live. Did they have a beating heart like I did? When they ran along a beach, did they draw breath in through their mouth and taste salt in their lungs?

Jak & Daxter is a game I’ve returned to time and time again across my life. It is one of the few games I would happily play through to 100% over and over again, because there is a spark of ingenuity and a general infusing of joy throughout the whole game experience. My obsession with poking video games until they break, as well as with the feeling of horror and thrill I love so much in my games these days, likely stems from my fascination with the Lurker Shark. For all intents and purposes, the Shark (pictured in the header image) is a simple in-game explanation in place of an invisible wall. When you swim too far away, or off the beaten path, you hear the sound of a beating heart, which gets louder and louder. A shark then appears out of the water, and swallows both Jak and Daxter whole without a single chance to fight back.

I tried so many things to get past them. To see if I could swim to Misty Island, instead of taking the boat. To see if there was anything out around the edges of the Forbidden Jungle, or the beach. If there were more areas to the Precursor City, I never found out, because I was being digested in the shark’s stomach. But that never stopped me. I was never discouraged. I never felt opposed by the game as I might have been with an invisible wall. Because there were always more orbs to find, always more power cells to open up new areas. I played the game to 100% completion twice last year, and still find myself smiling as I write this article, thinking of the nostalgic memories that mix with the fact the game still stands up today as a triumph.

I will always, always treasure those moments I spent nestled in a beanbag in front of a chunky television, PlayStation 2 Dualshock controller in my hands, roaming Sentinel Beach, or scaling Snowy Mountain. I could swear I could feel the chill of the air on the top of that mountain, or the heat from the Lava Tubes. But my favourite moment of the game remains the elevator to the final boss. After an entire game spent chasing after the sages of dark eco, you finally confront them atop a gargantuan tower, the entire vista of the previous gameworld stretched out behind you, and their massive robot a truly gargantuan foe. Then the final boss music begins to play, and you realize that the game has been preparing you for a confrontation such as this – and while it’s easy now, I remember struggling against this gargantuan foe for hours when I was younger. But when I finally bested them, when I saved the world – that was my victory. It will always be my victory, and the time I have spent in that world is time I am always grateful for.

There are some games that are inherently personal for all of us. Some games that just have a deeper connection than others ever will. To Jak & Daxter, I feel I owe my gaming tastes. It set me on a path I could not be more happy with, and to those developers who worked on it at Naughty Dog – I say thank you. Perhaps even more importantly, I thank my parents, who bought me this game one fateful day, and allowed me to spend so many hours on it. I am forever grateful.