15 Best Video Game Platformers Ever
8. Jak & Daxter: The Precursor Legacy
Jak & Daxter seemed to miss the boat for platformers when it released in 2001, coming after the Crash & Spyro boom. It didn’t really carve out a legacy the way they had, but still sold brilliantly, notching up 1 million in sales and becoming a defining title for the PS2.
Borrowing things like the double jump and spin attack from Crash (both games were developed by Naughty Dog), it also went for the open world collectathon model that Spyro was built upon. Action packed, full of humour and amazingly frenetic, it toon ideas from ‘90s platformers and ran with them.
The level detail was superb, and was ahead of its time for how well the different areas faded into each other within an open world. Each place has real personality to it, and even without the multiple collectibles, it compelled you to explore.
The different eco attacks gave an extra edge of variety too, although it’s a shame notable boss battles were few and far between.
Naughty Dog’s Jak & Daxter topped Insomniac’s Ratchet & Clank, but it remains to be seen how Crash Bandicoot and Spyro The Dragon will fare respectively.