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Additionally, all discs at NexWave Games are carefully inspected and assessed for quality. When discs arrive, we do not accept any that are so badly damaged that they are unlikely to work. We only accept discs with light scratches at most. Discs with scratches are then treated in our professional disc repair machine. By warming the disc and polishing it with soft brushes, these machines can remove a very thin layer from the disc. This removes the layer containing surface scratches and improves the disc’s readability. This ensures the disc works properly, even on consoles with ageing lasers that have difficulty reading games! Great news for the player.
Daxter for PlayStation Portable
Daxter for PlayStation Portable follows the orange ottsel as he searches for Jak in Haven City. While his friend is imprisoned, Daxter takes a job as a pest exterminator. You use an electric fly swatter to clear out Metal Bugs and investigate buildings you could not otherwise enter. The adventure combines three-dimensional jumping, climbing and fighting with assignments in a hotel, a construction site and industrial parts of the city.
His spray gun does more than stun insects. You also use its jet to hover briefly and cross larger gaps between platforms. Later upgrades expand the tool further, giving the same surroundings new possibilities for movement. Between assignments you drive vehicles and look for Precursor Orbs. These unlock dream sequences in which Daxter imagines himself as a film hero; those minigames can then reward you with new attacks for the main adventure.
You play the story alone. You also collect and strengthen Combat Bugs for separate insect duels against the computer or another player. For a local Ad Hoc duel, both players need a wireless-capable PSP, their own copy of Daxter and their own saved game data on Memory Stick Duo. Choosing attacks, determining their power and using tactical tokens are central to these battles. These two-player fights are separate from the platform adventure: you do not tackle the story missions together.
Region and language
Our PlayStation Portable games are European editions and come with a Dutch or English box, unless stated otherwise. By default, you receive the version for the European market. We note it in the product details if the region is different or the box is in another language. In almost all cases, the game is playable at least in English, and often in the other five common European languages too.
You receive the physical UMD edition. You need a PSP with a UMD drive to play it; a PSP Go cannot play this disc.
Manual
Daxter for PlayStation Portable includes the manual unless the product title states otherwise. If the booklet is missing, the title says “No Manual”. This lets you see before ordering whether the game comes with a manual.
The manuals included with our games usually contain at least English and often around six European languages. The exact languages vary by edition, so Dutch is not always included. The booklet explains the controls and the main rules. You can use it to check how to control the game, which actions are available and how its different features work.
The history of Daxter
Ready at Dawn created Daxter as its first game, and Sony released it for PlayStation Portable in 2006. The developer was founded in 2003 by Didier Malenfant, Andrea Pessino and Ru Weerasuriya, with experience at Naughty Dog and Blizzard. Rather than shrinking an existing Jak game, the regular comic sidekick received an adventure of his own. Its story fills in the period when Daxter tries to free Jak, before the escape at the beginning of Jak II.
The switch to Daxter also changed the design. His small body and extermination work suggested narrow passages, insect enemies and tools that double as a means of movement. Ready at Dawn built its own technology for this. Malenfant later described how the team went through several versions of its engine to make Daxter run well on PSP. The studio wanted to deliver a fully three-dimensional platform game, paying attention to animation and Daxter's movements.
After Daxter, Ready at Dawn used its experience and engine as the starting point for God of War: Chains of Olympus. The studio was thus entrusted with another established PlayStation series on the handheld, this time with a very different tone. Sony added Daxter to North America's Greatest Hits range in 2007 and also included it in a PSP bundle there. The European Essentials packaging belongs to the later budget releases of the original PSP game.
Similar games for PlayStation Portable
Ratchet & Clank: Size Matters for PlayStation Portable combines three-dimensional platforming with funny characters and various gadgets, much like Daxter. Ratchet, however, carries a larger shooting arsenal and collects armour parts, while Daxter uses his extermination tools to defeat insects and hover over gaps. In both games, your chosen equipment determines how you approach an obstacle, but their weapons and movements feel distinctly different.
Secret Agent Clank on PlayStation Portable also gives a familiar supporting character an adventure of his own. Clank sneaks past guards as a secret agent, uses disguised spy gadgets and investigates why Ratchet is imprisoned. Daxter likewise begins with a captured friend, but mainly relies on jumping, climbing and pest control. Both reverse the usual heroic roles; Clank places more emphasis on espionage and alternates his missions with other playable characters.
Jak and Daxter: The Lost Frontier for PlayStation Portable returns to the same universe but puts Jak back in the lead. The search for a solution to an eco shortage takes the pair to air pirates and aircraft battles. Daxter stays closer to Haven City and builds its assignments around one small protagonist and his job. The humour and world are familiar, but the balance between platforming, weapons and aerial action differs.
God of War: Chains of Olympus on PlayStation Portable comes from the same developer as Daxter. It too alternates fights with climbing and environmental puzzles, but Kratos uses chained weapons in a violent world drawn from Greek mythology. Daxter chooses insect enemies, cartoon-like humour and a spray gun that lets you hover. Their shared craft lies in combining movement and action on the handheld, not in a similar atmosphere or intended audience.
MediEvil Resurrection for PlayStation Portable, like Daxter, mixes action, exploration and humour around an unlikely hero. Sir Daniel Fortesque travels through Gallowmere with his weapons to defeat the sorcerer Zarok, while Daxter works his way through Haven City as an exterminator. MediEvil chooses creepy graveyards and a comical skeleton; Daxter uses colourful city areas and agile jumps. Both poke fun at their heroes, but their environments and combat give the adventures distinct rhythms.
