I’ve never particularly liked Jak & Daxter, so the PlayStation fanbase’s enthusiasm for the Naughty Dog franchise always takes me by surprise.
Don’t get me wrong, I think The Precursor Legacy is a fine PS2 platforming game, and it’s got a pinch of that Sony magic with its seamless sandbox world.
But the sequels are, in my opinion, pretty bad: I don’t mind the third game’s vehicular combat, but the second entry feels like it was never playtested to me. I suppose the one positive you could say about the trilogy is that it guided Naughty Dog on its way to Uncharted.
Clearly I’m in the minority here, though, because almost 500 of you said you want the dynamic duo back on the PS5.
Sony is apparently exploring ways it can revive legacy IP – with inFAMOUS allegedly getting remakes in the near future – and in a poll, almost 20% of you said you most want Jak & Daxter back.
Here are the five franchises that got the most votes:
The votes drop off quite drastically beyond these five, although Ape Escape, WipEout, and Gravity Rush put up respectable numbers.
The series which fans don’t seem to have much interest in? Patapon got just 7 (seven) votes out of almost 3,000 in total, but I suppose it is getting a spiritual successor this year in Ratatan, which may have convinced participants to vote elsewhere.
Personally, I was surprised to see my beloved Hot Shots Golf floundering at the bottom. Just 43 votes for a franchise that’s been a PlayStation mainstay up until the PS5 – I can’t help but feel for dev Clap-Hanz.
Looking at these results, I wonder if we will ever see Jak & Daxter make a comeback. Naughty Dog did famously experiment with a more realistic adaptation around the time of The Last of Us, but it ultimately decided against pursuing that project.
I’m not convinced fans want a realistic take on this series, though; I’d imagine most people want a traditional 3D platformer like The Precursor Legacy, which is the series’ most popular instalment by far.
Whatever the case, there’s clearly pent-up enthusiasm for PlayStation’s legacy IP; I really hope the company finds a way to resurrect some of these series.
As much as I love new ideas, Sony really is sitting on a vault of valuable franchises, and it’s almost a crime to see them languish when there’s a passionate fanbase gagging for them to be revived on the PS5.
