Jak and Daxter

Jak and Daxter is Naughty Dog's PlayStation 2 platforming saga, and it has one of the most abrupt tonal pivots in the medium. The 2001 Precursor Legacy is a bright, seamless collectathon, but Jak II reinvents the series as a grittier open-world adventure with guns, vehicles and a moodier hero, a shift Jak 3 doubles down on.

The franchise also spread sideways: Jak X turned the world into a combat racer, while Daxter handed the wisecracking sidekick his own handheld outing. Both halves of the duo later cameoed in PlayStation's mascot fighter.

The appeal is craftsmanship. Naughty Dog used these games to perfect streaming open worlds and character animation, skills they would carry straight into their later prestige work.

The Jak and Daxter franchise spans 6 games in the CrossBinge catalog.