As you move Daxter around these levels one thing will become immediately apparent; Ready At Dawn knows how to program to the PSP’s “analog stick.” I was simply amazed at how well it works in this 3D platformer. After an hour or so of playtime I totally forgot I wasn’t using a regular analog stick. Along with the excellent 3D movement, jumping and firing your weapon is extremely smooth and I can honestly say that thanks in part to the superb camera I didn’t have a single technical issue with the controls. As you navigate the world you’ll be able to climb, grab on to ledges, grab on to things above you, slide on zip lines, and even float through the air thanks to some later gun attachments.

Along with normal platforming levels there are also vehicle levels where you race against something, drive around spraying things to get rid of their bug infestations, or combat bugs as big as your vehicle. For the most part the vehicles drive fine and thankfully never get stuck but overall the driving is just average. It’s very polished for what it is but in the end it feels like they put it in as a way to keeps things fresh.

Like I said earlier the graphics are really something else. The game has extremely large draw distances, textures and models that are near PS2 quality, and nearly nonexistent load times to boot. It’s like Ready At Dawn got a special dev kit that Sony didn’t give to anyone else. Add to all that the highly refined animation and facial animation that this developer has been working on for years and you have the most graphically pleasing PSP game to date.

With all they’ve packed in you’d think they’d have to cut corners somewhere and that sound might be a good target but no they score big here too. Along with a stellar background score there is full, yes full, voice acting for every line of dialogue within the game. Not only that but the dialogue is delivered at near the quality of a major motion picture. Mix in sound effects that don’t deter and you’ve got an audio treat too.