So when Naughty Dog’s successful pairing of Jak and Daxter was torn apart for a PSP outing, it’s enough to set the alarm bells ringing. Thankfully the alert can be cancelled and the emergency crews put back on standby, because there was really only ever one choice of whom a solo outing would centre around (and it wasn’t the ever increasingly brooding and miserable Jak).

Daxter’s first solo game is set between the events of the first and second PlayStation 2 games. Catapulted through a time rift into Haven City, Jak is captured by the evil Baron Praxis and his Krimson Guard, leaving Daxter to fend for himself on the streets. In order to survive, the furry Ottsel stumbles into a vacant position at the Kridder Ridder Extermination Company. It seems that Haven City is suffering from a serious infestation of Metal Bugs, the subtle vanguard assault of the Metal Heads. As the only exterminator on the Kridder Ridders books who isn’t dead yet, it’s up to Daxter to exercise some bug control and search for his captive friend.

Players are put back in familiar territory, similar to the idea behind Grand Theft Auto: Liberty City Stories that recreated GTA3’s environment in handheld form. Although unlike Rockstar’s game Haven City is incomplete and nowhere near as sprawling as the PS2 environment. This may frustrate and disappoint those used to the full-scale city and also seems a bit odd given the level of recreation that Liberty City Stories skilfully achieved. While vehicles buzz overhead, out of the limited reach of the furry bug fighter, it is noticeable that the streets are devoid of pedestrians perhaps as the result of the game running on the PSP’s hardware.The environment does spread out in a number of directions through doorways and warp gates, using the same streaming system employed in the previous titles, although this does cause some severe slowdown during the times that the PSP attempts to autosave and continue to stream the environment at the same time.

To numb the shock of a smaller cityscape, there are a number of new locations to visit. There is plenty of opportunity to become familiar with these, as players are often required to revisit the same area more than once. While the game can hide from accusations of repetition behind the excuse that it’s a portable title, there are parts where it is used as a blatant attempt to prolong the game's short lenght. One notable example is being told to go back to a location with no reason as to why, wander around for a few minutes and then being told to escape before the place explodes; again for no apparent reason.

Apart from brief breaks for cut-scenes, Daxter does a good job of tricking you into thinking there’re no loading times, thanks to the spinning doorlock trick from previous titles. However there is sometimes a delay with in-game message communications, with the character voices taking a while to play after the text has been displayed. While this isn’t the biggest of problems, it does often mean that you’ve finished reading the text before the audio starts.

An exterminator is only as good as his tools of the trade and given than Daxter is barely much larger than the Metal Bugs themselves he’s hardly able to adopt the John Goodman-patented ‘Delbert McClintock’ approach. Instead Daxter is armed with a rudimentary electro bug swatter, handy for splatting bugs into little bitty pieces, and a spray gun: initially only capable of releasing a stream of gas which paralyses Metal Bugs temporarily (allowing Daxter to bash them with his swatter) later upgrades turn this into a flamethrower or powerful sonic disrupter. By firing mid-jump Daxter is able to use the spray gun to push himself higher into the air and hover around – a technique that becomes essential for reaching platforms or getting over large gaps. However, the pressure can only be maintained from the spray gun for a particular amount of time, so things must be timed right to prevent Daxter spiralling to his doom (complete with comical ‘Waaaaaaahhh!’ which sadistically never gets boring). Along with trekking around on foot, Daxter takes charge of a number of vehicles within set locations, to perform tasks like crop-dusting bugs or ramming larger ones into submission. As with previous titles the vehicles are easy to control and there is little difference in handling between them.

Small breaks in the combat and exploration come in the form of the mini games that have become an established part of the series. These involve pressing the symbol and direction buttons in time with the onscreen prompts to turn valves or prevent electrical circuits from shorting out. Daxter’s dream sequences, triggered by finding enough Precursor Orbs and then somewhere for him to sleep, also feature similar button-pressing sequences that, if completed successfully, award the player with upgrades. These dreams see Daxter taking on the lead role from films such as Indiana Jones, The Matrix and Lord of the Rings as he amusingly battles to dispatch a set number of enemies.

While the dream sequences are optional, the mini games that form part of the main storyline can bar any further progress if the player finds them difficult to master. A firm knowledge of the PSP’s buttons and being able to use the D-pad and buttons at the same time are essential, as one wrong button press often results in having to start the sequence all over again. While not extremely taxing it is understandable that some players will find these frustrating and those who hated them in the PS2 games will certainly not enjoy them this time around either.

The major gripe with Daxter is certainly the camera. While there is no end of games where the camera can cause problems, here it stands out more than most. The player can only move the camera around Daxter horizontally to give a better sense of surroundings and not vertically. Although the game-controlled camera is capable for the most part, in these areas it provides little help. For a platformer this can cause serious issues when approaching the end of a ledge where it’s not immediately obvious if there is anything below. It is some consolation however that Daxter still operates the system that simply places you back a few steps when you die, rather than using the traditional ‘lives’ system.

Bug Combat makes up the game's multiplayer aspect, where the player can pit different bugs collected through the course of the single-player story against an opponent. Similarly collecting certain items in the game also allow the bug's powers and attacks to be upgraded. The way in which the multiplayer is both presented and executed feels very much like a stripped-down Pokémon battling game, expecting the player to do little more than choose their attack and press the button at the right time to determine its power. It’s a nice distraction, but the limited gameplay makes it very unlikely that it’ll keep players engaged for too long, even with another person to play against.

Daxter’s failing, despite it being a solid and entertaining platformer, is that it does feel a bit short and a bit lacking. Having said that, it will certainly be a must-play for fans of the series and anyone looking for a portable platform title to occupy them for a few hours will certainly be diverted sufficiently by this.