Lost Frontier

Lore & Background

The game begins with Jak and Daxter escorting Keira on her journey to become a Sage and help find the reason for a worldwide Eco shortage. After an encounter with Captain Phoenix, an Eco-seeking Sky Pirate, Jak crash-lands on an island at the Brink (the edge of their world). The duo meet a Castaway who knows Jak has been touched by Dark Eco but can't remember who he was or why he was on the island. The Castaway later reveals he is (or once was) a Dark Eco Sage and built a facility for the Aeropans.

Phoenix reveals he was once commander of the Aeropan Air Forces, put in charge of a secret weapons program to make a new kind of warrior. When he found out what they were doing, he refused and tried to stop the program, kidnapping the program's chief scientist (the Castaway). The Castaway took a blow to his head and suffered amnesia; he was marooned on Brink Island to hide his work from the Aeropans. The Castaway says Jak can be used to undo the damage the Aeropans had done, being 'a warrior who proves that Dark Eco can be controlled, or at least managed.'

Reader's Guide

Similar to other games in the series, The Lost Frontier features a Hero Mode where players are able to replay the game. Weapons, armor, powers, secrets, and unspent Precursor orbs are retained through each playthrough. The game was originally planned as a PlayStation Portable exclusive and was in the process of being developed by Naughty Dog when it was cancelled. Evan Wells revealed that they were unable to sustain the game's development alongside Uncharted: Drake's Fortune (2007) and made the decision to pass the project onto High Impact Games.

Following the release of Jak X: Combat Racing in 2005, Naughty Dog began development of The Lost Frontier under the working title Jak PSP. The soundtrack, Jak and Daxter: The Lost Frontier Original Soundtrack, composed by James Dooley, was released for digital download by Sony Computer Entertainment on November 2, 2009. GameSpot gave the game 7.5/10, calling it 'a good addition to Sony's much-loved series' and praising the 'solid gameplay, challenging platform puzzles and wacky humour' though felt that the 'Dark Daxter levels feel tacked on.'

IGN awarded it 7.4/10, saying 'There's fun to be had here, but it could've been polished a bit more to bring out the value.' Eurogamer felt 'Jak & Daxter: The Lost Frontier is one of the best platformers available for PSP/PS2' and continued: 'It also stands as evidence that there's life in the old Naughty Dog series yet.'