Welcome back to The PlayStation Report! We’re looking back through Sony’s list of IP in alphabetical order to determine how healthy they are. This time, we’ve got yet another double letter entry, covering both J and K. We’ve got some really big names this time around, so it’ll be interesting to check in on just how well they’re being maintained. Let’s get started with The PlayStation Report!

Jak and Daxter

Waaaay back in the old days, Crash Bandicoot was considered the de facto mascot for the PlayStation brand. He was the orange foil to Sega’s Sonic and Nintendo’s Mario. The problem there was, Crash had only ever appeared on Sony’s platforms, but he wasn’t flat-out owned by the company. Eventually, the rights to the character became a lot more nebulous, and the game’s original developer Naughty Dog came up with something a little more permanently “theirs.” Enter Jak & Daxter. This fun duo became the de facto mascot for the PlayStation 2, and enjoyed a pretty massive level of success. It tells the story of two friends, one of whom is turned into a ottsel (otter and weasel hybrid) and their quest to fight dark Eco and return him to his original form. 

Health rating: Basically dead

I can’t believe Sony hasn’t invested in making any more of these games. Jak and Daxter: The Precursor Legacy did big numbers on the PS2, and was followed up by two successful sequels, a racing spinoff, a PSP-exclusive Daxter spinoff, and cameos in various other PlayStation properties. The last original game in the series was Jak and Daxter: The Lost Frontier for PS2 and PSP. It was developed by High Impact Games instead of Naughty Dog, but still received moderately good reviews. There’s a ton of potential in these characters, and doubtlessly still an appetite for new adventures starring the duo. This one’s fate is a real shame.  

Jet Moto

If you were to call Jet Moto PlayStation’s answer to F-Zero, you wouldn’t be too far off the mark. It’s a series of racing games that take place on hover bikes. There’s also this cool grapple technique that helps you make turns. The first game came out on the original PlayStation all the way back in 1996, and solidly caught on, easily earning a spot in PlayStation’s Greatest Hits line. 

Health rating: Basically dead

Holy cow, this is another one that’s really a shock. Not entirely dissimilar to F-Zero, though at least that series got F-Zero 99. JetMoto saw 2 sequels on the PlayStation, but then mysteriously disappeared. Apparently there was a PS2 game in development for a couple of years called Jet Moto 2124, but that was canned. As was Jet Moto: SOLAR, another PS2 iteration that was cancelled in 2003. The last game in the series was 1999’s Jet Moto 3, and that was a long time ago. I think this one’s sadly been put out to pasture. 

Journey

Journey is a gorgeous adventure game that originally came out on the PlayStation 3 back in 2012. Developed by Thatgamecompany, who had previous tremendous levels of success with Flow and Flower, it’s a unique game that has players explore a desert landscape with other players online. 

Health rating: Complete

This is one of those distances where it being dead isn’t a bad thing. Journey is wonderful, but it was never intended to be a sequel-fueled franchise. Journey is a one and done, and it’s been handled with care. The game was re-released on PS4 and PC, the character has made cameo appearances in other Sony properties, and it remains one of the more beloved names in Sony’s catalog. Good stuff. 

Jumping Flash!

Well well well, it’s another Sony property with tons of promise! Gee, I wonder how this is going to go…

Jumping Flash is a game about a robotic rabbit named Robbit. You jump around, looking for your missing jet pods, and while the original game certainly shows its age today, it’s got a ton of charm. I mean, it’s a robot rabbit named Robbit! How can you go wrong?!?

Health rating: Basically dead

Seriously, Sony. Why are you like this? To their credit, just like Jak & Daxter and Jet Moto, Jumping Flash did get followups at first. A direct sequel was released on the PlayStation in 1996, aptly titled Jumping Flash! 2. Then, in 1999 a pair of Japan-exclusive spinoff games came out, one called Pocket MuuMuu that worked with the PocketStation, and the other called Robbit Mon Dieu, also for PlayStation. But that was it. Clearly, there’s still a lot of love for this brand, especially considering how happy folks were to find Robbit in Astro Bot, but new Jumping Flash! content appears to be out of the question. 

Killzone

Oh, Killzone. The game that popularized the whole “Halo Killer” moniker. But really, that’s always been a bit of a crock of nonsense. Killzone’s similarities with Halo begin and end with it being a first person shooter. It takes place in a very different world with a very different kind of narrative. It was also heralded as a pretty major technical showpiece for Sony, especially the second game’s now infamous E3 2005 trailer that turned out to be wildly over-ambitious. 

Health rating: Could be better

Killzone had a heck of a run up until about 12 years ago. From 2004 to 2013, the series spawned 7 games across the PS2, PS3, PS4, PSP and Vita. It was well-liked, but I don’t know that it ever really caught on as one of those series that was ever truly loved. Then again, not every franchise has to. Thing is, while there hasn’t been an original game in the franchise in quite some time, it did get some crossover content with the massively popular Helldivers 2. So, what does that mean? Clearly it’s not dead, but it sure could be doing better. 

Kinetica

Kinetica is the game Santa Monica Studio did before God of War, which is wild when you think about it. God of War and Kinetica couldn’t be more different. This is a futuristic racing game where you control these weird transformer people and some wild gravity-defying tracks. 

Health rating: Basically dead

This was one and done, and it’s not terribly difficult to figure out why. Santa Monica followed Kinetica up with freaking God of War. Of course that’s what the studio was going to keep doing for the foreseeable future. Except, did they really have to? Kinetica was a pretty cool idea, and there’s plenty of reason to believe that Santa Monica could have pulled out some really neat stuff with it. But according to the internet, the studio literally just did Kinetica and then nothing but God of War. Not that God of War isn’t great, but diversity is the spice of life! I hope that someday they’re allowed to return to this game, or that Sony sees fit to hire somebody else to give it a go, but I doubt that will happen. 

Knack

I’m not going to lie, I don’t understand Knack at all. It was a PS4 launch title, and I thought it looked pretty neat. It’s got this weird craft-inspired look to it, and it seemed to review reasonably well. But it’s taken on a pretty… unusual life of its own since. 

Health rating: Basically dead

Knack got itself a direct sequel in 2017 in the form of Knack II, also for PlayStation 4. It wasn’t exactly a critical darling, though, with the game receiving pretty middling reviews from numerous sources. What I don’t understand is the meme culture surrounding it. It’s a constant punchline in Sony circles and, well, I just don’t get it. Even if the game wasn’t great, it was still pretty creative, and it was designed for people who had never played games before, so why go so hard on it? Whatever it is, it’s beyond me, and following its reception, I don’t think it’s ever coming back. 

And that about wraps things up for another PlayStation Report. And I gotta say, I’m not sure how much I want to keep going with these. This one was just depressing. So many properties with so much potential just sitting there languishing. It’s a harsh reflection of the AAA game space that Sony inhabits today. Every one of these series is capable of being really solid entertainment, but likely not tremendous blockbusters, which I have to imagine is a large part of why they haven’t been touched in decades. 

But we must soldier on! Join us next time for the letter L. Lair is on that list! You remember Lair, right? 

RIGHT???? 

At least we know The Last of Us is safe.