Another stage, which takes place in a Lumber Mill, packs its own set of challenges. We had to jump over spinning blades and other lethal machinery, slide down crazy pipes and even hop on a lake of over-sized lily pads. This stage had a perfect example of the aforementioned "platforming without platforms" thing. Here's how it went down: we had to reach an item that took us far from the main stage by collecting a string of fuel orbs for our pesticide gun. Miss a single orb and the pesticide gun runs out of juice, causing Daxter to fall from the sky and into the lake below. This is just one example, but the game has tons of this kind of thing throughout.

We even saw a few stealth elements during one of the last stages in the adventure. We actually had to sneak into a prison and avoid detection by the facility's wary guards. We had to slink into holding cells, hide under bunks and in air vents, and time our movements to avoid detection. It actually reminded us of the stealth aspects seen in Beyond Good & Evil. Another stage where it seemed like stealth would play a role was in a palace, where we had snuck in as professional exterminators. We had to make our way past flowing banners, vaulted ceilings and high-tech machinery while in disguise.

Another stage, which takes place in a Lumber Mill, packs its own set of challenges. We had to jump over spinning blades and other lethal machinery, slide down crazy pipes and even hop on a lake of over-sized lily pads. This stage had a perfect example of the aforementioned "platforming without platforms" thing. Here's how it went down: we had to reach an item that took us far from the main stage by collecting a string of fuel orbs for our pesticide gun. Miss a single orb and the pesticide gun runs out of juice, causing Daxter to fall from the sky and into the lake below. This is just one example, but the game has tons of this kind of thing throughout.

We even saw a few stealth elements during one of the last stages in the adventure. We actually had to sneak into a prison and avoid detection by the facility's wary guards. We had to slink into holding cells, hide under bunks and in air vents, and time our movements to avoid detection. It actually reminded us of the stealth aspects seen in Beyond Good & Evil. Another stage where it seemed like stealth would play a role was in a palace, where we had snuck in as professional exterminators. We had to make our way past flowing banners, vaulted ceilings and high-tech machinery while in disguise.

Another cool extra, Bug Combat, looks to add a ton of replay value. Bug Combat is actually an illegal sport in the Daxter universe, much like cockfighting here, but hey - it's fun. We found out that players will need to collect bugs throughout the game and outfit them with weapons and various attacks by finding hidden tokens. Once a bug is ready to roll, players can enter them in battle arenas to fight other bugs over the PSP's wireless Ad-Hoc functionality. Each player can modify their respective bugs in real-time, and there are apparently over 240,000 bug combinations, according to developers. The actual battle interface looked cool and not like it was designed as a last minute addition to the game. We suspect players will enjoy Bug Combat. A lot.

In short, Daxter's looking hot. We've only played a handful of levels, so we can't dole out a verdict, but everything we've seen leads us to believe Ready at Dawn has a top-notch product in its hands. Plus, it sounds lengthy too - more than 12 hours of solid gameplay for the average gamer, according to developers.