‘The Last of Us’ may never have happened if another team-up game had proceeded as planned

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The Last of Us television show, based on a 2013 video game of the same name, has been lauded by fans and critics alike. The captivating drama, developed by Naughty Dog studios, is only one of many successful titles the company has released during its nearly 40 years in the business. The now-beloved zombie game was originally slated as a sequel to another one of Naughty Dog’s other original IP’s, Jak and Daxter.

Jak and Daxter (2001) was originally developed by Naughty Dog for the PS2. The title was one of the console’s best sellers and would come to define an era of gaming for Sony. A platforming RPG, the game put players in control of the titular Jak as he searched a verdant but desolate world for a cure to his recently cursed friend, Daxter. With cute memorable character designs, bright colors, and a solar-punk aesthetic, the game captured a generation of gamers and kept Naughty Dog alive after they lost the rights to their first best seller, Crash Bandicoot.

The series would spawn several follow-up games after its release and consistently evolved over the subsequent entries. Released almost yearly starting in 2001, the trilogy, Jak and Daxter, Jak II and Jak 3 was followed up by three spin offs, Jak X: Combat Racing, Daxter, and Jak and Daxter: The Lost Frontier (which was passed off to developer High Impact Games). While the first game had a sweet cartoonish aesthetic, developers at Naughty Dog noticed the lack of older gamers engaging with their products and made a concentrated effort to enhance their gameplay experiences for older audiences. The result was shift in tone between the first and second game.

Besides increasing Jak’s angst meter to 100, it introduced gun play, more vehicle options and, while it kept much