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[{Mike}]

Release Date ; October 18, 2005
Publisher ; Sony Computer Entertainment
Developer ; Naughty Dog Software
Number of Players ; 1-2 (offline), up to 6 online
MSRP ; : $19.99

I don't even know if there was any appreciation for this game, but I think it deserves some. Usually, I do not like spin-off titles of a good series, but Jak X Racer is a pretty decent racer, in fact it is now one of my favorites on the Playstation 2. What I like most is the constant way you are awarded orbs even if you are just in an exhibition race - then you spend them on car accessories, characters and tune up the performance (turbo, armor, etc.) It kind of reminds me RollCage on the PSX ; there are power-ups, the most important being turbo. It's not blazing fast like Burnout, but still fast enough so you kinda feel the difference between the various car classes.

Then, you have the weapons power-ups ; guided missles, mines, chainguns, mini-nuke, a blue electricity ball which is like the blue spiked turtle shell in Mario Kart and kills the first position racer, grenades and I think that wraps it up for weapons. Also, there are defensive power-ups (blue and red shields), mines, gas cloud (which is fired from behind and blocks the view, can be deadly), a defense robot (a flying robot that follows your car and shoot if someone is close), and a turret which is placed on the map and can kill other players.

Another good point for the game is that the adventure mode is interesting, mostly because of the characters and their humor, mostly Daxter. The cinematics are well done the voices are great in my opinion. It manages to throw unexpected things at you, like the first lap it is sunny and the second it's the night. There are many game modes, but the best are probably circuit racing (your usual racing mode) and deathmatch, where you must destroy your opponents in some cool arenas. The other are a nice variation but can also be frustrating, mostly artefact run where you have to collect artefacts on a map before other players do. Rush Hour has you trying to hit as many upcoming cars (which are facing you!) as possible, but said cars are not well done and it gets old fast. Same with freeze rally and the other modes.

Another thing I forgot to mention is that when you get cool kills, there is a slow-mo animation (which you can skip with X) and you get purple energy. Once your meter is full, the car is enveloped in a purple kind of shield and you get power-up variations ; the missles (two of them are launched at a time) double (so now 4 at a time), the gas gets mixed up with electricity so it's actually deadly, etc.

The track number is impressive ; 24, and none of them are particularly boring. There are 12 cars. It's not a perfect game though ; what I don't like is the randomness in it, because of the items. You can be first position all the way until the last few seconds and then get hit my missles or a blue energy ball (which can't be dodged, while other attacks can if you use a red power-up when you are targeted). Fortunately, you can go into the race options and don't allow power-ups. Another thing that is frustrating is the cheating AI, a thing that is so frequent in racing game ; if you slowdown, the CPU will slowdown. If you are speeding like a devil, they will always be near behind you. That means you virtually can't build up some distance between you and the other CPU. In adventure mode, this get on my nerves.



All in all, a pretty good game and I'm wondering who played it on GAF and what is your opinion about it. CYA!

 

[Lobster]

I loved this game (of what I played). Its a real fun fast racing/combat game. I much preferred being in a field bombing everybody up...like Carrmageddon with less power ups.

 

[ram]

the game sucks! absolutly unbalanced weapon and item system. there are a lot of combat racings games out there, which are way better.

PS: the buggy racings in jak 3 was also very bad and one of the worse parts of the game.

 

[Pristine_Condition]

Not worthy of the Jak name, IMO.

That is all.

 

[Zen]

Kicked. Ass.

It's absolutly one of the best 'kart' racing games ever made. I'd invite anyone to try and make a valid arguement for how it wasn't an awesome game.

I actually went back and put another 10 hours into it over the course of a week about 1 month ago, even without having any of the time trails or anything to redo (since my save is at 100%) I still got sucked right back into it. This thing is a under-rated beast of a game, with game modes and a great core racing experience. It does things that to this day blow away any similar attempts by Mario kart.

If anyone on gaf wants to play, I'd be up for it.

A+ game.

I'd love to see a sequel, or even a Gripshift like re-release/update on the PSN.

Honestly this game doesn't get enough credit.

 

[{Mike}]

the game sucks! absolutly unbalanced weapon and item system. there are a lot of combat racings games out there, which are way better.

PS: the buggy racings in jak 3 was also very bad and one of the worse parts of the game.

Why don't you just do that ; advanced > pickups > and then choose the ones you don't want to play with. I just realised you can also choose the time of day in the race, that's really cool! Choices ; sunrise, morning, noon, afternoon, sunset, twilight, evening, green sun

Also, I'd like to add the game is really easy

 

[Oneself]

I bought it when it came out but didn't like it. Sold it a couple of weeks later. Then, a few months ago, it was at 4.95$ CAN so I bought it again. Now I enjoy it a lot more. It's not as good as the original CTR though..

 

[Parch]

I thought it was great. Damn fun racer.

 

[Zen]

If anyone ever wants to play it, make a post. Turbo Dash was always freaking awesome.

 

[Odrion]

Wow, I totally forgot this game even existed. I'll try to find it in the bargain bin.

 

[Bad_Boy]

Probably a stupid question...but ...Does this run at 480p?

 

[ram]

yes

 

[Zen]

I was just playing the game the other night (To hook up my PSP/Daxter to it to get the inter game bonus material) and decided to race a few times with the AI set to Custom.

After looking around in the options, I still can't find a way to tweak the AI so I'm not sure why it's listed as custom... but when playing on custom the AI was 1) A lot smarter 2) a lot faster and 3) Didn't rubber band at all.

3) is the big part I guess, considering how many people seem to ahve a problem with rubber banding in Racing games (even arcade style racing games)

Jak X > Any console Mario Kart itteration

Spoiler

imho

Jak X has, at least in my opinion, better weapon dynamics, better multiplayer, better single player, better game modes, better game depth, better production values, and more effort put into it. The front/rear/boost setup gives the game inherently more depth than Mario Kart, without destroying the simplistic pick up and play style that both games are defined by, and the hang-time and skid time adding to your boost meter is a very nice touch to the game. On top of that you get Dark Eco for kills (and damage done to you) and if either meter fills up to 100 percent you regain full health and any weapon picked up (be it Yellow/Offense or Red/Defense) becomes enhanced compared to a normal weapon.

Looking at the core game play mechanics, at least in my opinion, they've achieved a great balance between them all, and the various dynamics give the game a far superior depth when compared to Mario Kart and make the game flat out more fun to play.

It comes with modes that are, at least in my opinion, much better than what was offered in Double Dash.

Double Dash
Standard Racing
Balloon Deathmatch
Capture the Shine
Bomb Deathmatch

And I think any MK fan would pretty much agree that Capture The Shine, and Bomb Deathmatch, can be written off as poorly implemented modes that don't hold a candle to Standard or Deathmatch (similarly deathmatch in inferior to standard race mode).

Jak gives you:

Standard racing

Deathmatch

Team deathmatch

Team Capture the Power Cell (A power cell appears on the map, get to it and return in to your base for points, kills will also give you points)
Assassinate (Essentially Deathmatch but one person (it switches) is targeted, and however can kill them gets a point)

Rush Hour - Cars will zoom down the track towards you and you must ram into them for points while going around the track. They typically spawn along the center lines or suggested driving lines of the track, and successfully completing a lap will bump up the amount of points you get per kill relative to the car color. You race against a timer.
Green Car - 1 point
Blue Car - 2 point
Red Car - 0 points + damage

Death race - Similar to rush hour these cars will spawn essentially in front of you, and you take them out for points by whatever means you want. The more laps you complete, the more points you can get per kill and you compete against a timer like in Rush Hour. The more points you have by the end of that timer, the better you do.

Freeze Challenge - You have a certain amount of time to make a certain amount of laps on a track and freeze timers are distributed around the track in strategic positions. The can be freeze time for either 2-5-10 depending on the specific color of the freeze timer. They do not respawn and you'll have to run the track for more than a single lap so you have to have some strategy since you can easily miss some depending on how you're coming off the corner, or how you had to be positioned to get a previous freeze timer, the lower your overall time the better you do.

Power cell racing - Power cells are aligned at certain points around the track. Grabbing a power cell will give you unlimited boost. The powercell will be at 0% and you’ll have to boost to charge the power cell. Every successfully charged power cell will give you a point, a mine in your rear weapon slot and act as a projectile if someone happens to be in front of you. The more laps you complete the more points you get per charged power cell. (One of my favorite modes!) There are no other weapons on the track besides the power cells.

Artifact/Scavenge Hunt - Artifacts will randomly spawn around the area, be the first to get to them and collect points, usually has either a time or point limit.

Hunt – Creatures will run around the area and you have to kill them for points.

And really, even the weakest modes in this game give better playability and enjoyment than Capture the shine, and Bomb Bomb, and it's lat out, to me, because they are just designed better, the maps are made better, the deeper gameplay mechanics make the game itself more enjoyable.

In terms of the single player mode, well this game has an actual story to it to go along with the 4 cups in the game, and you get story progression, and varying game modes the whole way through, along with doing everything that the Mario kart DD single player does, but with more quantity, depth, and quality.

Each vehicle has a set of stats that can be upgraded with money won from races, the cars can be accessorized and repainted and so on. There's really no comparison between the two in that regard. Each car has its own full 3D physics, not just acceleration, deceleration and weight when it comes to hitting other players.

The online mode is as robust as any first party Xbox live game (it has matchmaking). You can form clans, make a friends list, alter the variables of the race (like what weapons will come up, their frequency) Choose the amount of CPUs make it CPUs versus humans, and you can do all of this both online and offline.

The only area that I would say Mario Kart has been better than Jak X is as a party game, since Jak X doesn't support four player split screen (it does support 2 player split screen). Mario kart Single player isn't very engaging but you can argue that the main draw is the multiplayer...

In every other category besides being a party game for a half and hour, Jak X is deeper, has more thought and effort put into it, and is the better game imo.

Honestly this game is very under-rated, as an arcade racer it's among the very best if not the best. I'd honestly say that part of the reason for the lower scores would be because it isn't Mario Kart... I can see Mario Kart incorporating a few of the game modes that you cna find in Jak X racing.

Seriously this game can be found for dirt cheap you can't really go wrong with it.

 

[glaurung]

Jak X was one of those unfortunate places, where a cool character got thrown into a situation with no immediate appeal, because the characters pretty much lose their faces when it's a racing game.

I enjoyed certain modes of play a lot and the tracks were mostly lovely, however some other game modes (droid shootout) made the game an absolute bore.

The real-time cutscenes were awesome, I don't believe I've ever seen any done much better and the voice acting is top notch, right up there with the likes of MGS.

A solid burner, but eventually not worthy the Jak legacy.