Following up the vehicular elements of Jak 3 with a straight-up racing game makes sense, and Jak X: Combat Racing does a good job in carving out its own spot. A bit like Wipeout or F-Zero, the high-speed intensity of Jak X's races and battles can be a lot of fun. It's not all about getting first, as the different challenges will test your drifting, boosting, and shooting capabilities. Some of these trials are a bit of mess, including one recurring type where you attempt to chaotically crash your way through oncoming traffic. The arena battles were also very hit or miss as I often found myself pushed up against an opponent, firing my machine gun in the hopes that his health bar would reach zero first. Fortunately, the controls work well and the handling is very good, so the better segments feel great.

The Adventure Mode also contains a reasonably interesting story that brings back all of the essential characters from the franchise, while correcting some of Jak 3's odd mistakes. It’s tempting to see this one through if only to see Jak and Keira's will they/won't they finally come to some sort of satisfying conclusion. I thought that the racing plot fit the world of Jak quite well and they found a suitable excuse as to why the gang would compete in such a deadly tournament. It's a nice addendum to the franchise that frankly serves as a better concluding chapter than Jak 3 did, even if the stakes are a bit lower.

Jak X's crippling flaw is the ferocious and frustrating rubber banding, where you'll never be able to put too much distance between you and your rivals even while boosting and turning flawlessly through a track. One item or slight slip-up and you are certain to drop a few spots in the pack, which is infuriating since it often feels like only the last ten seconds or so of the race really matter. Threading the needle with rubber banding to incorporate it smoothly while still making the game seem fair is tricky, and Jak X unfortunately misses the mark here. It's not a game I really enjoyed playing or could see myself coming back to for that reason. High-speed racing fans might get more mileage out of this game than I did, but I greatly preferred the gameplay style of the first three entries.

I started playing Jak X thinking that I wouldn't enjoy it too much. Kart racers aren't exactly my thing, and it seems like people didn't like this as much as Crash Team Racing, which I only mildly enjoyed. I'm glad to say that I am proven wrong.

As a massive ND fan, I enjoyed the main Jak trilogy quite a bit, but I have to admit, I remembered very little about the story in those games. As such I wasn't expecting too much out of the story here. It's a okay story for a racing game, you won't get anything close to deep character moments here but I was satisfied enough with what it had. I especially appreciate how it ended. I was only annoyed with one particular detail near the end of the game, but that's really it.

Now to the meat of it all. The core of what makes modern ND games great are all here: relatively simple gameplay mechanics that feels much more satisfying than they should have, and a good variety of gameplay types that keeps the games feeling fresh from start to finish.

You will get killed a lot of times in the races, and the most exciting part of the game comes when you have to catch up to the other racers and quickly try to dispatch them. The vehicle combat is mostly about knowing when to use your obtained weapons and properly defending yourself with defensive powerups, but there's a lot of things in this game that makes blowing up enemies satisfying. The visual and sound effects of blowing up other racers are on point, and the surprisingly decent mid 2000s Rock soundtrack adds to the energetic "screw em' all" attitude of the combat.

The singleplayer campaign has many game modes, like the typical "race to the finish line" stuff, Death Races where you have to destroy as many vehicles as possible while trying to finish laps so you can get more points from each kill, and a capture the flag-esque mode. All of these mission types are good at the very least, and most importantly, it makes the campaign feel not too repetitive. Most of the "missions" in the campaign are in the range of 4-6 minutes average, which is great, because there's a lot of them to go through, and it can feel tiring if they go on for too long.

My complaints with the game are mostly due the faults of the mechanics. The car handling and physics aren't airtight, and it can feel annoyingly wobbly at times (especially in the horrible Haven City sewer track that has a lot of slippery surface). It will lead to losing situations that feels unfair, and it happens enough times to make me avoid the worst tracks in the game entirely if possible.

While you won't find a masterful racing game in Jak X, it will provide lots of dumb and explosive thrills, if you can vibe with its sufficiently edgy 2000s feel.

Because why the hell not, there's Jak and Daxter racing game. Considering how Naughty Dog's previous franchise went, I guess it makes sense. This is not a kart racer, so don't go in expecting it to play or handle like one. The gameplay is very fast paced and fun, with decent challenge and fun weapons to use. The CPU players can definitely be rather aggressive, but the challenge felt pretty balanced and fair overall. There's plenty of varied game modes to play, alongside very strong track design and a lot of cars you can cosmetically tweak and tune the performance of. Pair this with an incredible heavy rock soundtrack and an entertaining storyline, and you get a robust and well-built package that's very fun to play with plenty of explosions and mayhem to experience. Overall, Jak X is rock-solid and very much worth a play.

The PlayStation 4 port could have used work, mainly when it comes to performance, but when the alternative is running into an auto save bug that could easily nuke my entire Memory Card with 10+ years of save data on it, I'll take the laggy but safe version any day. Plus, the trophies are a nice perk and fun to unlock in this game.

Underrated Battle Racer. All-Time Favorite for me. What’s great about it, is the combat and hardcore speed combine into literally the most thrilling shit on the system. The weapons are balanced in a way that gives you a shot even in 3rd or fourth place. With an overcharge fire mechanic rather than some cheap super you’re allowed when you already hit last place.

A skilled player in first can circumvent even the “blue shell” type weapon. Then you have the racing, with a variety of slick tracks and different vehicle types to use. Your car gets slippery if you recklessly boost, or even hard turn, at high speeds. So u really gotta watch your ass. Much like the also amazing (and clearly more popular) Crash Team Racing from Naughty Dog, boosting kicks ass, and you get more for jumping, drifting, and nabbing blue eco.

The single player campaign heavily improves on CTR. Rather than awkwardly parking your ass on coins in an empty hub world to play a level, you just pick one of several missions on a menu. Earn enough medals, race in a big match along with a rival. And watch Jak and Daxter increasingly annoy a TV host. I’m grateful this game gives u one simple goal: win the race, win the fight, hold the potato. Unlike, “Crash Bandicoot and the adventures of collecting a bunch of letters in the corner and then having to win the race”.

Various missions include time trials with freeze power ups, death arenas, boost-fests, standard races, and reverse hot potato.

I just feel like there’s so much to praise here. The amazing fucking soundtrack and hardcore death race vibe is perfect for the edgy extremity of the Jak sequels, but they also have colorful, naturalistic race tracks reminiscent of Jak 1 (the best one) and glorious opera vocals.

“WAM BAM THANK YOU MAM”
“SEIMOS TAUGHT ME WELL!”
“Jaak! Are you crazy?! You ruined my story!”

Like bruh. They’ll never make another game like this? Naughty Dog will only ever make 3rd person Super Story Shooters? Damn.

If you know of any game that’s like this, or at least of racing games with strong solo campaigns then please enlighten me.

De todos os jogos desse estilo "jogo de corrida da franquia X", Jak X talvez seja um dos que eu mais gostei.
O jogo possui vários modos, indo de corrida, deathmatch, captura de orbes (bandeira) e outros, cada um trazendo um diversidade e não deixando o jogo monótono.

Há também o modo Adventure que é literalmente o modo História do jogo.
O enredo não é lá surpreendente, mas diverte.
Ver os personagens da franquia novamente com o humor característico da franquia é de certa forma gratificante.

Essa talvez seja provavelmente a última experiência que terei com a franquia Jak and Daxter, sentirei saudades desses personagens.
Queria que tivesse novos projetos dessa franquia, nem que fosse remake 1x1 da trilogia ND.