Is this game any good?

[zemiguelreis]

I am looking forward to play a new kart racing game, so I would like to read some opinions from people that have played this one! I've done Crash Team Racing, Team Sonic Racing and Sonic & All-Stars Racing Transformed so I don't know if there are many good games left from this genre. 

Edited May 22, 2023 by zemiguelreis

[Barspintruck]

I played this game a while back, it's a fun arcade racer, depending on skill I remember there are a few trickier races so I would recommend to keep an eye out for shortcuts, use weapons and speed bonus as much as possible, you will get blown up from time to time but you can catch up pretty fast.

I enjoyed this the most from the Jak series, be prepared for a few retries. 

[MrTacoNinja]

I don't know dude, I've heard nothing but bad things so Bars' post is actually a surprise to me. I heard the rubberbanding is really bad too.

Edited June 17, 2023 by MrTacoNinja

[RedDevil757]

It's awful. Only way you'd enjoy this would be through the power of nostalgia. Kinda like the rest of the series too

[Barspintruck]

4 hours ago, MrTacoNinja said:

I don't know dude, I've heard nothing but bad things so Bars' post is actually a surprise to me. I heard the rubberbanding is really bad too.

I'll give a little more context, it's a classic game, don't expect the quality of a new one, with that being said on the driving side I will insist on "arcade" that means it is not a racing simulator, forget what you know about sim-racers, I remember other people complaining about losing control to easy, so most of the time I keep the gas on and keep sliding in turns if necessary similarly to a rally car, verry rarely the brakes are needed, sometimes just play with the gas, that's why I said it is skill dependent, on the other hand adapt to the way the game was meant to be played, spam the hell out of your weapons, and other bonus during the race, shortcuts, learn the track - if you like racing you are not afraid of laps/retries, upgrade the car, check out the spec on each and drive the one that suits a particular race: more speed, resistance...

It's not a game for everyone, I found the little challenge fun - that doesn't mean it's easy with no effort or strategy.

Hope this will help out people to decide if they really want to get into this game. I'm sure a modern version would be much better. Cheers!

[MrTacoNinja]

1 hour ago, Barspintruck said:

I'll give a little more context, it's a classic game, don't expect the quality of a new one, with that being said on the driving side I will insist on "arcade" that means it is not a racing simulator, forget what you know about sim-racers, I remember other people complaining about losing control to easy, so most of the time I keep the gas on and keep sliding in turns if necessary similarly to a rally car, verry rarely the brakes are needed, sometimes just play with the gas, that's why I said it is skill dependent, on the other hand adapt to the way the game was meant to be played, spam the hell out of your weapons, and other bonus during the race, shortcuts, learn the track - if you like racing you are not afraid of laps/retries, upgrade the car, check out the spec on each and drive the one that suits a particular race: more speed, resistance...

It's not a game for everyone, I found the little challenge fun - that doesn't mean it's easy with no effort or strategy.

Hope this will help out people to decide if they really want to get into this game. I'm sure a modern version would be much better. Cheers!

 

This was a better response to the OP's question. More in-depth overall. Good job. A while back I messed around with this game on an alt account - hated it. The only reason I even gave it a try in the first place was because I bought the PS4 Jak trilogy and this game was included in the sale. I've always hated Jak 2 with a passion but I'd play that any day over Jak X.

[EcoShifter]

Yes it is, but it's an arcade combat racer as opposed to a kart racer. This game is most absolutely a highly underrated gem. It was ahead of its time particularly in its online system (beating out some of the most popular arcade racers at the time like the Burnout series and others with its full package of features like a lobby system, clan system, split-screen online, voice-chat and with mute option, all modes in SP available online, etc) and being among the rare cases in its genre to convey an existent story and engaging plot (similar feat to the first game having surprisingly presented a comprehensive plot and captivating story for a 3D platformer at the time), rather than a non-story campaign or a mission-driven campaign. The content and replayability is extremely high, and the customization is still very satisfying, especially (for a buggy-based racer) since unlike other racing games it doesn't give you a limited color palette nor only preset colored variants; here you can actually explore the whole spectrum of colors and choose them across two layers of the vehicle. There's also notable quality of life features from being able to actually play multiplayer with bots (unlike Twisted Metal: Black), skip cutscenes (unlike Split Second and others), disable/enable items in multiplayer (unlike Crash Team Racing/NF), etc. It masterfully retains the humor, charm, tone, characterization, and colorful environments from locations across the platformer trilogy. It still to this day has one of the most coolest and badass openings in a video game (to the point I even favor it over Sonic Rider's also cool and super stylish opening), and top-notch soundtracks in an arcade racer.

 

There is a learning curve with the driving that most players haven't gotten passed, and like with a lot of racing games, has rubber-banding A.I. (interestingly enough Jak II avoided that with its racing missions) but one of the more tame ones compared to other racing games I've played where opponents gain crazy leads and become unfairly hard to impossible to beat.

 

Like with the rest of the series (and others from what I've noticed), the original PS2 version is the best and most polished one. This (even patched) emulated PS4 version, and the superior backwards compatible experience on PS5, is still serviceable and fun though. It's definitely worth a buy and play. Though as @Barspintruck said, the game is pretty skill dependent and not for everyone. Personally, I'd only recommend it to Jak fans (especially of Jak 3) and arcade racing enthusiasts. 

 

It's managed to remained one of my top favorite arcade racers since release. Be it the 2010s or 2020s, I've never had a problem getting back into the game upon revisits. I feel like I have to say this, but just like with Sonic's games, it is mostly a skill issue with people who complain about the gameplay/controls, especially the power-sliding. I'll leave it to a few videos now-

 

 

(Just a note: This uploader didn't use a soundtrack from the actual game.)

 

(Again, different soundtrack.)

 

Happy 18th anniversary Jak X: Combat Racing. 

Edited December 25, 2023 by EcoShifter
Slight wording improvement.

[Zephrese]

I have thus far found it to be a largely mediocre game, especially as someone who adores Crash Team Racing and Nitro Fueled. Not to toot my own horn, but I'm relatively skilled at those two games (I've done everything in the original, and everything save for a handful of the dev times in NF). Granted this game is in all fairness quite a bit different from those ones as far as racing games go (its more like Burnout than Mario Kart or CTR), but it just feels way too floaty/slippery compared to the tight controls of its predecessor. It also feels as though it's primarily more dependent on luck than it is on skill, to the point where even skill won't save you from frequent frustration. So I'd definitely be inclined to agree that nostalgia is likely a key factor for as to why some people still enjoy this game in particular (although I disagree with the notion that this also applies to the three main Jak games in nearly the same capacity). The rubber banding alone is some of the worst I've ever seen, and outright ruins the game at times because of how often you'll get absolutely fucked over by other racers that shouldn't be remotely close to you and yet are almost always immediately behind you no matter what - or regardless of how well - you do (this is especially apparent when your vehicle gets destroyed randomly at the end of a race when you were doing perfectly fine in first place, resulting in your win being "stolen" from you). Being blown up constantly and quickly no matter how much armor your vehicle has, or randomly losing control of your vehicles for no apparent reason also isn't much fun, so again it just feels largely unfair even if you're skilled at the game. There's certainly an issue to be had on the player's end, including in my particular case for sure, but you're not going to be able to convince me that the game isn't also just pure bullshit half the time either. lol

 

There's better racing games similar to this one, and CTR was and always will be an infinitely better Naughty Dog racing experience (the harder difficulty in NF is also kind of BS, though). That said, I still appreciate some of the stuff ND put into Jak X, like the extensive amount of characters and tracks for example. It's not a bad game by any means, it's just that I don't think it's all that great either. 😕 Even Naughty Dog themselves regrets making the game apparently, so make of that what you will. Although I find that kind of funny in hindsight because I recall them trying to purposefully make CTR "bad" (including trying to make Oxide an unlikeable character, which didn't work out either) only for it to go down as a classic and now be what is considered one of the best kart/racing games of all time alongside the Mario Kart games that seem to have inspired it. lmao

Edited December 29, 2023 by Zephrese

[blue_blur_98]

I personally found it to be very enjoyable once I got used to the handling. The racing was fast-paced and enjoyable, the weapons were fun to use, and there's a pretty decent amount of content. I thought the story was also pretty enjoyable as well.

 

I think you'll probably enjoy it if you don't go in expecting it to be kart racer, because it isn't one. There are some vague similarities to other kart racers, including Naughty Dog's own Crash Team Racing, but gameplay and handling-wise, it's more in line with a standard arcade racer such as Need for Speed or Burnout with the addition of weapons and Jak and Daxter characters.

[Jeanolt]

I recommend you the first Sonic & All Stars Racing, and also F1 Race Stars, they great and underrated karting games, specially F1.