Review: Jak X (PS2)

Gamestyle's fears that Naughty Dog had lost it after Jak 3 were misguided. Jak X is aceness on a stick. It's as though a parallel-universe Psygnosis (rest in peace) had decided to make their legendary racer with monster-wheeled karts instead of hoverships, and then burned it onto a disc of pure woo. It should come as no surprise, of course: where lesser developers have failed miserably with horrible karting spin-offs, Naughty Dog have trodden (driven?) this path before with their PSone opus, Crash Team Racing; but we still weren't quite prepared for the lunatic fun so relentlessly thrown at us.

Racing in Jak's world is done in souped-up karts that are little more than rollcages and afterburners atop huge tyres... and they're armed. By driving over appropriately-coloured 'Eco', you obtain turbos and weapons with delightful names like Skullsplitter Grenade, Psycho Drone and Vulcan Fury - all do what they say on the tin. Pull off an impressive pulverisation and you're rewarded by a slow-motion action replay of your vanquished foe on the Kill-Cam, all the better to savour your subjugation. Any eliminated vehicles (including yours) will respawn, by which time everyone else has usually nipped past. This can be pretty frustrating when you're very close to the finish line with no defensive weapons ready to stop that incoming missile, but a thrill when you're the one with your finger on the trigger - races in Jak X can be won or lost in the last twenty yards. Gunning down enough of your opponents juices up your vehicle with elusive dark Eco, which makes your weapons even more fearsome. They don't get much more deadly than the Stellar Nova, which... well, that would be telling.

The circuits span Haven and Spargus Cities, and the new areas of Kras City and the cave- and citadel-ridden Icelands. There's never a dull section to be had: tracks are lousy with big jumps, hairpin bends and the odd sneaky shortcut. Even on the straightish sections you'll have to avoid incoming boulders and sheer drops. You really can't take your eyes off the screen for a second in the later races. Many of the tracks encompass more than one environment: from coastal ruins through lush jungle to town centre to lava fields. The circuits also overlap each other and have interchangeable boundaries; giving rise to the gruelling Tour races which traverse the most arduous sections of the locale. As Gamestyle has come to expect from Naughty Dog, there's no pop-up even at these impressive draw distances and speeds.

There's more to keep you occupied than standard circuit races and time trials. Other events include deathmatches and capturing the flag, plus races to gather ten artefacts or destroy ten drones before your opponents do. It says a lot about this title that the least fun event is one in which you have to fling projectiles at everyone while travelling at constant turbo speed (note that 'least' is a relative term). However, sometimes the arena-based events can seem a little unfair, due to random spawn points and incompetent CPU team-mates. Gamestyle also feels a bit cheated by the fact that the arena maps boast huge jumps, but we never get to use them because all the action usually takes place in the tunnels.

Finishing any event earns you Precursor orbs, which you can spend on upgrading your cars' speed and resilience, or buying extras from the secrets menu (including a spoof of GTA's hot coffee mod, which made us chortle a lot). As for cosmetic upgrades, gold medals earn you new body parts for your collection of cars. You can mix and match these and add customised paint jobs to make the vehicles your own. Sleek and swept-back or covered in sharp pointy bits (with sugar-pink paint for hilarity) - it's up to you.

The handling of the karts has improved a lot on the desert vehicles of Jak 3, which were prone to a lot of slippery nonsense. However, the physics engine seems to be a tune-up rather than the complete rewrite it really needed. It's among the most fantastic (in the old-fashioned sense of the word) of arcade racers, but deliberate lack of realism shouldn't be an excuse for the odd floaty bits a lot of vehicles have. Despite this, there are many different types of kart, and you'll likely have no trouble choosing a couple of favourites, while the others gather pixel-dust. Unlike the speed and resilience, the actual handling isn't upgradeable, since you should be able to predict how a vehicle will handle from its appearance: low-slung, tank-like karts will take soft corners well but need some frantic powersliding to take 90-degree ones, and long karts tend to have hysterical handling and need more notice before taking any bends. Short, buggy-like karts are nippier than either, but tend to have lower top speeds or weaker armour.

It's rare to find gameplay so pure from start to finish. From the Queens of the Stone Age-fuelled intro to the cliffhanger finale, it's just a satisfying mix of blinding speed and meaty explosions, with no bullet-time, stealth rubbish or bitesize RPG bits in sight. There is a small but intriguing plot linking the races together, involving a tournament to win an antidote to a conveniently slow-acting poison, but it isn't at all essential to enjoy the game. Jak X has clearly been a labour of love and not a hashed cash-generator; it's rare to find a game that gives you the impression that the developers must have had such a jolly time making the thing. Gamestyle's only disappointment was that it's so gripping it'll be over far too soon (plus the fact that it's not NeGcon compatible - something that probably would have awarded it a 10).

Jak X is the kind of thing your PS2 was made for: filling you with adrenaline and turning you into a demented lepidopteran headbutting a lightbulb of glee in a room full of nitrous oxide. Though it may fall just a little short of perfection, you won't find a better karter on the PS2. If you're a fan of arcade racers, get thee to Amazon. If you're not a fan of arcade racers, buy Jak X and become one.

Rating: 9 / 10

Words by Anna Ghislaine