hen it was announced that the next iteration of Sony’s beloved Jak series would be strictly a racing game, plenty of fans cried foul. But after some hands-on time with Jak X: Combat Racing, it looks like some of those hard line platformer enthusiasts will be trading their handguns for gas pedals. Whether it’s the excellent mix of Jak’s badassery with Daxter’s comedy, the full roster of characters you know from the Jak universe, or the involving story, trademark Jak elements permeate every facet of the game. Oh, and the racing’s not too shabby either.

In the wake of the Dark Maker’s defeat in Jak 3, combat racing has become wildly popular in the bleak futurescape. Jak and Daxter receive a strange invitation to the reading of Krew’s will. Always known for their impeccable manners and etiquette, the pair attend only to find out that they have been poisoned along with everyone else at the gathering. The only way to get the antidote is to claim victory in the Kras City Grand Championship. And so our heroes set out for the race of their lives. While it may be a roundabout story tactic, at least this adds a sense of urgency to the plot. Hey, they could just be racing for money and notoriety, right?

Bad time for a drought

Controls are pretty standard fare. X is for acceleration, while square and circle handle the break/handbrake respectively. Triangle allows a quick rear view for gauging your lead or to help evade that nasty approaching missile. Front and rear attack weapons, boost, and jump are all mapped to the shoulder buttons. This scheme is extremely easy to pick up and the arcade cart physics will have you ripping through the tracks, power sliding, and blowing up fools in no time.

Jak X features two main track types: racing and battlefield. The version we played contained two of each. In Kras City you’ll find yourself tearing through an urban jungle of skyscrapers, tunnels, and bridges. Obvious yellow arrows provide plenty of warning on tight 90 degree and hairpin turns. The Forbidden Jungle track contains a little more racing variety with slippery pools, huge jumps, banked edges, waterfalls, and peaceful coastal vistas. These racing tracks have a decent length for early levels and foreshadow some hopefully interesting design for the rest of the tracks in the final version. Clifftop Battlefield, as you might guess, is a rocky green grassland with destructible fences, several hills and jumps, and even some deep deadly pits. Dirt Stadium feels more like your standard monster truck rally with a few rolling hills and no instant death pits to worry about. Both arenas are expansive enough to burn off most of your boost going from one edge to the other.

Within these tracks you can pick between four race types. Most of them support 6-player racing and all of them support voice chat. Circuit race is your standard three-lap competition in Kras City or the Forbidden Jungle. Deathmatch takes place in the arenas. Players score a point for each kill. The first one to 10 wins, and if no one hits the quota within 4 minutes, the player with the most kills wins. Death race gives two players four minutes to blow up as many drone racers as possible. These bots are much easier to kill than your standard enemy and each count for a point. These kills are then multiplied by the number of laps you’ve completed, so it pays to be fast as well as hostile. Artifact races occur in arenas and challenge players to collect randomly spawning artifacts before anyone else gets to them. Tall towers of light make finding the artifacts easy. What’s not easy is getting there before everyone else does.

You'd best be tracking down the mess of pickups scattered around the tracks and arenas if you have any desire for victory. The four types are differentiated by color: green is for health, blue adds to your boost meter, yellow equips a random frontal weapon, and red does the same thing for rear attacks.

"That idiot weatherman promised clear skies." 

It seems like there’s always a ready supply of boost on the track. You’ll find yourself kicking out a brilliant blue flame at every straightaway and jump.  Yellow eco weapons consist of machine guns, tracking missiles, grenades, an instant kill for all other racers called super nova, and an electrified projectile that takes out the racer in first place. Obviously, you come across a lot more machine guns and missiles than super novas, but it’s so satisfying to pull the trigger and take out the competition in one swift stroke. Red eco weapons are generally more defensive in nature. Whenever there’s a bogey on your six, unleash one of these bad boys and the enemy’s tracking missile will be diverted off course which is very satisfying. Just hope that you have more red weapons than your rivals have yellow, otherwise, they’re bound to eventually take you out. Red weapons include the classic oil slick and smokescreen, mines, shields, an attack drone that hovers around your car and fires on anyone that gets close, a dispatchable gun turret, and a boost power-up that gives you a window of time to boost as much as you want while everyone else must remain at regular speed.

After destroying an opponent’s vehicle, a small purple cloud will drift onto your car and fill up the dark eco meter. When you blow up enough cars, your weapons will be infused with dark eco power. This basically levels up any weapon you equip. For instance, missiles are more devastating, smokescreens actually do damage, and the boost power-up allows for longer boost time.

When starting online play, you first have to create a Jak X profile. This will be the name that everyone sees during racing so make sure it’s particularly inflammatory. During the beta we could pick between Jak, Ashelin, Keira, Sig, Torn, Kleiver, and new characters, Razer, Shiv, UR-86 and Edje. For the online mode, character choice didn’t really affect much gameplay-wise. I imagine this will factor more into the story mode in the full game where we’ll get to follow the different characters through their trials and tribulations. The five current playable vehicles are really where all of the stats jump around. The Bobcat is described as “agile, but hard to control,” the Falcon has the highest top speed, the Opossum has increased defense, the Tiger is the standard middle ground car, and the Wombat has the best acceleration. Players can also customize the look of their vehicle with custom body parts and color swapping. In the final version of Jak X, you be able to tweak your car’s performance and select accessories.

"Daxter, you don't have to shout. Look at my freakin' ears!"

After you’ve selected all of your character and vehicle specs it’s time to race. If you just want to jump right in, select quick play and you’ll be tossed into the first race or deathmatch that’s ready to go. You can also choose to find a game that’s more specifically tailored to your liking. But sometimes you just want to make all the rules. When you’re in this surly mood, select create game. Here you can choose the track, mode type, and set the max amount of players. There’s even an option to shut out all human players and just race against bots if you’re feeling particularly antisocial.  If you manage to actually make a friend, the buddy list feature allows you to keep track of when they’re online. And if these people are not too freaked out by your stalking, maybe they’ll even join your clan. As a clan you can challenge, take down, or get annihilated by other teams.

The look and sound of Jak X really impresses. Missiles leave yellow trails, the screen has speed blur effects when you kick in the boost, and the explosions are massive. Soundtrack duties are handled by Billy Howerdel, known for his work as the guitarist of A Perfect Circle. Sony also licensed two Queens of the Stone Age songs for the game: “You Think I Ain’t Worth a Dollar, But I Feel Like a Millionaire” and "A Song for the Dead."

While we still don’t know a whole lot about where the story is going in Jak X from the beta we tested, we at least got a nice long taste of the general play mechanics. And we can confirm that it tastes like a delicious Monte Cristo sandwich – fried with racing excitement and sweetened with the taste of addictive combat honey. And for those of you already living in the HD generation, it supports 16x9 widescreen, 480p, and surround sound.  It’s too bad we’ll have to wait until fall to play the eight other racing tracks and find out what happens to our goateed friend and his mouthy sidekick.