10 years later, and the ripples of the seminal Mario Kart franchise can still be felt, especially by those mimicking the plumber's racing roots. Naughty Dog, though, have seen fit to shoehorn just about every other racing invention seen into this soon-to-be-released offering, and hope gamers come for the karting, and stay for the online experience, the multitude of tracks, and the deathmatches in Twisted Metal-style arenas of combat. It's just as well, as the market's saturated with driving games. What makes this one different? Well, if you believe what Sony's saying, it's the "refreshingly new experience to fans of both the Jak and Daxter series and car combat gameplay."
Of course, even those gamers missing two-thirds of their brain know this a hollow promise; this is derivative kart-racing. But don't worry -- it's still an extravaganza, one which seems to want to deluge its fans with more of everything. There's more cutscenes for a start. Apparently, the large campaign mode features numerous cinemas using in-game graphics instead of pre-rendered stuff of the past, and some convoluted plot involving the poisoning of Jak's team, and the prospect of racing around corners for an evil manager-type to win back your health, as well as increasing your racing prowess, fixing bits and pieces to your car to increase its "pimp-tabulous" nature and handling. But it's the course types that really boggle the mind.
There's said to be an exhibition mode in the game, where (get this) there's over 30 different courses split up between arenas and tracks. The tracks number around 25, and each one of them can be raced in a variety of styles. Aside from time trial mode (where the quickest times are achieved), there's circuit racing (against five foes), freeze rally (where large ice crystals are smashed to stop time, and the lowest wins), rush hour (where enemy drone cars are rammed until a time limit expires), turbo dash (brown orbs giving you extra boost are collected), and death race (shoot drones to increase your score).
