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I remember way back in the land before time, everybody thought WoC was going to be great and Craig was the lone wolf that thought J&D would be better.

I sure feel stupid now.

I played the first Jak again at a friend's house the other day and had forgotten how amazing it was (I lost my copy years ago, probably right after I had gotten mad at the secret "ending"). I realize that my initial disappointment with it was because I was young and naive, and it was the first game (for me at least) that had any "hype." I got in the internet in the CTR-era, I guess, so J&D was the first release I had to "wait" for while seeing all the previews and trailers and all that.

But it really was a gem of a game. A towering technological achievement, and heaps of fun. In terms of gameplay alone it was definitely better than Crash. But I will concede that Crash was better on the creative front: characters, setting, music...I wanted to give Jak 2 another spin but I've misplaced it, it seems. Jak 3 is the best of the series, gameplay-wise, but Jak 2 is definitely the pinnacle of the storyline. And I could appreciate Jak X for what it was: a kart racer for a popular mascot platformer series. And it's probably the most balanced "kart racer" you'll ever find, purely because front and rear weapons are handled entirely separately of each other (and any item can be turned off).

Uncharted is also fantastic, by the way. But I'd be willing to wait a little longer for Uncharted 2 if it meant I could have Jak 4 right away (there's, you know, that burning question: "Jak is Mar? THE Mar?").

Because usually victory in a kart racer is entirely arbitrary and dependent on who gets the best items. And because front and rear weapons are mapped to the same button and same item slot, the player in first place is always punished for their position; they only get the worst items, and they can quickly end up in last place for no other reason than that they were better than the competition.

Jak X solved the problem by mapping red and yellow weapons to entirely different buttons. The player in first place isn't punished for being in first place because he can still choose to go after the items that are actually useful.

It removes the "will of God" factor and means that first place is determined by a player's skill at playing the game; as it should be in any competitive game.

I will concede that a few of the weapons are a bit overpowered, but Jak X gives you the option of turning those weapons off, and usually there's a way to avoid them. For example, the Peace Maker automatically targets the first place racer but it's easy to avoid if you brake and let someone else take the hit for you. The only grossly unavoidable weapon is the Super Nova, but the AI never gets that one. And if the human players are being too annoying, you can always turn it off.

It's the only kart racer that's actually fair and competitive. All the rest are dice rolls, most especially Mario Kart.

I haven't been keeping up with Spyro. Wasn't there a series reboot or some such? How did that go?

All I know is Elijah Wood does the voice of Spyro, and David Spade (God knows why) voiced Sparx.

Wtf? Wayne Brady? What bizarre choices.