A Vehicular Combat game set in the world of Jak and Daxter, and the last game in the series to be developed by Naughty Dog. Jak and friends receive invites to the distant Kras City to hear the reading of Krew's last will and testament. The will includes a request that all present, including his daughter Rayn, toast his memory with a "special vintage" he's prepared before starting the video will proper. Surprise! Turns out that vintage was spiked with a slow acting poison and the only way to get the antidote is to compete in and win the Kras City Grand Championship, the deadliest and most popular sporting event on the planet! Krew had a bet with rival Kras City crime lord Mizo that the winner will inherit all of the other's dirty business and Krew is determined to win even if it's from beyond the grave. Now Jak, Daxter, Torn, Ashelin, Rayn and Keira must race like their lives depend on it...
Because they do.
Tropes Used In This Game:
- Almost Kiss: Lampshaded by Daxter in when referring to Keira: "Would ya kiss her already?! Sheesh!"
- Announcer Chatter: G.T. Blitz (and later, Pecker).
- Badass Driver: Every (playable) character.
- Bald of Evil: Mizo is a ruthless crime lord, and when G.T. Blitz reveals himself to be him, it turns out that he's been wearing a wig the entire time and that he's actually completely bald, with a large tattoo instead covering his dome.
- Big Bad Ensemble: Krew (albeit posthumously and through Rayn) by virtue of him being the one responsible for poisoning Jak and company and Mizo (which is the alias of G.T. Blitz), who repeatedly sends underlings out to kill Jak's team during the races so that he can maintain control of Kras City.
- Blood Sport: Combat Racing is an underground sport where racers bombard each other with gunfire and missiles.
- Bragging Rights Reward: Beating Hero Mode gets you green turbo online.
- City of Canals: Haven City. It's pretty polluted, though, but it improves by at least this game.
- Constructed World: While the games have a handful of settings and locations, it's very clear that the games take place in a world that's distinctly not ours, with its own alphabet, mythology, history, and wildlife.
- Continuity Nod: The Power Cells from the first game and Jak 3 make a reappearance as an artifact.
- Crapsack World: Things get much better for Haven City, as the slums and industrial areas are once again free, but the newly introduced Kras City is far more sleazy and corrupt than Haven City ever used to be, and the frosty Icelands seem even more desolate than the Wasteland.
- Deflector Shields: Appeared in the form of a Red Eco pickup.
- Difficult, but Awesome: Taming Havoc V12 is this as, being the fastest car, it can easily spin out of control if you use nitro in inappropriate times. If you can master it, however ...
- Dope Slap: Daxter, in turn, slaps Jak at least twice.
- Easter Egg: Most things that can be unlocked with the Precursor Orbs.
- Engineered Public Confession: G.T. Blitz ends up revealing himself as Mizo in front of a live camera while trying to dispose of Jak and company.
- Evil vs. Evil: The main conflict that Jak's team has become entangled in is a power struggle between the posthumous Krew through his daughter Rayn and the powerful crime lord, Mizo. In the end, Rayn comes out the victor and is ready to rule the underworld with an iron fist.
- Excuse Plot: Sure, there is an attempt at a full story, but its really just an excuse to get Jak and co. into a racing game.
- Flipping the Bird: Pecker to G.T. Blitz, this time censored through camera effects as they're on live TV.
- Fragile Speedster: Firebat, Havoc V12 and Daxtermobile cars. All of them can attain maximum speed and former two have fastest acceleration, while Daxtermobile trades some acceleration for maximum nitro boost capacity. However, all of them have armor that is mediocre at best; for Havoc V12 it is downplayed as the maximum armor it can have is 7 units, which is not that bad, but Daxtermobile can have at most 6 and Firebat only 4, making especially the latest very vulnerable.
- Forced Tutorial: There is one narrated by Keira.
- Game-Breaking Bug: The auto-save feature did not work as intended on later PS2 models due to the developers running out of time during testing, making the save corrupt consistently on anything that's not the original fat model or select revisions of the slim. Thankfully, this doesn't apply to the PS4 remaster.
- Guest Fighter: Ratchet from Ratchet & Clank.
- Hot Coffee Minigame: Parodied/lampshaded. Since the game came out in 2005, the same year as the infamous "Hot Coffee" GTA scandal, Naughty Dog threw together a joke unlockable. A 30-second video entitled "Hot Coffee" which shows Daxter and Tess flirting... and drinking coffee. Daxter notices the player watching them near the end and indignantly yells "What?!" while Tess smiles coyly.
- It Gets Easier: After defeating Mizo, Jak decides to leave him in his wrecked vehicle, which is about to explode. Mizo makes a comment about how frequently Jak seems to leave people for dead. Jak grimly remarks "You get used to it" before walking off and leaving Mizo to die in the explosion.
- Jack of All Stats: Anvil RTX has great overall stats with no significant downsides, making it a great car for any challenge.
- Jerkass: Pecker and G.T. Blitz are equally rude commentators towards Jak's team, with the latter also being unbearably obstructive. When G.T. Blitz reveals himself to be Mizo, he goes from being just a dick to being actively homicidal.
- Karma Houdini: Rayn, the true antagonist, gets away with poisoning the heroes scot-free. The only semi-form of comeuppance she gets is a sliver of regret that her newfound friends likely all hate her now.
- Meaningful Name: G.T. Blitz has two meanings: "Blitz" is German for lightning, which is fast and dangerous, not unlike Combat Racing. "G.T." stands for "grand tourer" (or, in Italian, gran turismo), which is a kind of high-performance car built for long-distance driving.
- Mighty Glacier:
- Sand Shark has maximum armor and acceleration making it a good choice for combat arenas and such, but its top speed isn't that high so you're better off using something else for speed-based challenges.
- Boomer can also attain maximum armor rating and likewise its top speed isn't that impressive.
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Nintendo Hard: The sheer number of times you'll die to the track hazards and other racers will ensure that you master every mechanic and track layout. - Nitro Boost: Blue Eco can be used to boost the vehicle.
- Official Couple:
- Jak and Keira as of now.
- Torn and Ashelin.
- Oh, Crap!: When Jak (and the player) realizes that Jak's weapons have been sabotaged. In the middle of the race. One can only imagine Daxter's reaction...
- Ojou: Ashelin is the Baron's daughter and a high-ranking member of the Guard before becoming Governor of Haven City.
- Old Save Bonus: The first three iterations of Jak, Ratchet, and several Daxter characters get unlocked from save files of the first three Jak games, Ratchet: Deadlocked and Daxter. For the PS4 port, Ratchet was unlocked from Ratchet & Clank (2016). The Daxter content was unlocked from the Uncharted Nathan Drake Collection.
- Poison and Cure Gambit: To ensure that Jak and co. participate in the Kras City Championship on his behalf, and knowing they wouldn't help Rayn otherwise, Krew reveals in his will that the wine they toasted him with was spiked with Black Shade, a slow-acting poison. Essentially, Jak and his friends have to participate in the race as his team and receive the antidote when they win, or die.
- Real Men Wear Pink: G.T. Blitz.
- Silly Rabbit, Idealism Is for Kids!: An exchange between Jak and G.T. Blitz.
- Sleeves Are for Wimps: Torn and Sig have sleeveless shirts.
- The Speechless: Jak One.
- Stay in the Kitchen: Samos essentially says this to Keira, when he finds out that she wants to be a racer and not just the mechanic. The exact wording was "a woman's place is in the garage fixing cars!" Good thing Ashelin wasn't around to hear that...
- Theme Naming: Every member of Mizo's gang is named after a sharp object: Razer (razor), Cutter and Edje (edgy) are the obvious ones; a shiv is any type of improvised, bladed weapon (common in prisons), and a mizo is a type of Bowie knife. Kleiver (cleaver), though not originally a gang member, also fits in.
- The Ugly Guy's Hot Daughter: Rayn is quite easy on the eyes. Her father, Krew, is such a mass of lard that it's honestly disturbing to think about how he was even able to reproduce.
- Unflinching Walk: Jak leaves Mizo in his burning vehicle after defeating him, not even flinching when it explodes shortly afterwards.
- Video Wills / The Tape Knew You Would Say That: Krew's holographic will.
- Writers Cannot Do Math: It's confirmed that Jak and Keira are only one year apart, despite Jak being at least three years old when he and Samos reached the past at the end of the second game. Although it is possible that Keira could have been several years younger at first, and ended up in the present a few years before Jak which allowed her to catch up in age.
