Ridge Racer (PlayStation Portable, 2005)

Ridge Racer was originally a arcade machine and i have very fond memories of being a youngster, spending lots of money to play this game. Namco joined the Sony game console revolution almost a decade ago and it has not looked back since. Ridge Racer really has not changed very much over the years. Apart from the obvious improvement in graphics and sound, the game play has remained the same, solid, fast arcade style racing! No car modifications, no tinkering with gear ratios or any of that jazz, just a fun arcade racing game!

SO HOW DOES IT PLAY?

I will admit i had my doubts about buying Ridge Racer on the PSP. As much as i love the Ridge Racer series, i just had a bad feeling that this game was just going to be real pretty graphics with no game play, I have however been very pleasantly surprised! When you first turn the game on you are greeted with a very old 1980's looking racing game, that looks as though it has come straight from the NES or the Sega Master System (more on this later), once you get past this you are treated to a very nice introduction that really shows you just what the PSP is capable of. Once the Intro is over you are asked for your name, then you get to the main menu.

There are a number of choices on the main menu. You have the options menu as you would expect to find in any game you then have the 4 main modes of play in this installment of Ridge Racer, Single Race, Time Attack, World Tours, and Wireless Battle. Single race and time attack modes are fairly self explanatory. Single race you can pick any of the available tracks (ones you start with or tracks you have unlocked) then you compete in a single race! Time Attack Mode again is sort of the same, you can pick any available track or car and you can try to record your best lap times. Wireless battle, if you have a friend with a PSP and a copy of Ridge Racer you can play against each other by using this option. World Tours, this is the main part of the game.

TIME TO START YOUR ENGINES

World Tours takes you on a journey through a series of multiple race events. You start of with the basic tour, at your disposal are 3 different kinds of cars. All have different handling styles. One of the cars is very balanced, quite safe and easy to control, another is harder to control and will be more of a challenge for you to pull of drifts (more on drifts later) and the last car it is very easy to pull of drifts over long stretches! All the way through the game this setup will not change. The only characteristic that changes on the cars are how fast they can go. The more you progress through the game the faster the cars get. In all there are 54 cars for you to unlock. You Unlock more cars and tracks every time that you complete a tour. The basic tour is very, very easy and will not offer much of a challenge. This is good because it allows you to master the art of drifting!!

FINAL THOUGHTS

I love Ridge Racer. This is how racing games should be! Fast, Fun and Furious, no messing around, just buckle your seatbelt and enjoy the ride. This is a great game on a great system, you will not be disappointed if you purchase this game, it will last a while and has plenty enough to keep you coming back for more! Will be the best $39.99 you will spend for a while!