Ridge Racer 2 review

For many people, myself included, seeing a video of Ridge Racers in action was the first time a PSP had been genuinely impressive and shown what it was capable of. Lots has happened since the PSP first arrived, so what has changed for Ridge Racers 2?

Well, more or less nothing.

Starting Grid

Well, there is slightly more than nothing but it certainly isn’t a long list; there are 8 new cars, 9 new tracks, 12 new songs and 3 new modes. “New” is slightly misleading as a description because as with everything in the game, the content is coming from previous games in the series. The new tracks being brought in from the original PlayStation game Ridge Racer Type 4 (One of my favourites - Ed.) , the new cars are special vehicles unlocked far enough in so that most won't see and the new songs are well, songs. or remixes more specifically.

The 3 new modes aren't thrilling either and anyone who has played many racing games before will have come across them before. Survival gives you a set of number of laps with the racer in last place knocked out at the end of each, duel pits you against a single car and arcade adds in a timer and checkpoints to reach. Like I said, it’s not thrilling stuff. Oh, and one more thing new thing - the game on the initial loading screen is New Rally X, not Rally X. It's something quite easy to forget.

New Body-Kit?

Technically, the graphics have had something of a polish but most people won’t spot the changes. Spend long enough staring at the two games running side to side and you’ll notice that the lighting effects are a little different. The sun looks more impressive appearing over hills and the dark tracks have become easier to negotiate but really you’ll have to have spent hours on the previous game to notice without being told. In short, they are better but not in a particularly impressive way. .

On the plus side, the graphics haven’t aged that badly since Ridge Racers came out. They’re no longer a pinnacle of the machines ability (cars look especially poor), but background details is still impressive. Possibly the most annoying thing about the whole game is that the odd graphical glitches that appeared every now and again in the original game (both on cars and tracks) are still appearing here. Clearly a year wasn’t enough to fix them. The smooth, fast frame rate that was so crucial to the original game is still here and it still makes this game impressive to watch and fun to play.

Going for a Spin

As far as the gameplay goes, absolutely nothing at all has changed which hardly makes this feel like a valid sequel. No surprise, considering the rest of the game. On the other hand though, no one in their right minds would really want anything to change as Ridge Racers was great fun to play. The handling is, as always in the Ridge Racer series, entirely an arcade game with no pretence of simulation and massive drifts are possible just by easing off the accelerator. Despite being easy to get into it does provide depth with plenty of embarrassments on the road to perfection. As well as providing a route around a corner, drifting also fills your nitrous gauge that gives a real blast to your cars performance, ideal for over-taking on the closing straight.

While many of the tracks are lengthy and at three laps each they can go on for a while, this is still a perfectly portable game. Thanks to the sleep-mode of the PSP stopping halfway through a race is easy enough and it gives it a real feeling of freedom. Flick it on, do a race and put it down with the handling not suffering from occasional bumps if you get jogged while playing. Drifting around a corner with your nose to the wall and side to side with an AI opponent is a feeling which is second to none and it feels even better on a bus or train. The main mode is long enough to last most commuters, although annoyingly it still starts slowly. It’s not a surprise it does though, the whole World Tour mode is identical to the previous game, although not identical enough to recognize saves from the previous game which is a little annoying.

Stuck in Neutral

There is little more to say. The music is the same as the rest of the series, occasionally catchy dance music that plenty love and certainly plenty hate. Most will just hear them and mostly ignore them. Multiplayer modes have no real changes, certainly nothing impressive like online play being added. Hopefully you’ll not come across anyone that owns it for a while until it is massively reduced, as that means someone has bought it.

Make no mistake, Ridge Racers 2 is an excellent, fun and extremely portable game. That said, unless you’re the biggest Ridge Racer fan on the planet though, there is just no reason to buy this game, at all. If you own the previous game you have played the vast majority of this already. If you’ve not played the original, shame on you, but pick that one up cheap rather than paying full price for this. As good as it is, it’s still not going to get more than 5/10 as it is just too cynical and far too expensive. It should have been released as downloadable content for a small fee, where it would have been a great addition to a great game but as a full price release this is almost insulting. Ignore it.