Ridge Racer PSP review

I didn’t choose Ridge Racer. Sure, I enjoyed the original, and the others in the series showed off some nicely improved graphics, but if I’d had a choice about it, I might have gone for a different game to be bundled with my shiny new PlayStation Portable. Unfortunately, getting hold of a PSP gave me no other option than to try Ridge Racer as my first game. I say unfortunately, however to be honest, I doubt there could be a better introduction to the next generation of mobile gaming as the game that still resides within my PSP, Ridge Racer.

I was there at the beginning, way back just before E3 of 2003, when at Sony’s Pre-E3 press conference Ken Kutaragi announced the PSP, sitting a few rows back, feeling the wave of excitement brush over the crowd, and when I started playing Ridge Racer, that same excitement re-infected me because the game is, in short, very good.

Using the tech

Not really knowing what to expect, I headed straight into the first of various game modes, World Tour (after a quick blast on the classic Namco trend of loading screen games), and the graphics took my breath away. Beautiful graphics, definitely comparable to PS2 level running at a full 30 frames per second with no slowdown greeted me, all presented on the PSP’s stunning screen.

Sound-wise, everything sounds pretty decent using the PSP’s speaker, with an excitable commentator explaining that ‘You’re a genius, I’ve never seen anything like that’ at every opportunity. The sound effects are a consistently high standard; what we’ve come to expect from the series, and the music, a combination of previous tracks and remixes compliments the racing nicely. Using earphones to listen to the sound however will not only stop annoying those around you, but give you a far superior listening experience, showing the great quality of the sound here.

Drifting through life

The gameplay of Ridge Racer follows the classic arcade style of racing. Starting at the back of the pack, in three laps, you have the task of snatching first place away from the (normally) 11 others, all vying for the gold. When there is an especially tight corner, a quick release from the accelerator and a tight bit of steering in the correct direction should allow you to slide or drift around the corner, and this is where the new feature to the Ridge Racer series becomes apparent.

Undeniably taking stock from other arcade and console racers, this incarnation of the series includes a Nitrous feature, whereby on the touch of the right shoulder button, you can release a stream of N20 into your vehicle’s engine and rocket your speed up beyond the other cars. To earn these Nitros, you simply have to drift around corners. The faster and tighter you drift, the quicker your Nitro bars rise up until you have filled one and can use it. You can store a maximum of three at once before discharging one and having to refill it, but it certainly adds another level of tactics to beating the opponents.

Fill her up…

There are 24 courses, (well, to be honest, there are 12 variations of each course) which can each be played in reverse, although once unlocked, you can also play mirror versions of these tracks, giving 48 alternatives to race down. This is certainly an adequate amount, with plenty of variation and gorgeous visuals throughout.

You can race with seven classes of vehicle (including a Special class, with a handful of extremely fast, and unique vehicles, such as Pac-man in a propeller powered automobile) and they range from feeling rather slow, to worrying your earphones might fall out. Cars range in driving style and look within each class, so that once unlocked, you will surely be able to find the right kind of vehicle for your taste. Each vehicle comes in 25 variations in colour, so you can even drive that pink shiny machine you’ve always wanted to.

A la mode

Once you get over the initial buzz of graphical beauty, it’s time to focus on the game modes available to you. The aforementioned World Tour mode is the Single Player mode that will occupy most of your time. 46 tours of progressively harder difficulty give you a task to achieve that will challenge even the most hardened gamer, but allow newcomers to have a reasonably friendly learning curve before thrusting them into racing hell (only in terms of difficulty, not pleasure).

If you’re up for a quick blast on the move, you can try Custom Tour mode, which asks you how long you would like to play for and randomly generates a tour around this amount of time so that you should fill the time perfectly. Perfect for a set length car journey, so long as you’re only behind the virtual wheel.

Single Race mode gives you the choice of what variation of which course to race, and what class of vehicles to use, popping you straight into the action. Time Attack mode is almost identical but without the opposing cars, merely pitting you against the clock to beat your best time (and perhaps one of your pre-recorded ghost cars).

Wireless Link

If there is one feature of the PSP that seems to inject life and genius into any game it touches, it is the Wireless Link feature that in Ridge Racer allows you to connect up to anyone else playing the game in your local vicinity (i.e. in the same room). As any racing game player will know, there is nothing like going up against a friend, and enjoying the exhilaration of such a battle. Easy to set up, lag free, and addictive to play (on the one occasion when I managed to find someone else with a PSP), all of the standard options are there.

Fortunately, the game doesn’t rely on the wireless mode, since there is enough draw to playing it alone that you’ll be enjoying this one for many a long train journey. I’ve enjoyed it enough, however, that I feel that I have to remind everyone here that you don’t have to be on the move to enjoy a quick or lengthy go on Ridge Racer.