Ridge Racer

Ridge Racers of the past are finally completed.
Review By SFUNPSP.



Ridge Racer, a game developed by Namco, if a launch title for the PSP handheld. It is a game in a crowded genre for the PSP, racing. But, this game stays to the genres core; there is no sex appeal or violent attacking in this game, and Ridge Racer doesn't need it.

As you pop the UMD into the PSP I found that this game wasn't ordinary. The first loading screen presents you with the old school Ridge Racer. Once you finish it starts with the intro cut scene. The intro shows us that this game wasn't slapped together. The graphics in this game, like the cut scene, are simply beautiful. Especially I like how the developers put many things into the background. Planes flying in the overhead, the shine on windows and the ground are great. Even the menu seemed streamlined and very cool. The one gripe I have is that the car's graphics did not seem up to par with the rest of the environment. But over-all this game has excellent graphics for a launch title.

“Nitrous,” the announcer said. I'm tired of hearing the announcer. Its not that what he says is very bad, it's just that he/whatever it is states the same things over and over and over. At least the developers attempted at changing the voice every once and a while. The music in Ridge Racer is well done, what I wanted on a portable. On the Menu screens, the beeps sound very futuristic and very believable. In fact, these menu screens impress me much more than PS2 screens. It's just that they give me a Wow feeling.

Now for the deciding factor, Game play. When you start the first race you might find it hard to look at the road, your nitrous, and through your back mirror; but don't worry, it will come with time. In Ridge Racer the main racing mode is the World Tour Mode. You compete in a tour, which is consisted of two or more races. In each race your machine starts in last place and has to move up to a certain position to get to the next round of the tour, or get 1st on the final race to win the tour. Namco puts in plenty of tours to keep you busy for a long time. The Easy World Tour Mode is just that, easy. The problem is that it is way too easy. It would take you maybe half a day if you went hardcore on the game. Namco makes up for this with the Pro Mode, which you get while you beat tours on easy mode; the difficulty ramped up to perfection. You might have to play while you are not in a car to beat a lot of the races in this mode. Also in the Pro mode you will race 1 on 1; this was absent in Easy Mode.

Now for the deciding factor, Game play. When you start the first race you might find it hard to look at the road, your nitrous, and through your back mirror; but don't worry, it will come with time. In Ridge Racer the main racing mode is the World Tour Mode. You compete in a tour, which is consisted of two or more races. In each race your machine starts in last place and has to move up to a certain position to get to the next round of the tour, or get 1st on the final race to win the tour. Namco puts in plenty of tours to keep you busy for a long time. The Easy World Tour Mode is just that, easy. The problem is that it is way too easy. It would take you maybe half a day if you went hardcore on the game. Namco makes up for this with the Pro Mode, which you get while you beat tours on easy mode; the difficulty ramped up to perfection. You might have to play while you are not in a car to beat a lot of the races in this mode. Also in the Pro mode you will race 1 on 1; this was absent in Easy Mode.

The drifting does have its defects though; it seems that the developers have missed a medium size error. Sometimes when you are trying to do a drift and you are quite not going ¾ top speed the game sometimes won't let you do a drift, this results in hitting the edge of the street many many many times and knocking you out of a race occasionally. This can frustrate you when you are about to win a hard race. This being said, the bug does not happen frequently.

Overall this game is one of the best, if not the best racing game to come out in a competitive and overpopulated genre for the PSP 

Pros:
-Slick graphics
-Insanely fun racing (drifting)
-Use of the Nitrous
-Music is very well done
-Best intro to a game thus far on a handheld
- Beautiful tracks and scenery

Cons:
-At times, annoying announcer
-Weird drifting bug
-One more time, the annoying announcer