Ridge Racer - Platinum Edition (PSP)

Perhaps the reason this series has a "love it or hate it" reaction with gamers is the fact that the entire series is not a realistic driving simulation (with loads of car customisation etc) and instead it has an arcade feel to it, right down to the steering and drifting.

That said, Ridge Racer PSP is fantastic fun to play as an arcade racer while you're going down to the shops. Cars zoom along the tracks and drift spectacularly around the courses. Drift loads and you get nitro/turbo boosts. Despite all the visual polish I was surprised at the smooth gameplay on the PSP, so I was very impressed. Winning races in the lower, slower leagues opens up new cars,courses and rounds, so the game itself has a very good learning curve for old and newer gamers alike, with easy controls and game rules.

If you like Need For Speed titles or Gran Tourismo titles, perhaps it would be best to steer for something a little more realistic, other gamers looking for a quick racy thrill might be well chuffed to get a hold of this slice of driving fun now it's so cheap.

This game is tremendous fun and sees a selection of old courses from the Ridge universe get a next gen (compare to the originals) make over. I'd rate it 5 stars however a short while after this was released Namco made RIDGE RACER 2 for the PSP which is more of the same... literally, here's what they did:

Main Intro - Changed (Although you can unlock the original)
Title screen - Identical (+2)
Menus - Identical
Game Intro - Identical
Cars - Identical (but more)
Tracks - Identical (but more)
Tours - Identical (but more)
Ending - Identical (but you can unlock many extra videos)

Honestly anyone buying this after playing Ridge Racer 2 is going to be gutted. However anyone considering buying this should just skip it and get Ridge Racer 2 for the PSP.

This game see the return of MANY of the tracks from
Ridge Racer
Ridge Racer Revolution
Rage Racer
Rave Racer
Ridge Racer Type 4
Ridge Racer V (Some, but only the ones from the first Ridge Racer)

HOWEVER RR2 sees the return of ALL of them (except RRV)

There are excellent multiplayer modes (via wireless options), classic RR physics (sideways cornering) and some interesting remixes of familiar tunes covering a complete RR history (up to RRV).

Overall an excellent game at an excellent price... as long as you buy RIDGE RACER 2!!!

Imagine this: A "Now That's What I Call Music!" CD. Except it's not a CD, it's a UMD; and it's more like "Now That's What I Call Ridge Racer!" That's the best way to describe Ridge Racer on the PSP; but unlike the cash-cow music compilation albums, Ridge Racer is great.

This PSP game takes all the best tracks from previous games in the RR series, most notably the arcade and PSone games, and puts them together in this neat little package. But before you access any of the tracks or cars you're invited to play an old Namco arcade game called New Rally-X. You drive around, capture flags, and avoid other cars. When you're done it's time to sample the delights of Ridge Racer.

After the spectacular intro, and the title screen, you reach the main menu and have several options available to you. The options menu allows you to adjust sound settings and switch the New Rally-X game off if you don't want to play it, although I do advise you to play it as much as possible. If you do you'll eventually receive a nice little surprise. Single Race allows you to pick a course, a car and just go off racing in a field of twelve cars; Time Attack lets you have the course all to yourself with a chance to set the fastest lap possible; whilst Wireless Battle allows you to race against your friends (8 players possible) via the WLAN.

However, as you've probably noticed by now, you only have access to three cars and six courses. Looks like we need to unlock the other cars and courses, and we do that via the World Tours. Here the mode is split into three difficulties: Basic, Pro and Ex; and in each category is a series of tours. A tour is a mini championship where each race requires you to finish in a certain position or higher (eg: 3rd or better) in order to move onto the next race. Successfully completing a tour will unlock cars, tracks, other tours, and other nice extras. It's a highly addictive mode, and one that will keep you occupied for quite some time.

When selecting a car you have three different types of cars to choose from: Mild, Standard and Dynamic. Mild cars are hard to drift with but are easier to control. Dynamic cars drift easily but are tough to straighten out. Standard cars are an average balance of Mild and Dynamic. You should make your decision on which car to choose based on your Ridge Racer experience.

The one feature introduced for the first time in the Ridge Racer series, for this PSP outing, is the nitrous gauge. As you drift your car around the corners on each course the nitrous gauge, three mini tanks displayed on the left side of the screen, start to fill up. The more speed you have whilst drifting, the quicker the tanks fill up. When you have a full tank you can press the R shoulder button to activate the nitrous and give you an extra boost of speed. The actual use of this boost, and when abouts you use it, is vital to beating your opponents to 1st place and setting fast lap times.

This all sounds like good fun, and I'm glad to say that fun is accompanied by fantastic graphics. Everything looks so realistic. Light shimmers off the windows of buildings at Seaside Route 765; neon lights glow brightly on the Midtown Expressway; and the sunset sky looks so appealing at Crimsonrock Pass.

The music is top notch too, and once you've heard some of the tracks they'll be stuck in your head all day long. Mostly made up of dance beats with the occasional bit of jazz, some of the tracks are new to this game whilst others are remixed from previous Ridge Racers. With 30 tracks available the law of average says at least one of them will become your personal favourite.

Ridge Racer for the PSP is simply brilliant. It has great courses, great cars, great tracks, and the feeling of drifting your car around corners at 300kph is...yes, you guessed it, great. Buy this game now!...?...Well what are you waiting for?! Go on!