Ridge Racers

The finest PSP launch title or another insult to the treasured Namco series? Here's our verdict on Ridge Racers, complete with loads of high quality video.

	Version PSP	Developer Namco	Publisher Namco	Genre Racing

By Adam Doree

Straight up, of course it's the finest launch title at the Japanese PSP launch. It's the one everyone wants, and the one everyone bought. It's the best looking and most accessible for early adopters. And frankly it's sometimes difficult to know what you're enjoying more - the joy of playing the PSP or the beauty of Ridge Racers.

Having played a few other PSP games to date, it's pretty obvious that Ridge Racers complements this machine's extraordinary allure most right now, but as a piece of software it would probably be just as enthralling on PS2. It really is ace.

The Ridge Racer series is remembered most for its 1993 debut before arriving at the launch of the original PlayStation, making for one of the best looking and most exciting arcade titles the format would see in some time. Graphically it would be trumped at the western launch by WipEout, but further sequels including Rage Racer, Ridge Racer Revolution and Ridge Racer Type 4 kept the franchise in the highest regard among PlayStation owners.

At the launch of PS2 came Ridge Racer V, a satisfactory attempt at bringing the series into the next generation, but things have been pretty stale on the Ridge front since then, with one notable entry being the R: Racing Evolution spin-off which left a sour taste for many fans. With the new release of the visually inferior Nintendo DS version - essentially a straight conversion of the well received N64 outing - it's up to Ridge Racers for PSP to reinstate the sex appeal and glory which the series is renowned for.

Like many previous iterations of the game, Ridge Racers' gameplay works superbly for its remarkably accessible driving mechanic, thrillingly unrealistic powersliding and utterly terrifying speed, combining flawlessly in a racing game that's all about the adrenalin of the arcade experience; something that doesn't take itself too seriously while offering impressive enough depth in perfecting lap-times and unlocking bonuses for anyone who does want to take it seriously.

This artwork is not far from how the game looks at all

Naturally, the audio-visual factor, something else for which the series is celebrated, is a focal point of the PSP conversion, as gamers look towards the title as an example of what the vital new handheld is capable of in technical terms. The result is at once arresting - with graphics that easily outclass PS2's Ridge Racer V, and a sublime soundtrack comprising tracks from many previous instalments in the series.

The superb design team at Namco have ensured another outing with huge artistic merit and visual appeal; fairgrounds, mountains, neon-lit tunnels, night-time city skylines, rolling cliff faces, palm trees at the beach and tonnes more besides - the art and style to be found in each level is nothing short of gorgeous. Touches such as flying aeroplanes and helicopters, seagulls and trains zooming past on overhead bridges, add to the feeling of immersive, hi-tech, fast-paced action.

We'll maintain an unhealthy obsession with Ridge racer mascot, Reiko, throughout the review in the videos.

Meanwhile, the technical standard of visuals is pretty remarkable, considering it is a first generation PSP title - and as will be the case with all future titles on the platform, it looks all the more impressive on the relatively small PSP screen (when compared to the unforgivingly large, jaggy-highlighting size of a normal TV).

The texture detail is, for the most part, superb, even on surfaces up-close. Detail on everything from grazing cattle to leafy trees and waterfalls is sharp and distinctive. The lighting of the whole environment, which almost seems never to be the same twice, also adds a wonderful sheen to the world you race around, and of course the cars themselves look the part with a decent level of detail and build, convincingly real-time reflections, dust from the wheels and sparks from the exhaust - the works.

The draw distance doesn't falter no matter what, resulting in some particularly eye-opening views that compare to high-end arcade capability. It also runs at sixty solid frames per second, perhaps the jewel in the crown of this machine's power when you look at how touchy an issue that magic number has been since the dawn of modern-day racing games. It looks effortlessly like a high-grade PS2 racing game - and often better.

Ridge Racers offers an excellent soundtrack. It would probably be fair to say that those who dislike the series' music are in the minority, and everyone has their own favourite in the series from a musical standpoint (with Type 4 being the first choice for many). The great news is that the PSP version combines pretty much all the best bits, across several virtual CDs. Everything from the original, snazzy Ridge Racer arcade music to the dance sensation of Disco Ball, along with some excellent and classic house beats, all goes to make a total musical treat as far as we're concerned.

The sound effects are okay, with the usual screeching tyres and different engine noises. Using decent headphones is essential as not only does the whole thing sound better but you can tell when an opponent car is gaining on you, without your rear-view mirror which you only get in bonnet view, just by listening out for him (and then trying to block the sucker, since he'd only try and do the same to you). Meanwhile, cities have traffic noise, the countryside has nosiy waterfalls and cattle and so forth, so an attempt has been made to liven things up with audio effects, although it's nothing mind blowing.

Inexplicably however, the famous, special-needs Ridge Racer announcer, who is already semi annoying to begin with thanks to an amusingly simplistic outlook on life and inappropriate timing in his advice (crash, and he advises, "YOU CRASHED!" - um, yeah thanks) is some of the worst sampled speech I have heard in a videogame since the 16-BIT era. He sounds like he has a serious speech impediment. It's slightly pathetic. Even so, it wouldn't quite be Ridge Racer without him, although if you want, you can turn him off altogether in the options. The problem with this, is that you're not entirely sure whether or not you pass a race, unless you vividly remember the finishing line requirement that flashed up before the race started. It's also easier to time your quick-start technique when you can hear the vocal count-down. We'd keep him if we were you. Also, you get a female announcer a little later on in the game.

It is Ridge Racers' gameplay that will keep you coming back though. The arcade style is immortalised with perfectly balanced yet over-the-top handling design, and more pertinently, longevity in game structure that keeps the whole experience fresh, addictive and soon enough, challenging.

The Ridge Racer World Tour is a sizable challenge mode that has players unlock the majority of the game's content - the "Ridge Racer Universe" - in a familiarly progressive way, starting at Basic level and working through to Pro and EX (Expert) levels, each difficulty containing a series of Tours, which in turn contain up to six events. For the most part, an event is a three-lap race with 12 cars, although later on in Pro mode this will expand to things like one-on-ones.

You unlock new motors and indeed the rest of the Tour as you progress, although it doesn't start to get challenging until well into Pro mode and even some of EX's early races might as well give you first place for free. But for many players it will be refreshing to have some easier play to start off with, before some really quite difficult challenges creep in - a learning curve that's neutralised, and underpinned exclusively by the game's accessible control (with perhaps some benefit from more and more extreme cars as well, our favourite being a devil-themed beauty with a truly frightening engine noise and flashing red devil symbol on the speedometer).

The new twist on things in this PSP outing is the nitrous boost feature, which is intrinsically linked to the already legendary powersliding mechanic. Powersliding fills up a maximum of three nitrous tanks which you can unleash for a terrific, motion-blur-inducing burst of speed with a tap of the right trigger at any point, and the subtle strategy element this feature introduces is what makes the addition worthwhile and effective. Depending on the nature of the race and the competence of the opposition, you may want to concentrate on rock solid racing lines to build up speed, or instead slide for Jesus in order to let out that boost on the final stretch. It's all very fun stuff.

But unsurprisingly, it's the powerslide mechanic itself that steals the show. Much like, and I'm surprised it has taken me this long to mention, Sega's OutRun2 (which oftentimes also shares an uncanny likeness in visual style as well), powersliding is central to the joy of racing around the tracks, but this time you really do need to master it to fly around hairpins, and fill up those nitrous tanks. And even when hurtling around a corner in an impossibly awesome slide that often has you quite literally facing backwards, the sense of speed is really staggering.

The game does lend a helping hand though in order to protect the no-fuss arcade style of gameplay, again in quite a similar fashion to OutRun2, in that if you navigate a sudden corner the game automatically adjusts your position to continue forwards, something that is painfully noticeable during the powerslides you'll inevitably be executing on such corners - and it stands out even more when you check it out in the replay. At first this can remove some of the triumphant feeling when you win, but even so, you'll find that there are other areas to focus on if you want to perfect your technique, complete the game or become any kind of expert. It's the essential faux-pas of Ridge Racers that has to be there for things to work, don't worry about it - there's plenty else that you can 'do wrong' during a race.

On the same note, the slow-player-catch-up routine is often astonishingly noticeable, particularly during one-on-one CPU races; in severely speedy races you can see the opponent ahead almost hit an invisible brick wall as you hammer into a wall, while pumping out some nitrous also gets his elastic, er, twanging.

Although it soon becomes possible to manoeuvre around traffic during, or more practically, towards the tail ends of a powerslide, often such effort will be hampered by some cheeky AI that has opponent cars blocking you quite frequently. That's fair enough when you consider that you have the ability to do exactly the same to them when you are in front, but I was pretty shocked when once, during a large jump sequence, an opponent just inches in front did exactly the same thing in mid-air!

In normal conditions it's all pretty subtle, but winning a race is rarely achieved by continually bumping into the back of opponent cars, so often the best way to pass them is by putting real thought and skill into your overtake positioning. It's best saved for wide corners where you have more options to meticulously plan your powerslide entry and exit points, hopefully leaving them crying in your rear-view. If you're able to do this on the inside, rather than outside, every single time, then you're either really lucky, or you've essentially mastered the whole point of the game.

The whole package is well presented, with an attractive minimalist front end that delicately fades in additional layers to the music as you go into different game modes. The introduction and end sequences are essential viewing (see the series' gorgeous Reiko in the intro in the first video below), while replays looks great and touches such as a unique and thoughtfully designed speedometer for every vehicle smack of thorough effort on the part of Namco. It's a fine and seamless integration of the previous Ridge titles into one, without alienating the identity of any instalment before it (logos for Ridge, Rage, Revolutions, Type 4 and V are all over the place).

Of course, the riveting and responsive wireless multiplayer mode for up to eight players (admittedly we've only tried it with two so far), which initiates after a flick of the WiFi switch and selecting Wireless Battle from the main menu, is the finishing touch that makes Ridge Racers an essential purchase for anyone picking up the new Sony handheld.