Ridge Racer
Posted by jaleelboone on July 14, 2006
“High speed action. Racing on a half arcade, half simulation style. These are the traits of the famous Ridge Racer series. Now the racing game is coming to Sony’s Playstation Portable, and from here it looks great. First of all, it is well known that Ridge Racers is the Hummer of the PSP. Big time guzzler, Ridge Racer takes a lot of battery life from the system. At a full charged battery you could play Ridge for about four hours. So what, that means the graphics are outstanding right? Yeah, for a handheld of course. The graphics are better then Playstation, not as good as PS2, yet amazing none the less.
As stated earlier, since the beginning Ridge Racer has been known for it’s fifty percent arcade, fifty percent simulation gameplay. It resembles a simulation because it doesn’t have F-zero or Burnout type gameplay. It rides easily and controls similarly to car, though not as exact as a game by the likes of Gran Turismo. It shares traits with arcade games though with a new feature this time around. Nitrous. Your car has a nitrous meter that builds when you loosely break on turns. With a maximum of three you can boost for a few seconds at a time.
The A.I. is challenging because your opponents can use the meter as well, adding to nice depth of the game. The sound’s of RR mixes old and new. The traditional Ridge announcer is also in the background adding his comments now and again.
Ridge Racer is a very impressive launch game. Any video game fan who thinks simulations are too slow, or any racing fan who thinks arcade games are too fast, Ridge Racer is the one for you. Be sure to pick this one up along with your PSP. The green flag waves mid 2005.”
