Ridge Racer 2

Posted June 2, 2012 by Speed - 0 comments

This is one of those titles that wants to be there whenever a new console gets released and just now when the PSP is going downhill in the eyes of many people, there’s this golden oldie again to show that… Hey, wait a minute. This game does look an awful lot like its predecessor. Let’s check the UMD. Indeed, it says “2″. So it’s the sequel. But for a sequel, the harvest of new features is pretty thin. Ridge Racer 2 is technically Ridge Racer 1 for the PSP with 12 new songs, 8 new cars, 9 new traks and apparently 3 new game modes.

Actually, that’s about all there is to say as on all fronts (graphics, gameplay and sound) it’s a complete copy of its predecessor. The classic World Tour Mode is back and also available are the arcade, time trial, duel and survival modes. With new game modes the developers actually mean that some existing ones have been tweaked here and there (time limits have been added in arcade, new events in World Tour Mode). The eight new cars bring the total up to 62 of which 18 are available from the beginning to play with alone or through ad hoc mode with your friends. Gaming over the internet isn’t possible.

And the rest it’s just a list of numbers. There’s 21 tracks and according to the promo fact sheet even 42 as that counts the reverse courses seperately. The gameplay is pretty decent – after all, it is and stays Ridge Racer. Again it’s all about drifting and boosting to get to first place while the same enervating commentary rants all about you or – when you manage to get from fourth to first position – decides you’re the greatest racer ever. The new soundtracks didn’t really appeal to me much as I prefer to go for the golden oldie Disco Ball.

Well, little new under the sun here. The reason is probably because the Ridge Racer team has been concentrating more on the PS3 which results in any Ridge Racer fan buying this title feeling ripped off. This game looks to have been released more for those that are just now buying a PSP instead of the real fans. If you don’t have the original PSP Ridge Racer and you find the extra features worth the additional money, you’ll have quite some fun with this title. It isn’t the standard on graphics anymore (for quite some time already) but it remains a good game with rock solid gameplay.

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