Ridge Racers

The finest handheld racer ever?

As gamers we are obsessed with driving games. We love them. As I write this, Need for Speed Underground 2 has been number one in the UK for about three years (yet Outrun 2 is nowhere to be seen - the crime!). There's probably more than one reason for this. Firstly, a lot of us love cars, especially fast ones. Secondly, the racing genre, much like the FPS, is one that has really benefited from the shift into 3D gaming. Platformers? Puzzlers? They're mostly no better in 3D than their 2D counterparts and often actually inferior. Racing games on the other hand have come on leaps and bounds. Titles like Burnout 3, Gran Turismo 4, Project Gotham 2 and Colin McRae 2005 are simply miles ahead of their old 16bit ancestors and utterly incomparable (though if I hear anyone uttering a bad word about Mario Kart on the SNES they will be struck down at my own hand). It's no surprise then that Sony were understandably keen to get a quality racer ready in time for the launch of the PSP. They must be all the more chuffed, then, that Ridge Racers is an absolutely cracking title.

You know that feeling when you boot up a new machine for the very first time? I certainly do. I remember the sheer delight I felt when initially booting up Super Mario World after buying my first SNES. Compared to what the NES had offered before it was truly a revelation. I felt much the same the first time I played Tomb Raider and Gran Turismo 3. Gaming revolutions are promised often but actually happen very seldom; fortunately the moment you first load up Ridge Racers you will be utterly amazed. I've even had friends who are not even remotely interested in games or gadgetry of any kind exchange gasps of admiration upon witnessing it. After experiencing a few years of SNES ports on the GBA and even the recent N64 ports on DS, witnessing Ridge Racers running on a handheld for the first time is something very special.

The intro, the menus - they're all nice, but it's when the game gets going you'll be truly impressed. At first glance you'll swear its PS2 quality. After you've calmed down a little you'll concede that it's not quite there yet and after a couple of days you'll come to terms with the fact that Ridge Racers, whilst gorgeous, is a bit behind its PS2-bound brethren. That's not to say, however, that it is not incredibly impressive. The graphics are large, bold sharp and incredibly slick, more so than I would have ever believed possible on a handheld. Granted, the polygon count of the cars is maybe not quite what it first seems and the textures are sometimes a tiny bit rougher than what we might hope from in a modern PS2 game, but overall the level of technical accomplishment is staggering. Best of all it never feels as if graphical concessions have been made in the desire to impress. Draw distances are great, the backgrounds are detailed including animated 3D elements and there's no hint of a drop in speed or framerate. Despite this however it never feels as if the PSP is being pushed to anywhere near its limits. In much the same way as Ridge Racer V was initially impressive on PS2 but now appears very dated, when watching this game you know that PS2 quality graphics will one day grace the PSP; an amazing achievement in its own right.

Add to that then the fact that Ridge Racers is a great title and all in all I consider myself quid's in! The racing itself is as fine an example as you'll get of drift racing this side of Outrun 2 and easily the better of many titles on today's home consoles. Instrumental in this is the inclusion of the analogue nub on the PSP with which a decent level of analogue control is possible - something sorely lacking in Ridge Racer on the DS. The mapping of accelerate and brake to the cross and square buttons on the face, along with the boost and view change buttons on the shoulder, works very well and from the off the game controls just as you would expect it to. The responsiveness of the game is top notch too allowing for some frighteningly quick control and extremely accurate drifting. Better still thanks to the design of the PSP it's perfectly comfortable even after extended play - your batteries will likely tire before your fingers.

Races are extremely quick, very smooth and instantly accessible. The tracks are much what you'd expect from a Ridge Racer title - long, winding and very very fast, ideal for an arcade racing title and the perfect foil for racing fans once Gran Turismo hits PSP. Since many of the tracks are based in and around the same cities and settings there is sometimes a lack of variation in the backgrounds but still the number of courses is pleasing. Cars too are numerous, with several available at any one time and many more to unlock. Even the music is pretty decent, providing you like dance music and can put up with the moronic voice-over pillock who persists in sprouting inane American sound bites throughout every race. He must be hunted and killed. Multiplayer is also a doddle to fathom, even when battling some occasionally Japanese-heavy menus. Though I have only tried it in 2-player all that was required was for one player to select host and the other to search for their game. Hey presto! The result - wireless multiplayer as smooth as if the person was sitting next to you... oh hang on, they were. Either way, it worked tremendously - though Luke, our resident editor here at Ferrago, may disagree since he was trounced by both myself and our other resident Ferrago bigwig, Jason (leave it! - Ed).

In many ways it's hard to criticise Ridge Racers. It achieves what it sets out to do with a great sense of triumph and is only really found lacking in the depth department. Aside from standard races and time trials the only mode to get stuck into is World Tour, a succession of all-out racing tournaments. It's big with plenty to unlock and tons of tracks, but in the modern age when we're used to the likes of Burnout 3 and Gran Turismo there are occasions when you'll yearn for some variation. Still though, this is often the way in first generation titles. I wish it wasn't but it is and until the sequel, or indeed Burnout, come along we've still got a very decent racer on our hands. Ridge Racers is not a game that you're likely to sit down and play for hours on end, yet fortunately it's exactly the sort of game that you'll happily play in short bursts whilst on the move - just the sort of title coincidentally that detractors said the PSP was lacking in the build up to launch. Granted, it's no Wario Ware but the ability to save mid championship allows for short visits. Aside from the lack of variation, what may also grate is the difficulty. I played a good five hours of the game before I failed to finish in first place. For those of you that do persevere the difficulty does increase as you progress to the faster vehicles but it's a shame it takes so long to get there.

In the end it's this lack of additional play modes that lets Ridge Racers down a bit, but that shouldn't detract from the fact that what is offered is extremely entertaining, remarkably solid and technically incredible. Whilst it may not be the greatest arcade racer ever made when compared to it's home console counterparts, the fact that it is even comparable in the first place is an undeniably amazing achievement and certainly you can say without question that it offers the best racing on a handheld machine by a long, long way. Best of all, this game makes me feel optimistic. If Namco can achieve this with an incredibly short development time and with no experience of the hardware, imagine what will be possible in a couple of years time?

86%

By Ben Parfitt