Ridge Racer 2

Stevie welcomes drifting back to the PSP

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In gaming's recent past, driving games have grown from the simplistic all-arcade nature of titles such as OutRun, to the progressive engineering and considered racing of Gran Turismo and Formula One - with franchises such as Need for Speed sliding in somewhere between both extremes. Likewise, racing fans have similarly fallen into three categories of favour: those who simply want the thrill of speed; those who want to tinker to their heart's content, and those who want to keep Electronic Arts pumping out annual editions of Need for Speed.

Bearing that in mind, those racing fans keen on enjoying the in-depth evolution of Gran Turismo upon sliding Ridge Racer 2 into their PlayStation Portables, had probably better stop reading at this juncture. The same advice should be heeded by those who want to trudge through shoehorned cut-scene narrative while eluding the attentions of the police and street racing against tiered gang members across massive free-roaming maps. However, those who simply want to pluck their PSP out whenever they feel the need for quick-fix and breakneck portable arcade racing should likely stick around to learn more.

So what does Namco's Ridge Racer 2 bring to the racing genre in order to part you from your hard-earned cash? Aesthetically it offers beautiful presentation - the opening rendered sequence and subsequent menus are all superb examples of top-draw graphic design and animation - and it offers convincingly detailed urban and country environments, a plethora of impressively modelled high-performance cars (though none from official manufacturers), and a faultlessly consistent frame rate - the veritable make-or-break component of any racing game. Yet, more than that, Ridge Racer 2 offers a welcome return to breathless drifting and eye-popping nitrous-enhanced speed through closely confined streets.

It's not all good news though. While the game's controls are pleasingly responsive, with the PSP's analogue nub lending itself well to the immediacy of quick chicanes and tight turns, attempts to steer away cleanly from grating wall collisions results in painfully repetitive juddering that swiftly saps speed and a degree of enjoyment. Drifts are generally easy to execute and maintain - resulting in quick thrills and invaluable nitrous boosts - but that ease, if anything, is a slight detraction because it's nigh-on impossible to spin through a drift and lose control of the car. In fact it occasionally feels as though the game is actually assisting for the sake of unsullied player enjoyment rather than allowing for a genuine sense of achievement through precision driving and specific adjustment to each type of vehicle. Also, because Ridge Racer 2 is a pure arcade experience, it means that crash damage is non-existent and contact with the competitive A.I. vehicles simply results in dodgem-car style bouncing regardless of speed.

Some players may find these little quibbles an annoyance, but ultimately Ridge Racer 2 replaces those really rather minor grievances with thoroughly enjoyable gameplay, high-end graphics and sound, slick performance, masses of races, and tons of unlockable cars. In terms of playable modes, there's an absolute stack of choice that stretches the game's longevity well beyond the limits of most. World Tours make up the core of the single-player game, offering Basic and Pro components made up of 16 separate tours, all of which are tiered with a minimum of two and maximum of three races. Custom Tour allows players to generate their own selection of tour races, which are then played out within a set period of time. Arcade mode gives the player instant access to a wide selection of famous (forward and reverse) courses from the likes of the original Ridge Racer, Rage Racer, R4, Rave Racer, Ridge Racer Type 4, and Ridge Racer Revolution. Duel mode offers the same as Arcade but the player races one-on-one with a single hard to beat A.I. opponent. Survival mode places the player against three A.I. opponents across the Arcade courses and eliminates the car in last place with the completion of each successive lap. Time Attack is, as you'd expect, the player against the clock in a personal performance challenge. Finally, there's a Wireless Battle mode where multiplayer racers can utilise the PSP's wireless capabilities to see who's the best drifter throughout the Arcade track selection.

Regardless of the enviable array of mode content, Ridge Racer 2's main attraction resides in its simple yet unfailingly accessible gameplay and the fun that it inspires. While most of the courses available throughout World Tours are often reversed or marginally extended versions of basic templates, each and every onrushing bend and hairpin turn grants the opportunity to perform a thrilling drift and enjoy the resulting howl of screeching rubber and boosted nitrous tanks. The fact that Arcade mode offers up a further 20+ classic courses, which can all be played in reverse to double that initial figure, just means that the art and fulfilment of high-speed drifting never grows dull.

Gran Turismo this is not, there are no in-depth engineering options (beyond the choice between manual and automatic transmission) or crammed performance-based garages; neither is this Need for Speed, there are no scantily clad female co-stars to guide the player through a cloyingly cliched storyline (though the 3D-animated Japanese beauty in the game's opening pre-render is staggeringly well done). No, Ridge Racer 2, much like the PSP's recent reincarnation of OutRun, is all about fun, all about uncomplicated speed, and all about breathtaking drifting. Yes, there are a few faults that blemish the overall performance - the juddering wall grinding can be a sporadic pain - but the handful of minor detractions never come close to spoiling an otherwise excellent handheld package. Do you get my drift?

88%

By Stevie Smith