well the second review to be ported from
www.gmr-source.com will be ridge racer. I figgered all you people who don't have the game already need some persuasion.
enjoy!
Ridge Racer, a game developed by Namco, if a launch title for the PSP handheld. It is a game in a crowded genre for the PSP, racing. But, this game stays to the genres core; there is no sex appeal or violent attacking in this game, and Ridge Racer doesnââ‚ƚ¬Ã¢â€žÂ¢t need it.
As you pop the UMD into the PSP I found that this game wasnââ‚ ¬Ã¢â€žÂ¢t ordinary. The first loading screen presents you with the old school Ridge Racer. Once you finish it starts with the intro cut scene. The intro shows us that this game wasnââ‚ ¬Ã¢â€žÂ¢t slapped together. The graphics in this game, like the cut scene, are simply beautiful. Especially I like how the developers put many things into the background. Planes flying in the overhead, the shine on windows and the ground are great. Even the menu seemed streamlined and very cool. The one gripe I have is that the carââ‚Âà ‚¬ÃƒÂ¢Ã¢â‚¬Å¾Ã‚¢s graphics did not seem up to par with the rest of the environment. But over-all this game has excellent graphics for a launch title.
†œNitrous,ÃÂà ‚¢ÃƒÂ¢Ã¢â‚¬Å¡Ã‚¬Ã‚? the announcer said. Iâ₠¬ÃƒÆ’¢â€žÂ¢m tired of hearing the announcer. Its not that what he says is very bad, itââ‚ ¬ÃƒÂ¢Ã¢â‚¬Å¾Ã‚¢s just that he/whatever it is states the same things over and over and over. At least the developers attempted at changing the voice every once and a while. The music in Ridge Racer is well done, what I wanted on a portable. On the Menu screens, the beeps sound very futuristic and very believable. In fact, these menu screens impress me much more than PS2 screens. Itââ‚ ¬ÃƒÂ¢Ã¢â‚¬Å¾Ã‚¢s just that they give me a Wow feeling.
Now for the deciding factor, Game play. When you start the first race you might find it hard to look at the road, your nitrous, and through your back mirror; but donââ‚Âà ‚¬ÃƒÂ¢Ã¢â‚¬Å¾Ã‚¢t worry, it will come with time. In Ridge Racer the main racing mode is the World Tour Mode. You compete in a tour, which is consisted of two or more races. In each race your machine starts in last place and has to move up to a certain position to get to the next round of the tour, or get 1st on the final race to win the tour. Namco puts in plenty of tours to keep you busy for a long time. The Easy World Tour Mode is just that, easy. The problem is that it is way too easy. It would take you maybe half a day if you went hardcore on the game. Namco makes up for this with the Pro Mode, which you get while you beat tours on easy mode; the difficulty ramped up to perfection. You might have to play while you are not in a car to beat a lot of the races in this mode. Also in the Pro mode you will race 1 on 1; this was absent in Easy Mode.
There are three different types of machine classes: Standard, Mild, and Dynamic. They might not seem different at first, but in Pro Tour mode it become very important. Your car responds excellently and drifting gives you much pleasure after a bad day. In addition to great driving, Namco puts in two different driving views: One is first-person type view where you can see the cars behind you through a mirror, and the other is a third person view that gives you a better ability to asses the turn. Namco also lets you switch views on the fly so that you always get the best result out of each situation. Nitrous is icing on the virtual cake; it gives you just the boost you need. While strategy might seem absent in the early stages of the game you will find that the Nitrous uses more strategy then anything else in the game, especially in Pro mode.
The drifting does have its defects though; it seems that the developers have missed a medium size error. Sometimes when you are trying to do a drift and you are quite not going ¾ top speed the game sometimes wonââ‚Âà ‚¬ÃƒÂ¢Ã¢â‚¬Å¾Ã‚¢t let you do a drift, this results in hitting the edge of the street many many many times and knocking you out of a race occasionally. This can frustrate you when you are about to win a hard race. This being said, the bug does not happen frequently.
Overall this game is one of the best, if not the best racing game to come out in a competitive and overpopulated genre for the PSP
Pros:
-Slick graphics
-Insanely fun racing (drifting)
-Use of the Nitrous
-Music is very well done
-Best intro to a game thus far on a handheld
- Beautiful tracks and scenery
Cons:
-At times, annoying announcer
-Weird drifting bug
-One more time, the annoying announcer
Gameplay: 9.6/10
Graphics: 9.3/10
Sound: 8.3/10
Presentation: 9.1/10
Overall: 9.4/10
leave some comments (anything bad is extremely welcome!)
i hope it helped.
Ridge racer...prepare for what again?
Linear Mode
