The new hype-realistic arcade racing game from Namco is a rather familiar affair to this game reviewer. As a fan of the original Ridge Racers on the PlayStation, this new ‘sequel’ on the PSP seems to lack any new features that differential the launch title for the handheld console.
Sure it still features the over-the-top oversteer moments when ‘powersliding’ around the corners and as an arcade game, it provides thrills for a short amount of time. But the lack of new content in particular online play is disappointing.
Ridge Racer 2 should be branded as Ridge Racer Remixed as this new game only seems to provides new cars, music and tracks (from the past Ridge Racer games including Ridge Racer Type 4, Rage Racer and Ridge Racer Revolution).
As a game, it still fantastic to play with the sublime handling and visuals. But you can’t help think that Namco has missed out on an opportunity to take it in a new direction.
There are two modes available in Ridge Racer 2 – Duel and Survival. But no Online play (which everyone wanted) unfortunately… As you can tell by the two names, Duel is a series of races in which you compete against a single opponent while Survival is a simple lap-by-lap knockout. Both these modes feel like filler than new content but fans of Ridge Racer will be pretty happy.
In conclusion, Ridge Racer 2 is great fun but a poor excuse of a sequel. It feels like a carbon copy of the original game including that dynamic difficulty curve… At one point you are winning the races in World Tour mode with ease and then the game goes into ‘cheating’ mode in which the AI-controller cars seem to have infinite boost…
In addition, the new cars don’t really look new either. More like a remodelled versions of the same old vehicles…
But Ridge Racer 2 is most definitely an improvement over the first game but by no means an essential purchase. If nine new tracks seems like good value to you, then you won’t be disappointed, as the core gameplay is as entertaining as ever, but don’t say you weren’t warned!