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Dom Robinson reviews
Sony 
Ridge Racer 2: 
Ridge Racer Platinum
- Price: £34.99
- Players: 1-2
- Widescreen: Yes
- Online: No
- Multiplayer between PSPs: Yes
Shortly after the PS2 came out,Sony releasedRidge Racer 5and, as you’ll see, it really didn’t grab me at all, so slotting this UMD into my handheld I wasn’texpecting great things from it. Oh, how I was surprised.
I don’t know what’s changed in my brain between now and then, or perhaps it was just the transition toa small screen where I can look directly into the screen and enjoy some fun while I’m out and about,whereas you tend to expect more from a standard console game played on a TV screen.
Of the ways to play Ridge Racer 2, the main games are the Arcade mode – just one race beforeyou’re back to the selection screen – or the more fulfilling World Tour mode where you can select your carand go up the rankings, which is really only shown by unlocking new cars and tracks as you complete thetours in succession, each one usually having two or three races – of 3 laps apiece – to go through andyou’ll be told whether you need to come first, second or third in order to qualify.
The keys to succeeding in this game include powersliding, something that is quite easy to get to grips withand very satisfying to do, in order to get round corners, and also using the nitrous boost a necessary tacticand one that must be done at the right times, often when you’re on a long straight, or as close as you can getto that.
Like all racing games, you have a map onscreen but this one, in the top-right, only shows the first-place carin relation to where you are and no others. That seemed a bit odd at first, but then again thats all youwould really need as otherwise it would clutter up such a small screen compared to a console being playedon a TV. Even when you don’t need to come first, the first few cars are generally bunched together quite closeso it’s a good indication of how much more ground you need to cover. You can also keep an eye on how the trackbends from the map so you dont come a cropper.
The American commentator shouts endless encouragement, sometimes giving advice on where to go but you mightend up telling HIM where to go as hes so effervescent, but at least he reminds you that the nitrous is ready,as often youll not notice while hurtling round the track at speed.
You’ll notice that parts of the track are sectioned off as theyll be opened up next time you visit the trackfor a later, slightly different, race, which isn’t a new thing in car games but you can look and speculatewhether you’ll be heading down that lane next time.
Note that in order to build up the aforementioned nitrous boost you’ll need lots of turns and twists to buildit up. It’s no good without those so on a track without tight turns it makes for a bit of a boring race andyou also wonder where the guy in the lead got his nitrous from that he uses to get away from you, since ifyoure on his tail you can see whether or not hes doing sharp turns to build it up!
For those who want something extra, the additional modes include Duel – go head-to-head againstthe CPU, but this isn’t as much fun as a standard race since it’s more interesting to race against 11 othercars instead of just one; Survival – race against three others and the person in last place at the endof each of the three laps is eliminated from the race, plus the self-explanatory Time Attack and,finally, the Wireless Battle mode, but I couldn’t find anyone online to play with so I just had totwiddle my own joystick.
Overall, with 42 tracks taken from a variety of versions of the Ridge Racer series, 42 songs to listen toand 62 cars to unlock in total, Ridge Racer 2 is so much fun, even if its the usual try to takeover as many cars as possible since despite the fact you all started at the same time, most of the carsare ridiculously so far further ahead than you are. You can sort of get revenge in return by trying toslide into another car to slow them down so you can pass, but make sure you dont hit them from behind oryoull suffer by losing speed and theyll get the advantage of your shunt.
For someone who wasn’t looking forward to playing this at first, I found it very exhilharating andadrenaline-pumping, even though it did try to catch me out later on with tracks that make you play in reverse,compared to the way you originally learned, which are a bugger to get to grips with. Not to mention theannoyance of why does the CPU car in the lead never crash?
A couple of other nice additions here are that you can watch replays of races and there’s also a funkylittle top-down arcade game thats like an old arcade game where you went round a circuit, the name of whichescapes me but you’ll be back in retro heaven when you dip into it.
SOUND EFFECTS AND MUSIC
PLAYABILITY
ENJOYMENT
OVERALL
Reviewer of movies, videogames and music since 1994. Aortic valve operation survivor from the same year. Running DVDfever.co.uk since 2000. Nobel Peace Prize winner 2021.