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Best Racing Game for PSP so far

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 29 / 32
Date: April 09, 2005
Author: Amazon User

Currently, there are only 3 racing games available for PSP, and Ridge Racer is definitely the best of the three. You should be able to pick it up and learn the basic mechanics of the game fairly quickly. Most of the courses (of which there are many) are designed so that you are supposed to drift, rather than brake, through the turns. Drifting also builds up your nitrous so you can get boosts later on.

My only complaint is that the game gets pretty difficult. It seems that a cheap tactic was used to make the game more difficult. You see, it is fairly easy to drive the courses faster than all of the other racers. Unfortunately, this does not always mean you win. You will start out in last place out of 12 cars every single time. The lead car will start out with about a 20 second lead and you have three laps to catch up. So it's not like you can ever get a good start and jump into first place and just worry about holding onto the lead for the rest of the race. You are chasing another car almost the entire race. What gets frustrating is that you will often finish a few seconds behind the first place car and realize that you technically finished the race faster than he did, but you still lost the race.

I guess I learned to get over that annoying detail since the game itself was just incredible. Until Gran Turismo 4 comes out (and maybe even after, who knows?), this is the best racing game on the PSP.

Stunned

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 17 / 32
Date: April 01, 2005
Author: Amazon User

I've only played one other title on the PSP so far, Wipeout Pure and I must say I was initially impressed with what this little handheld device can do. Today, I loaded up Ridge Racer and I have to say there is no comparison.

The first thing I notice is the music. It's adrenaline pumping music which goes hand-in-hand with the unbelievable graphics. There are at least 6 or 7 different music "discs" to listen to, each with around 7 or 8 songs.

Once the game got going, I played the first track Seaside Route 765 over and over again until I got through it. I quickly went on to the second and third routes and then on to other world tours. It's thrilling to find yourself in first place in a race and I'm compelled to keep competing to see what other tracks are like. I'm enjoying this game so much, I must say I hope it takes me a while to get through all the tracks. It's also great trying out different cars and getting to know their unique handling style.

After the race, you can watch an instant replay from the perspective of a television camera following all the action. The cars are about as close to photo-realistic as any graphics I've seen in a video game. The city-scapes and rural scenery alike are absolutely beautiful, although not quite like a photograph. I think this adds to the appeal.

Also, the game that is available when you first load Ridge Racers was a nice touch. I remember playing that as a stand-up arcade game and although quite a different experience from Ridge Racer itself, it's a fun little diversion.

I want to see who will come out with a better title than Ridge Racers on the PSP.

The Perfect Racer for the Perfect Handheld

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 14 / 28
Date: March 27, 2005
Author: Amazon User

Ridge Racer was the first game I ever played on the original PlayStation. I spent hours upon hours playing it. I figured, just for nostalgia's sake, I'd pick up Ridge Racer while buying Sony's new PSP, see if the magic remained.

Yeah....almost everything about this game is perfect. Impressive graphics. Responsive and intuitive controls. At first I was worried about playing a driving sim with the PSP's tiny analog stick, but it works wonderfully. Great music.

I was also worried about playing a driving sim on such a small screen. How would I be able to pick up on visual cues that a sharp turn was imminent? Somehow, the game designers throw in enough visual cues, almost subliminally.

Ridge Racer for the PSP borrows liberally from previous iterations like Rave Racer, etc... Just about every track looked familiar to me, every piece of music, too. I didn't recognize all of the content, but enough to realize that not everything here is new.

So far, I've purchased Wipeout Pure, Ridge Racer and Lumines for the PSP. Ridge Racer has gotten about 90% of the attention. If you get the PSP, get Ridge Racer, if only just to show off what your new PSP can do.

Fun and not too hard either

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 6 / 7
Date: March 30, 2005
Author: Amazon User

If you want a safe bet for fun, buy this game. It's not just great looking but it's really fun too, especially the World Tour with its ability to unlock tracks and cars.

At first I was worried that I wouldn't be able to handle the complexity of the racing cars but it's actually quite easy and there's no complexity at all. To win you have to learn to "drift" which is what I would call "skid" around corners. In fact, for the Pro Tour races which open up as you progress through the World Tour, skidding is essential because the more you skid, the more Nitrous Oxide will fill your tanks for that important boost. Yeah, I'm not sure how that works either, but that's the way the game plays! To effectively skid around the corner just lift your finger off the gas for half a second before you hit the turn and then hold on for dear life as you scream through it sideways!

The game gives you different classes of cars and there are 3 cars in each class. Although they look different and have different makes and colors, they all have the same top speed and differ only in how much they skid, from low to high. I found the "Mild" car the easiest but if you're insane choose the "Dynamic" car and watch yourself slip and slide all over the place.

If you win a round on the tour, you'll get a new car, delivered to you and some new tracks will be opened up for both the tour and the time attack or single race modes. As the tours progress they will become harder and faster. I've just finished all the Basic tours and I'm onto the Pro ones and they certainly seem to be a much bigger challenge. I came 1st in almost every basic race but got mashed by the Pros, mainly because I was trying to skid on almost every corner to get some Nitrous!

In addition to the World Tour, you can race any of the tracks you've opened up with any of the cars you've opened up, either just for practice/fun or in a time attack mode. Time attack is just you against the track: try to get around as fast as you can. If you want it'll show a ghost car - a phantom car that mimics how you drove that track last time.

For me, having the World Tour provides a structure to this game that I find very appealing. It's a challenge and it enables you to learn gradually how to race without dropping you into the deep end. The game's graphics are awesome, and the running commentary from your co-driver(?) is highly appropriate and funny, although he's been wrong a few times when he says "You're in 2nd place!" when I've actually just clinched 1st - must be a timing issue.

There a lot of nice touches in this game: the attractive menus, professional voice overs and even a mini game of what looks like the 80's version of Ridge Racer. This comes up during game loading and contrasts nicely with the mind-blowing 3D reality of PSP Ridge Racer. There's also a gratuitous introduction video that features a disturbingly cute computer generated Japanese woman who seems to be timing a race with a stopwatch, who then lies on a car, dreams for a bit and then realizes she's forgotton to stop the stopwatch. This might mean more to those of you who have seen her before but it didn't mean much to me! Fun intro though!

Over all, well worth the money. I only hope that other PSP games will be able to match the production values found in Ridge Racer, which are at or close to 100%.

Stunning

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 5 / 6
Date: May 13, 2005
Author: Amazon User

I made an impulsive decision yesterday by buying the PSP. Just in case you didn't know, I'm from Singapore, and Sony only officially launched the"ultimate portable gaming console" at this part of the world yesterday. I walked past the shop, took a look at the demo, and took out my credit card.

Going home together with me is the inaugural title for the PSP, the racing classic Ridge Racer. I've played the game on my wife's colleague's parallel-imported PSP some months ago, and was pretty impressed by the look of things. But it was only when I had the time to finally take on the game on a more prolonged duration, that I fully appreciate the beauty of it. And it is, as I mentioned, just beautiful.

The thing that immediately captures your attention is obviously the graphics. Fantastic is an understatement when it comes to how good Ridge Racer looks. Even when you're primarily focused on the road while racing, you can't help but notice the amazingly detailed background. For one, your races will take you thought different hours of the day, which means you'll come across the brightness of the day, as well as the cosiness of sunset. During different courses, you may also notice an airplane flying above you; or see yourself driving past an awe-inspiring lake; or a crowd of spectators cheering you on... you get the idea.

The graphics also put a lot of emphasis on speed. So when you're bursting down the road at 240km/h in a tunnel, you'll find the background fading away in a blur to create a sense of speed. The best part, however, is that the frame rate never seems to skip a beat despite the extensive graphics. Having the screen freezing for moments while I go side-by-side with a rival car in other racing games (such as Burnout) on the PS2 is definitely not a problem for the PSP and Ridge Racer.

You've a few options to approach the game, while single events like Single Race and Time Attack may be a good training ground for newbies, you'd expect to spend most of your time unlocking new tracks and cars in the World Tour mode. The earlier tours are relatively easy to pass, but from what I heard, it just get tougher as it goes, so expect to redo races a lot of times as you progress. Oh, and did I mention you can have a wireless racing session with your friends if they also own the PSP?

The controls are relatively standard. You've the X button for acceleration, and Square Button for brakes. If you're using the manual gear, the Triangle button shifts a gear up, and the Circle Button shifts a gear down. The "L" button switches between first and third person view, and the "R" button activates the nitro you earn while doing power drifts during corners. Oh, and you also control the direction using the D-Pad, but I'm sure you already know that. The controls make reduce the need for any tedious learning curve, and make sure that you can start right away to do the thing that you bought the game. That is, to play!

Now, the next big thing for this game. The audios. If you're played earlier renditions of Ridge Racer, you should have knowledge of how cool the soundtrack, er, sounds. You get some rehashed tracks, as well as new tracks that really make it a joy to listen while you take on the competition. You'll also get to select from different playlists, so you're by no means stuck with what you don't like. An archive is also available for you to listen to remixes of old Ridge Racer tracks. Now, for the nostalgic fan, this is really a cool idea.

On the whole, Ridge Racer is a testament to how good a game can be on the PSP. If you're not a Ridge Racer fan, you may not enjoy it as much as those who're. Still, you can't deny that the graphics and audios in this game are worth another look. It's a pity that the sound couldn't do better, due to the limitations of the console itself. Listening to music on the PSP without earphones is like listening to a badly tuned FM receiver in my opinion, but then again, earphones are provided! Anyhow, I'd highly recommend Ridge Racer for fans of the racing genre, if only just to enjoy the beauty of the game's aesthetics.

Ridge Racer is Back!

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 4 / 4
Date: February 05, 2006
Author: Amazon User

Hands down, Ridge Racer is the best racing game on the PSP right now. Here are a few reasons why:

1.Excellent gameplay. Easy to pick up and play. Cars have a great sense of speed.
2. Kick A** soundtrack
3. Jaw dropping graphics. Namco spared no detail too small for Ridge Racer. When you boost up your car, a cool blur effect trails your car. Racetrack backgrounds are absolutely gorgeous.
4. Great replay value. The more you play, the more cars, tune up kits and courses you unlock(Check out the PacMan car!).

Ridge Racer is arcade racing through and through. There are no real cars endorsed in this game, no fine tining your gear ratios,etc. like you would find in Gran Tursimo. Just choose your car and use your best skills to win the race. Your main goal is the completion of the World Tour. In every race, you start from last place and try to end up in first. Drifting on turns fills a boost meter, which gives you extra speed to overtake the car in front of you. Winning more races opens up different portions of the tour. Your garage amasses better equipped exotic cars to leave your competition in the dust. That being said, Ridge Racer is a must have for PSP owners.

best one yet

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 3 / 4
Date: April 04, 2005
Author: Amazon User

I love Ridge Racer. I've loved every incarnation of it. And I say that because many people don't quite get the gameplay, it feels too arcade, not authentic enough or in many cases "relies too heavily on powerslides" but who cares, if you so like it you will love this version. If you don't like it, you probably won't.

If you've never played any Ridge Racer, I think it's worth taking a chance on it. It's not about customizing your car, or working up your stats on the circuit or anything like many simulations go for, it's just about the driving. It looks the best it ever has and has plenty of quick ways to play it to keep it interesting as a handheld.

If you've ever liked any Ridge Racer, you'll love this one. Grab it so you can kill time with the rest of us.

Oh, Damn!

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 3 / 3
Date: June 16, 2005
Author: Amazon User

This was the fourth game that I bought for my PSP, all of which I got within the first week of owning it. I had previously bought Wipeout Pure, and was iffy about purchasing yet another racing game. Well, it was very worth it. Once I picked this one up, I couldn't put it down. I played it pretty much non-stop until completing the game and unlocking everything I could. While some tracks are fairly easy to coast through to first place, such is not the case throughout. It certainly has its' share of really hard challenges that will keep you playing the same track over and over again. The graphics are absolutely gorgeous and the gameplay is a lot of fun, so you really won't mind having to do so. It was only recently that I started playing my other games again. This game is worth every bit that I paid for it, and you won't regret owning it, yourself.

absolute and utter eye candy for the psp

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 3 / 5
Date: October 04, 2005
Author: Amazon User

im going to put this reveiw plane and simple ridge racer is graphicaly the best game psp has to offer. i mean whats better than tearing up through very detailed courses on your psps crystal clear screen.if you have a psp this is one of the best launch titles
p.shaving the ability to race with pac man puts this in my top ten games i mean its pac man gubble gubble

Great fun and amazing graphics

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 7 / 7
Date: August 16, 2005
Author: Amazon User

This game is just plain amazing in terms of graphical power for a handheld-device game. Plus, it plays well. I am not a huge fan of racing games on consoles or PCs (unless they are true similations), but this game is very entertaining. You can also play it in short bursts, a race or two at a time, which makes this game ideal for a handheld.

Unless you completely hate the idea of owning a racing game, you probably want to get this one.

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