Ridge Racer DS

"All the fun of racing without those pesky "physics""

Ridge Racer DS is a port of the Nintendo 64 Ridge Racer, which was a remake of the Playstation launch game of the same name. So, more or less, you're getting a 10-year-old game when you buy Ridge Racer DS. The changes to the game are so minimal and unimportant that they aren't even worth mentioning (although I will for review purposes). Ridge Racer has never been about realistic physics, but this game simply throws collisions and turning completely out the window. There is nothing in this game that feels natural except, ironically, the drifting that makes Ridge Racer unique. What you're getting with Ridge Racer DS is a very unusual and unforgiving racer that does everything in its power to put you at a disadvantage. Everything from your starting position, your acceleration, and you collision effects when you hit other cars is skewed against you. To make matters worse, the computer vehicles are able to turn on a dime and actually shift horizontally to avoid things. It's bad enough that you always have to start in last place, but knowing that the other racers have flawless vehicles really puts the nail in the coffin. Anyway, enough griping. On to the review.

Graphics

Very blocky vehicle models coupled with very pixelated terrain make for a disappointingly lackluster presentation. However, the framerate runs surprisingly smoothly and the menus are quite cool (albeit with very small touchscreen-only buttons). Ridge Racer DS is not a very pretty game even by DS standards, but it gets t he job done in the aspects that matter. It's fast, it's stable, and it's easy on the eyes.

Sound

Obnoxious old-school rock greets you at the opening movie, and then you're left with completely unimportant and boring tunes here and there along with some silence. The sound effects remotely resemble cars, although even that is debatable. Ridge Racer usually has very good sound, but primarily because of CD audio. Since the DS is not a CD-based medium and has less memory to spare on that kind of audio format, the game simply doesn't have good sound.

Gameplay

Three tracks. That's right, three tracks. There is no tournament mode, which means you can play any of the three tracks you want in hopes of getting first place. If you don't get first place, you don't beat the track. Simple as that. Once you beat all three tracks, the same three tracks are unlocked in a higher difficulty. After about the third difficulty setting it's nearly impossible to win a race without divine intervention. What's even worse, there's plenty more difficulties to come. As you unlock harder variations of tracks, you unlock the opportunity to race various Namco game-named cars (like Xevious) in order to use them. The thing is, they're all very unbalanced and sometimes the cars you unlocked near the beginning literally run circles around the later, more difficult cars. It's odd and frustrating to say the least.

In the latest attempt to bolster Nintendo's "innovative" new touchscreen concept, Namco introduced a pathetic touchscreen-based steering alternative. I can't say much more than that this is absolutely the worst control scheme that mankind has ever invented for a racing game. It's so bad that it is literally impossible to play the game.

The game also has some extremely wonky physics that simply make no sense. When you collide with a car, you don't bounce off like you should. Instead, you come to nearly a complete stop and the other car is completely unchanged. To make matters worse, it doesn't matter WHERE you collide with the other car. Let's say you're directly in front of the other car and it hits you from the rear. In most racing games you'd receive a slight push forward. In this game, be ready to halt as if your engine exploded. Running into walls at ANY angle will reduce your car to a crawl as well, and after the difficulty reaches what the game considers to be "medium" (which is more like "so hard you can't stand the game") you must use the patented glide maneuver that is the staple of Ridge Racer games. Except this time, your glide is so wacky that you can literally do 360 degree spins without losing speed. It's the weirdest thing I've ever seen.

Overall

This is just a very weird game from start to finish. It's not as refined as Ridge Racer 64 was, both graphically and control-wise. It's not really all that fun, and it lacks replayability. Not a very good value.

Reviewer's Score: 5/10, Originally Posted: 03/28/05