Ridge Racer

"''Get ready to race!''"

Now, I have been playing video games for quite a while now and this was my first game on the PlayStation Portable. Having not played any other Ridge Racer games this is one where you can sort of join in wherever you want. You don't need to worry about buying all the classics to experience the PSP version of Ridge Racer. There's elements from the previous games packed into this.

The gameplay is fairly easy and on my first race I actually came 1st but as you unlock new tracks and cars the difficulty gets harder since the cars go much more faster. You'll be drifting round more corners than you've had hot dinners with Ridge Racer on the PSP; it has this really cool drifting style to get round those difficult corners. Only problem is if you suddenly drift round a corner too fast and not realise there is a car just round there then your speed will be drastically decreased since you have hit the back of another car - this can often be an annoyance.

There are plenty of tracks to unlock (and cars too) and you'll be playing for a fair few hours before you unlock everything (especially for a first-timer with Ridge Racer, like me).

It truly looks beautiful. This game shows you how well PlayStation Portable can perform in terms of graphics. The backdrops look nice and the cars are looking so good too. The frame rate holds up well so you shouldn't encounter any problems really.

The sound in the game is great. It shows off some new music during races and for the fans of the series it has many classic tracks as well. The DJ voice can be a bit annoying at times but you'll grow to like him.

I recommend it for the graphics and the cool style of racing. Don't expect to be playing it continuously though as the gameplay just repeats after a while. You can sort of go back to this game every now and then. Some tracks can take quite a while to complete and you may find yourself restarting a few times if you think you are losing. So, I would say it has some good hours in it. Whether you want to play this at home or outside, you'll be sure to build your progress all the way. Ridge Racer is great for someone new to the series and really shows how good this series will be on the PlayStation Portable. Worthy of a rental, at least.

Reviewer's Score: 8/10, Originally Posted: 11/02/06, Updated 02/12/07