Feeling Over? (Ridge Racer (PS))

Member Name: scream4bruce

Product:	Ridge Racer (PS)
Date:	27/10/08 (38 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Pop in your music CD, fun arcade racing, colours are pleasing

Disadvantages: Limited

This was a limited racing game - for the single player and with only two courses (not counting the possible variants), of which these shared a section of the track. There are two views but notable is the lack of a rear-view mirror. Collisions with other cars were not too unforgiving, but the detection is not too developed. This is arcade checkpoint racing, where it only counts to be the winner. The racing itself, is fast and smooth, but exaggerated so that cars can drift around corners at outrageous speeds. Those whom can muster manual gears will get the most out of the cars. With advanced technique the car can be made to turn away from the corner yet come out of it facing the right way - something for show-offs!

Graphically it's decent, with cars and buildings being brightly coloured if basic. There are patches of pop-up, but they're not so much of a problem as the colour changes in the sky - the darkness does come and go quickly but during then it becomes difficult to see the corners! Audio-wise, the sound effects are limited and the commentary is cheesy, with the music not being of the type I would listen to, but I can put up with it. As the game is loaded onto the PlayStation's RAM in one go - you play a bit of Galaxian while this happens - you can then pop in a music CD of your own to listen to (albeit playback options are lacking), which is cool. I find the inital choice of four cars to be enough. Unfortunately as I did not unlock a couple early on I would have had to save over my achievements. I like this game but the difficulty lied in the darkness.

Summary: Ridge Racer for PS