Ridge Racer Review | PS Vita

Ridge Racer is always associated with brand new consoles. It was not always so, the saga golden age in PS One with Rage Racer and Ridge Racer Type 4 in particular, considered by many the most revolutionary of them all, partly to get away from that little content derived from leisure-few tracks and cars - to provide a thorough campaign with hundreds of vehicles to unlock. But Namco Bandai relegated this series of astonishing speed and skidding unrealistic primarily to the launch of new platforms: PlayStation 2, Nintendo DS, PSP, Xbox 360, PlayStation 3, Nintendo 3DS and now PS Vita. Saving deliveries created during the cycle of consoles such as the aforementioned Type 4, R: Racing Evolution or Ridge Racer Unbounded, one of the first games to reach the new technology has its advantages and disadvantages. In PS Vita history repeats itself, but this time, faults shine above the virtues, which is a small setback to what we were used in what was one of the old banners in 32-bit Namco with Tekken and Ace Combat. Some of the problems stem from game design and the policy adopted by the publisher or developer, Cellius. The idea is to sell one game at a lower price than normal and extend the content in the coming months with more tracks and cars that the player can decide whether to buy or not to your liking. As a strategy we can not demonize, even if we might like downloadable content is interesting, created post-game untrimmed-and especially while waiting enjoy the game enough to want more. Ridge Racer has no such grounding in origin and that is the most serious problem in a game that has not met expectations, which has failed to be that essential purchase for fans of the first buyers Vita speed as it was, by example, in PSP.



As announced by Namco Bandai for months, the game is sold as a starter pack for the price of 30 euros, cheaper than the releases "complete" in the console but in the long term is not as tender, and that for a limited time buyers receive a 'Gold Pass' has three separate circuits, making a total of six-and five additional cars, plus extra music. As we see, the more content we are reminded of the origins of the series, where it was customary even a circuit with three alternative routes. Even legends like Sega Rally or Daytona USA also had a larger list of tracks, but what was valid in arcade and 15 years need not be so today. Even if one could understand the fun, options and ability to sting the player would be maintained with these tracks, but is not the case when well-known circuits are reused in a very questionable game modes. Ridge Racer only weeks will keep you glued to the Vita if you're a fan of debugging your times to the absolute limits and over again or you do fully in multiplayer.

This time, instead of a traditional style campaign mode, Namco is committed to a major mode associated with the network game where you play to lead one of four teams in the competition to the top so adding records global. On paper, not bad. But choosing one of the teams-each shaped icons PlayStation: triangle, square, circle and X-has no charm for another problem of this Ridge Racer: it is very cold, lack charisma and human presence. Retrieving the said Ridge Racer Type 4, he choose a team-associated with a difficulty level, you put as the protagonist of a story about teams of various roles, from the most modest to the demanding. In Ridge Racer's choice of equipment is almost irrelevant and the only difference will be the opponents that we touch every day. Once our sponsor can ally with other equipment, two against two, in other fighting only against one. Practically irrelevant and unmotivated for the user.

This not only has no spark, also reveals another feature of this Ridge Racer: connection is essential to be enjoyed fully, otherwise you will be seeing further reduced their chances. If for example your PS Vita is not 3G model and you're playing on any means of transportation, or off of Wi-Fi, you will most fun of racing against AI-a race against the computer with no-or modes trial on the few tracks included. Nor could download ghosts of global competitors or close-to-Near. In short, the reward for victory becomes blurred, as we do not feel too much appreciation for supporting our company by adding points, or belong to one or another affects us in any real way.

Fortunately, online play for up to eight players we've tested does not give problems of delay, there are also ad-hoc. But again the options are surprisingly neglected, without further to create rooms with a minimum configuration, look for similar level or all the available, forget about tournaments, for example. Our only goal will be long term rather than winning or not, earn points to improve our vehicles in a branching system to enhance nitros or speed. Intuit as a player, this means that someone with experience and a very powerful car can compete with an advantage over a novice, which reduces the network games against users must always be the same level, or else the victory will depend not only our ability. It's a bit frustrating.

Clearly, Ridge Racer is weighted more strategic decisions for their quality. It's something that has hurt us as fans of the series, because when running offers fun as ever, no major news, but no major faults. Cars skid when cornering to get nitro, a minimum error can be decisive and electronic music, although less than at other times sugarcane-goes well. Also mention that there are packs on PlayStation Store that rescue topics from previous deliveries. The point is that the circuits included already knew of Ridge Racer 7, and so we planned a question: can we recommend this game to the fan who already has the delivery shelf completely? Should I buy almost the same but has already tied to purchase of packs to provide a comparable content? No matter how good the control or the playability, the feel is similar to what we have playing a show.

As for the graphics, a lime and sand. We have to admit that the game's interface is beautiful and functional, the modeling of the vehicles are pretty good and that the scenario has improved over PSP in texture and complexity. But the jump is much smaller than expected and is not up to Vita, since it runs at 30 frames per second when in these games is a noticeable difference. No motion blur to soften the change and the developers have taken from the manga a curious effect of channel distortion of the image, is curious but not the same. We have reason to believe it could be more polished and give a most important step forward compared to that seen in the previous Sony laptop, which squeezed over the limited power of PSP.

If the problem has been Cellius time, should have seriously considered delaying the game a few months to get a starting amount of content deep enough to not depend on downloads, as well as offline options that do not justify a permanent connection as now to be enjoyed in full. Even today you can not assume that any player has Wi-Fi, let alone a laptop. Quite simply, not a bad game as far as the fun races provide. But it offers nothing new to the series-in just 10 minutes we have explored almost all of its contents, and the value is an inconvenience that can not be overlooked, especially when for ridiculous prices now are available PSP games compatible with Vita. Many players wanted a console Ridge Racer from day one, but surely the quality not good enough. This is an unnecessary drift in the history of a veteran series that hopefully will have another chance in PS Vita.