Ridge Racer 2
PSP
SCEA

'Ridge Racer' on PSP amazed audiences with its sleek, smooth and fast pace, easily conveying the trademark speed of the series. Wonderfully rendered cars sailed through corners at a staggering 350 kilometers per hour as the hardcore remixed beats of previous games accompanied the viewable replays of hard-fought battles past.

Featuring a huge number of tracks, trademark drift style racing, an enormous number of tournaments, sleek CG movie rewards and a baffling number of regular and secret cars, 'Ridge Racer' took plenty of time to complete. And, if you were as addicted as I was, reaching the final Max Tour tournaments would have left you bald - their difficulty unprecedented.

'Ridge Racer 2' boasts 42 courses, 62 cars and a range of new beats and modes, including; arcade, where tracks can be played one at a time in any class; duel, a one-on-one challenge against a difficult opponent on any course; survival (of the fittest); and the previously existing ad hoc multi-player racing, supporting up to eight human opponents. Rally-X, trademark 'Ridge Racer' mini-game makes a comeback and continues to be as painfully addictive and distracting as ever! Looking closely at these perks you'll realise there's only ten new and already familiar tracks, the same remixes of older music and an equivalent, though slightly altered, line-up of cars from the first game, which is quite a disappointment for a newly packaged product.

A few adjustments seem to have been made to the cars, with different makes and models having distinct driving characteristics. Unlike in the first game, where many cars felt as though they handled the same, cars in this installment feel unique, especially the eight new special cars, which blow away the rest the competition.

One of the most distinctive differences between 'Ridge Racer' and 'Ridge Racer 2' appears to be the difficulty level. I spent many days perfecting my technique in the first version and, even after days of playing, many tournaments left me feeling weathered and beaten as I struggled to qualify high enough to continue. 'Ridge Racer 2' on the other hand just feels easier. Maybe it's all the practice I had first time round, but I'm certain that I shouldn't have been able to complete every tournament (excluding the bloody impossible Max Tour mode) within two days.

If you own the first 'Ridge Racer' on PSP then give this a miss, however, if you're looking for a new racer and you're yet to own a 'Ridge Racer', then this larger version of the original would be a good choice. However, this is not an overwhelming game, which makes me feel slightly cheated.

Daniel Purvis