Ridge Racer 2 (2006 video game)

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Ridge Racer 2
Ridge Racer 2 psp.jpg
European version cover art
Developer(s) Namco Bandai Games
Publisher(s) Namco Bandai Games [a]
Series Ridge Racer
Platform(s) PlayStation Portable
Release
  • JP: 14 September 2006
  • EU: 13 October 2006
  • AU: 19 October 2006
Genre(s) Racing
Mode(s) Single-player, multiplayer

Ridge Racer 2, released in Japan as Ridge Racers 2 [b] , is a 2006 arcade-style racing game developed by Namco Bandai Games for the PlayStation Portable hand-held console, marking the 14th release in the Ridge Racer series. It is the follow-up to the PSP launch title Ridge Racer and basic gameplay is identical to its predecessor, but Ridge Racer 2 adds more extra content with additional tracks recycled from older titles of the series, as well as two new game modes called Duel and Survival.

Contents

On 20 December 2022, Ridge Racer 2 was made available worldwide to download on PlayStation 4 and PlayStation 5 as part of the PlayStation Plus Premium subscription service, and from 15 August 2023 as a standalone purchasable title. [1] This also marked the first time that the game was released in North America.

Gameplay

The core aspect of the entire Ridge Racer series is drift racing, that is traditional lap racing against opponents with the added twist of intentionally oversteering and sliding the car through sharp corners and turns, known as "drifting", which earns the player several bonuses during a race. In most respects Ridge Racer 2 can be considered more of an update than a true sequel to the original PSP title - it shares the same game play engine, user interface and game design as the previous title, and includes almost all of the elements, cars, and tracks of its predecessor.

Featuring three times as much game play time as its predecessor however, the differences lie in the addition of a total of 42 new racing tracks (of which 21 are unique tracks, with reversed direction counting as separate track), while 18 are taken from previous titles in the Ridge Racer franchise. Two tracks are from the original Ridge Racer , three tracks are from Ridge Racer Revolution , four tracks are from Rave Racer , eight tracks are from R4: Ridge Racer Type 4 , and four tracks are from Rage Racer . Every track from every PlayStation Ridge Racer game released is included as part of this package. Numerous new game play modes are included to supplement the originals of the previous title such as: Duel and Survival modes. As with the previous title, Single Race and Wireless Battle mode is still included, although Single Race was renamed to Arcade.

In-game screenshot of a custom race, taking place on the track "Shuttleloop Highway". The featured car is Kamata Fiera Type-S. Ridge Racer 2 GameplayScreen.jpg
In-game screenshot of a custom race, taking place on the track "Shuttleloop Highway". The featured car is Kamata Fiera Type-S.

The game also features a total of 62 fictional cars (referred to as "machines" throughout the game) from seven fictional manufacturers (Kamata, Âge, Danver, Gnade, Assoluto, Himmel, and Soldat) that are staple throughout the Ridge Racer series. The full complement of cars is available to the player after completing four tours (consisting of 16 races each) of increasing difficulty levels (Basic, Pro, EX and Max) and several various mini-games. In addition to newer cars, Ridge Racer 2 features "prizes" that are unlocked after the completion of a tour, such as opening movies of previous Ridge Racer titles and E3 demo presentations.

The Special Class cars from Ridge Racer (PSP) have been modified for this release and categorised into two tiered categories with four cars each. Special Class 1 denotes cars embodying more traditional supercar designs and appearances, while Special Class 2 is made up of radical or novelty designs that boast the highest top speeds attainable in the game. Specifically, the 'Kamata Angelus' (Special Class 1) and 'Soldat Crinale' (Special Class 1) posses their appearances from Ridge Racer V, while the Pac-Man car (Special Class 2) now resembles a miniature aircraft in design (with Pac-Man himself depicted as piloting it), and is no longer powered by propellers. The New Rally-X car has been removed entirely and replaced by the 'Danver Hijack' (Special Class 1); a large, super-charged Pickup truck as seen in Ridge Racer 6 . The 'Yamasa Raggio' (Special Class 2), which appeared in the 2006 Tokyo Auto Salon as a heavily modified Honda NSX, is unique to Ridge Racer 2 and also appears in a "prize" movie that is unlocked after completion of the game's "EX tour". The car was later made into a Tomica die-cast toy car for limited release. The three other special class cars are the Âge Angelus Kid (Special Class 2), Âge Crinale Kid (Special Class 2), and Terrazi Wild Gang (Special Class 1).

The game also features a FMV opening, that shows series mascot Reiko Nagase.

Nitrous

Notable also is the "nitrous boost" system from the previous game, which works in the same manner as before. The player has a Nitrous Gauge made up of three nitrous tanks, which at the start of a race are either completely depleted or only partially full. As the player drifts through the corners (especially at very high slip angles) during the race, their nitrous gauge fills up. When the player fills up one of the three nitrous tanks, it can be activated to achieve a temporary speed boost. The nitrous tanks cannot be recharged while any tank is in use though, but the residual speed increase when the nitrous boost expires can be used just before entering corners to recharge the player's nitrous tanks at a faster rate than normal.

Soundtrack

All the music tracks from the previous game are also included in this game. In addition, there were some changes in the discs track lists, including new additions Remix Disc 2 and Classic Disc 3.

King Records released a music album of the game called Ridge Racers 2: Direct Audio (titled as RIDGE RACERS 2: DIRECT AUDIO). It was released in Japan in October 2006. The track list is below, and all these tracks are new to Ridge Racer 2.

Track List

  1. "Scream"
  2. "Departure Lounge 2"
  3. "Rage Racer Remix"
  4. "Rotten7 Remix"
  5. "Kamikaze Remix"
  6. "Heart of Hearts Remix
  7. "Heat Floor Remix"
  8. "Paris Remix"
  9. "Pearl Blue Soul"
  10. "Burning Rubber"
  11. "Quiet Curves"
  12. "The Objective"
  13. "EXH*NOTES"
  14. "Euphoria" [Ridge Racer V]
  15. "Mellow Curves"

Reception

The game received "average" reviews according to the review aggregation website Metacritic. [2]

Whilst Ridge Racer 2 was still praised for the same points as the previous title, reviewers were disappointed that the game is little different from it. The game runs on the same graphical engine and the visuals look almost exactly the same, with the most notable changes being additional courses. In Japan, Famitsu gave it a score of one seven, two eights, and one nine for a total of 32 out of 40. [5] Edge magazine ranked the game 70th on their 100 Best Video Games in 2007. [14]

Related Research Articles

Ridge Racer is a racing video game series developed and published for arcade systems, home game consoles, handheld game consoles, personal computers and mobile phones by Bandai Namco Entertainment, formerly Namco. The first game, Ridge Racer (1993), was originally released in arcades for the Namco System 22 hardware, later ported to the PlayStation one year later as a launch title. It was met with several sequels and spin-off games for multiple platforms, the latest being the mobile game Ridge Racer Draw & Drift (2016) and the latest mainline game, developed in-house, was Ridge Racer 7 (2006). Gameplay involves the player racing against computer-controlled opponents to be the first to finish in a race. Drifting is a core aspect of the series and is used to keep speed while turning corners; Ridge Racer pioneered the real-life technique in video games. The series is considered influential to the racing game genre.

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<i>Ridge Racer Revolution</i> 1995 video game

Ridge Racer Revolution is a racing video game developed and published by Namco for the PlayStation. It is the sequel to the PlayStation version of Ridge Racer. Like the original Ridge Racer, the player races computer-controlled cars with the objective of winning a series of races, and supports Namco's NeGcon controller. Ridge Racer Revolution adds two hidden cars, and two-player support via the PlayStation Link cable, and took roughly the same time to develop as the first. The intention was to increase the depth and add features.

<i>R4: Ridge Racer Type 4</i> 1998 video game

R4: Ridge Racer Type 4, released without the 'R4' prefix in PAL territories, is a 1998 racing video game developed and published by Namco for the PlayStation. It is the fourth home title in the Ridge Racer series after Rage Racer (1996) and was initially released on December 3, 1998 in Japan, with global releases following in 1999.

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<i>Ridge Racer 7</i> 2006 racing video game

Ridge Racer 7 is a 2006 arcade-style racing video game developed and published by Namco Bandai Games for the PlayStation 3 as a launch title. The seventh installment in the Ridge Racer series for consoles, Ridge Racer 7 is essentially the PlayStation exclusive version of the Xbox 360 exclusive Ridge Racer 6, but with more content.

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<i>Ridge Racer Accelerated</i> 2009 mobile game

Ridge Racer Accelerated is an arcade racing video game developed by Namco Networks for mobiles. It was released for iOS, SoftBank 006SH with 3D screen, and Amazon Kindle Fire on Android. It is part of the Ridge Racer video game series. The game was released on the App Store, Google Play and Amazon App Store and it uses micro-transactions for unlocking more courses and an extra car class. There are three cars available per class, with six cars more to be unlocked during the game's progress. The game also features an SP1 class consisting of prototype cars. The game features an Arcade, Duel, Survival and Time Attack mode. The game uses the same engine, race courses and menu system from Ridge Racer 2 (PSP). It features a full motion video opening that stars Reiko Nagase.

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References

  1. ↑ https://gamerant.com/ps-plus-premium-ridge-racer-tekken-2-buy-separately/
  2. 1 2 "Ridge Racer 2 (psp: 2006): Reviews". Metacritic . Archived from the original on 13 September 2008. Retrieved 8 April 2017.
  3. ↑ Edge staff (November 2006). "Ridge Racer 2 (PSP)". Edge . No. 168. p. 91.
  4. ↑ Bramwell, Tom (28 September 2006). "Ridge Racers 2". Eurogamer . Archived from the original on 8 April 2017. Retrieved 8 April 2017.
  5. 1 2 "Collection of every PSP-game reviewed in Famitsu". NeoGAF. 27 August 2006. Archived from the original on 19 October 2017. Retrieved 8 April 2017.
  6. ↑ "Ridge Racer 2 (PSP)". GamesMaster : 72. November 2006.
  7. ↑ "Ridge Racer 2 (PSP)". GamesTM : 108. November 2006.
  8. ↑ "Ridge Racer 2 (PSP)". Official UK PlayStation 2 Magazine (78): 97. November 2006.
  9. ↑ van Leuveren, Luke (24 October 2006). "Ridge Racer 2 Review - Sony PSP Video Game Review". PALGN. Archived from the original on 22 July 2011. Retrieved 8 April 2017.
  10. ↑ "Review: Ridge Racer 2 (PSP)". Play UK (145): 74. November 2006.
  11. ↑ "Review: Ridge Racer 2 (PSP)". PSM2 : 74. November 2006.
  12. ↑ Orry, Tom (4 October 2006). "Ridge Racer 2 Review". VideoGamer.com. Archived from the original on 9 April 2017. Retrieved 8 April 2017.
  13. ↑ Hill, Jason (21 October 2006). "Ridge Racer 2". The Sydney Morning Herald . Archived from the original on 8 April 2017. Retrieved 8 April 2017.
  14. ↑ EDGE presents: The 100 Best Videogames (2007). United Kingdom: Future Publishing. 16 August 2020. p. 66.
  1. ↑ Released under the Namco label and published in Europe by Sony Computer Entertainment Europe.
  2. ↑ Japanese: リッジレーサーズ2, Hepburn: Rijji Rēsāzu Tsu
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