Ridge Racers course and music listings
Find out exactly what the PlayStation Portable version of Namco's racer has to offer your wheels and ears.
Not long to go now until the first PlayStation Portable handhelds filter into Europe via all our favourite importers, and with them Namco's Ridge Racers. So, with the impending December 12th launch of the console clearly in mind, Namco has released details of all the various courses in the game along with the 30 track-strong soundtrack, which appeared on Impress Game Watch this week before 1UP helpfully translated it.
As you may already know, most of the courses in Ridge Racers are based on those found in previous Ridge Racer games, and the result is expected to be a mesh of familiar straights and turns and sights and sounds all meshed up so that they're comfortably familiar but still unusual even to fans of the whole series. Like us.
As such, you'll find a pair of courses per existing Ridge Racer game, with a couple more "inspired by" existing tracks but not actually based on them. From Ridge Racer we have Seaside Route 756 (based on Sunny Beach) and Ridge City Highway (based on Green Field); from Ridge Racer Revolution there's Sunset Drive (based on Novice), Crystal Coast Highway (Advanced); from Rage Racer there's Union Hill District (Over Pass City) and Lakeside Parkway (Lakeside Gate); from staff favourite Ridge Racer Type 4 there's Crimsonrock Pass (Heaven and Hell) and Diablo Canyon Road (Wonder Hill); while Rave Racer produces Midtown Expressway (City) and Greenpeak Highlands (Mountain), with two further tracks, Downtown Rave City and Silvercreek Dam, inspired by rather than based on the aforementioned Rage veterans
On the musical front, the game will feature 30 tracks in total, some 12 of which are original compositions, and calls upon all the artists previously involved in the musical side of Ridge Racing. In addition to their input, there will also be a sound test mode featuring remixes and classic tunes.
All in all, we're quite excited. For more on Ridge Racers, check out our previous coverage of individual tracks, including videos, and nitro meter and sleep mode details. And of course we have lots of screenshots. Expect to see impressions of Ridge Racers just as soon as we get our hands on it. Well, maybe a little afterward, since we'll obviously have to play it first, eh?