PSP Ridge Racers videos slide into view
A replay and two races - one from behind and one from the bumper - aptly demonstrate why yours truly plans to bankrupt himself in pursuit of a Christmas PSP fix.
Of all the games due out with the Japanese PlayStation Portable on December 12th, we sensed Ridge Racers could well be the one to tip us over the edge and have us throw down insane amounts of money. And so it seems to be. That's not to say the three trailers streaming off Namco's promotional website this week are particularly revolutionary - it's just that we've had visions of quietly tearing round Crimsonrock Pass in the corner of a fire-lit drawing room whilst siblings row over which Christmas Special to watch and carol-singers hurl eggs at passing cars as the snow falls. It looks like Ridge Racer ought to look in our mind's eye. It could make our Christmas.
It could also destroy it, but we're not going to get into that now. No use dwelling on the potential for catastrophe. Instead, head to ye olde aforementioned Namco promo website here and take a look at the three streaming videos. It looks sharp (at least up to the standards of early PS2 titles), it looks fast, and it looks like everything behaves the way it should do. The third video in particular, using our preferred bumper-cam view, put a lump in our collective Ridge Racer-worshipping throat. Although conversely it seems to have left a gaping hole in our wallet. For us the choice, it seems, is simple: either buy a PSP and Ridge Racers, or eat our VISA cards. [We're going to sedate him for tomorrow. Sorry. -Ed]
Oof. Anyway. Forget about this writer's financial quandary. Go look at the vids of Ridge Racers. They're equally as promising as all that bollocks was irrelevant.