Ridge Racer feels like it is from the future no matter when you play it. This game strikes the perfect balance of personality with cleanliness such that it is remembered as a racing game with soul, but a subdued and high tech soul. Ridge Racer shows off without making its ego its core appeal. On a gameplay level, much of the same applies: the tracks are bright and full of detail, clearly made for skillful driving, the handling is swift and goes in and out of drifts easily. Furthermore, the driving is enhanced, by of all things, custom tachometers from car to car. Some cars feature a more VFD-style display, while others feature an analog needle. It is such a significant factor in feeling out the car's personality because it shows either an adherence to the styles of tradition, an embrace of new tech, or a little bit of both. Ridge Racer's personality shows in its execution of formula, with grace and with fun.

Ridge Racer is an arcade racing game released for the PlayStation Portable in December 2004. As one of the first games I purchased for my PSP, it has always held some nostalgia for me. Replaying it now in 2023, however, I can see that my nostalgic love for this title was not ill placed.

The first portable outing for Ridge Race is truly a success. The graphics and gameplay from the other games in the series are ported beautifully to the PSP. From stunning sunsets to glistening paintjobs, Ridge Racer is no slouch when it comes to pushing the PSP's graphical capabilities. The gameplay is tight and responsive, with the series' drift mechanic translating seamlessly over to the PlayStation handheld. The introduction of the new NOS mechanic in the game is also fun, and adds an extra layer of depth to the races that I feel was missing in prior titles.

While there are several racing games on the PSP, none capture the magic that Ridge Racer presents for me. It's presentation is second to none and drifting around corners and blasting past opposing racers never gets old. Overall, I believe Ridge Racer more than deserves its spot as one of the best games on the PSP.

good, but this game marks a sort of turning point in the ridge racer series when it comes to mechanics. this game both introduces the new "on-rails" style of drifting where you more or less enter a drift state and then pivot around while in that state to make your turns, which makes how you tackle pretty much every corner the same, which can be a lil lame. This game also introduces the nitrous system where your drifts build a meter and you can expend that meter on boosts. I've seen this mechanic done before in other racers and it works fine here. The soundtrack also bangs hard. All in all a decent game, but honestly if you are gonna play this just play the sequel/expansion instead since its literally the same game as this but with more content. Not a lot of reason to play this when 2 exists, but it is still a solid racing game.

Back in 2004, this was definitely the game to show off just how advanced the PSP was compared to any other portable. I was used to games on the GBA, which are about SNES quality, and the DS was just about to give us something akin to the PS1, and here comes the PSP delivering graphics on par with Ridge Racer V on the PS2.

Going back to it years later after feeling like I'm missing the Ridge Racer games, I found this game to be extremely easy, and it all comes down to the forgiving drift mechanic. There are times where I use nitro before a big turn, or even drift left during a right turn, and the car just magically stays on course as long as it is drifting. However, that's not necessarily a bad thing; it really is a driving game one can just pick up, play, and chill to. Along with the great soundtrack, the variety of tracks, and a memorable menu aesthetic that is only really matched by Ridge Racer R4's, this is a superb arcade racer.

One of the most braindead games in existence. You have to play for hours to unlock the speed classes that can even be remotely considered not slow, there is basically no challenge during the first 99% of the game (you will invariably pass every AI even by driving slowly), the same courses are repeated over and over, and the game has near zero depth since you refill nitros at the same rate no matter what you do and it doesn't even really matter when you decide to use the nitros because drifting allows you to bypass any corner in the game. I imagine that this game gets mentioned only by people who aren't serious about racers to begin with or just really suck at them, and even they probably never actually finished this.