Ridge Racer Vita

Remember this one? The Ridge Racer that only comes packaged with three cars and five courses?

So I finally couldn't resist temptation to pick it up (it's Ridge Racer!) once it went down to the low price of free on Japan's PS Plus service.

And it's as bad as they say it is. Not the actual Ridge Racing, mind - the visuals are gorgeous (it's no Ridge Racer 7 though, and it's missing the eye-popping 3D that helped 3DS's Ridge Racer launch title) and the handling is as perfectly tuned as ever. Neither is it the DLC, of which I'd be happy to invest in had the online been any good...

...yes, the problem lies with the central structure of the game - this is essentially a Ridge Racer built for the always-online era, filled with leaderboard challenges, online races and ghost challenges from all of its participants (you can't start the game without an internet connection).

This is great in theory, but the implementation is so pants that it ruins what could have been a great Ridge Racer.

Basically, you can level up. And each level up seems to increase all your cars' speeds by around 20mph, meaning a skilled level 1 player has little chance beating an average level 2 player. The game also contains a speed-related upgrade system, reliant on in-game credits. But lose races and you'll receive less credits, so it's constantly an uphill struggle. Not helped by the stingy amount of content (three tracks!)

This ruins the entire game - unless you've leveled up to level 16 and have unlocked all the upgrades you won't be competitive anywhere within the game's online challenges and races. And having players of varying levels throws any balancing out the window in said races anyway.

Splitting players up into classes (like with Mario Kart and its cc ranks) would fix a lot of these issues...

I would like to see this game up and running on Vita's screen, but I won't fork out for half a game with major reliance on paid DLC, especially when it actually compromises the contents of the basic package so shamefully.

I thought this looked and played fantastic on the demo pod that GAME had (and still has to this day!) a year ago. It almost swayed my decision to not buy a Vita, but then I found out that it was just a fraction of the game.

Ridge Racer is amazing though. I don't mind at all that the original has four cars and three riffs on the same individual track, but that's implemented well. The Vita version sounds a bit bollocks.