Ridge Racer (DS)

At first, the game seems to be a straight conversion of ridge Racer 64, and at heart it is, which is a good thing, because RR64 is a very good game, but this has had some tweeking. Unfortunatly, not all of it good.

First off, although Rena from R:Racing is on the Boxart and game title, she never actually appears in the game at all, so why she is there, is anyone's guess.

The first thing you will obviously notice about the game though is the handling. The drifting is good, but is somewhat 'on-rails', and the handling is pretty evil. The d-pad is perhaps the easiest to use, although you don't have the precise control of the original. For this, you can use the touch screen in two different modes, unfortunatly this is unwieldy and too responsive, collisions with other cars and the barriers will occur too often. However, using Stylus mode, but with the thumb strap works quite well, but it will take a lot of practice to master, which is time many people probably won't give the game.

It has also been speeded up a little, which is great, but it makes the handling even more difficult, thankfully though, even on the DS's screen, it is fairly easy to see where you are going.

The main game appears short, but it gets hard, very hard, and a lot of people, might not actually finish it. The rewards however, are the unlockable tracks and cars, some new one's, of which are Nintendo themed, there's even a Super Mario tune to be unlocked as race music!

There is also a multiplayer mode for up tp 6 people. AI Cars can fill in if you don't have 6 players, and the game can be played with one cart, or one each. Single cart works well. The same as the single player. Although the choice of cars is limited to just 6, and if you want to play on another track, you have to turn the DS off and download again, but for only one person needing the game it's still good.

Multi-cart is better. With quicker loading times. Your entire car collection is available, and you can pick any course and go play it.

Overall it's a decent port of a great game, let down by some control issues. If you didn't play it the first time around, you'll still find it enjoyable, but for those who have played the original, you'll look on with horror.