#Ridge racer ps vita cars full#
#Ridge racer ps vita cars series#

One of the most annoying things in this game is spotting a ‘Destroy’ target, boosting towards it with Power mode and running out of Power just before you hit the wall – resulting in death. There are special targets (mostly buildings) in every track marked with ‘Destroy’ labels that you can only crash through in Power mode, which provide you with badly-needed shortcuts and extra points. You can crash into boxes, tear through explosive canisters like paper and break away pillars holding heavy structures that never seem to fall. However, they are all filled with destructible items, which also help build your Power meter. Shatter Bay feels like a lot of cities, like Los Angeles and New York crammed into one, but doesn’t really have its own distinct personality and as a result many of the tracks feel very same-y. There’s no grassy hills on the outskirt, wind farms or seaside towns, just gritty streets and underpasses. The city’s several districts form the different tracks you’ll be racing along. The whole game takes place in the streets of Shatter Bay, which as you might have guessed by this point, looks nothing like any Ridge Racer location we’ve seen before.

#Ridge racer ps vita cars series#

If I was cliche enough to use the word ‘edgy’, I would say this is the edgiest the series has been in years. Races get tense very quickly, and with being Fragged an always-looming threat, you’re constantly on your toes. This mechanic is very reminiscent of the ‘Takedowns’ from the Burnout series, but with that said – they work well there and they work well here, too. To win races, you’ve got to take advantage of any opportunity to build up your Power meter, then use it to destroy every car you come across one-by-one to make it to the front of the pack. Activate your Power anywhere near them and they’ll spin out of control, as the camera changes to a cinematic view of their demise and the game informs you that you have ‘Fragged’ your opponent. To start with, your Power meter’s real use is as an insta-kill device for nearby rivals. That’s because you’re not playing it the right way. In fact, you’ll be surprised at how hard Ridge Racer Unbounded starts off.

#Ridge racer ps vita cars full#

It’s here that the game becomes something of a mix between Burnout, FlatOut and Full Auto. You can try completing a race the traditional way, drifting around every corner, building up your Power meter and winning on speed and technique, but it won’t get you very far here. Drifting can only be accomplished by holding down a button while turning a corner, and doing so builds up your ‘Power’ meter (which becomes a ‘Boost’ meter in certain cars). In its place, the cars now handle completely differently. Those arcade-style controls that saw cars sliding around corners like butter on a pancake at the drop of a pin are all but gone. To start with, forget about the traditional Ridge Racer gameplay the series has been reproducing over and over for the last decade. This doesn’t mean the game itself (developed by FlatOut creators Bugbear Entertainment) is bad, quite the opposite as it turns out, but it does mean there’s a lot of adjusting to do. It barely seems to justify the series’ name plastered on the packaging, as there’s almost nothing to connect it to the rest of the series. After getting the year off to a lackluster start with the PS Vita launch title, Ridge Racer, the venerable drift racing series has returned with its next big title, Ridge Racer Unbounded. Or has it? See, the thing about Unbounded is that it’s a completely unfamiliar experience for anyone accustomed to Ridge Racer.