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| Ridge Racer DS; 5.5 out of 10 | |
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| Topic Started: Mar 26 2007, 12:14 PM (336 Views) | |
| Evil Hamster | Mar 26 2007, 12:14 PM Post #1 |
Osu!
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Ridge Racer DS is a painfully average arcade-style racing game that suffers from the limited power of the Nintendo DS. Despite it's many problems, there are a few neat features which make the game marginally more fun. The game uses the dual screens in a unique fashion. The top screen is used to display the racing, position, etcetera. The lower screen is mostly used to incorporate a steering wheel, and a tiny, rather useless map. Both of these features are rather useless, and are better off ignored. Posted Image The game plays pretty much like any other Ridge Racer game. There's an accelerator, a brake and the ability to do some awe-inspiring power-slides. These are performed very easily, and are incredibly satisfying when performed correctly. Most of the time, they work fine. But they are occasionally very annoying too. Whilst you are in a powerslide, it is possible to just keep turning, and you will pretty much be steered aroud the course automatically. There are three main single-player modes- Grand Prix, Car attack and Time Trial. Grand Prix is simply completing various races to unlock new tracks. Car attack involves racing against certain cars, and when you beat them, you unlock that car. Time Trial simply times you as you complete laps of the various in-game courses. You start the game with only five cars. All of these are rather slow, and , whilst they are rather boring to drive, do help you get used to the basic controls of the game. Later, as you get further and further through the game, you unlock some more, more powerful cars, which are a lot more sun to drive. In these, you can really get going very fast. The speed of the game is easily a high point of the game. Posted Image Some of the cars you can unlock are themed around various video-game characters. For example, there are cars based upon Pac-man, DK, Luigi and DK to unlock. These cars are a neat little bonus in the overall package of the game, although they don't make any difference to the core gameplay itself. There are also some 'secret' cars, which you can unlock by completing various goals in the game. There are eight of these secret cars, and some of them are very fun to drive indeed. Driving a car shaped as a Fly Guy=Awesome. However, the game does have it's problems. The touch-screen steering wheel, for example, is one of the worst ideas ever thought of. The idea is to use the stylus to hold the steering wheel and steer it like a real car. Unfortunately, it doesn't work. At all. The stylus control is oversensitive, and it is near-impossible to drive with it, especially with the faster cars. Thankfully, the touch screen steering wheel isn't necessary, and can be turned off in the options. Another problem is the game's utterly abysmal crash detection. You will often crash into the side of the road, when you can clearly see that you are nowhere near it, and you ocan often go so close to other cars that the cars look like they have merged together. This can be incredibly frustrating at times, especially when you try and shunt another car, a la Burnout. The lack of tracks available in Ridge Racer DS is very disappointing. There are only ten different courses, with the same courses available in reverse. When it comes to track variety, Ridge Racer DS falls flat. The powerslides, which most of the time work fine, are occasionally very annoying too. Whilst you are in a powerslide, it is possible to just keep turning, and you will pretty much be steered aroud the course automatically. Posted Image A major issue with the game is the fact that pretty much all of the levels look the same. There are three level 'themes' and each of the 20 tracks are based around one of these. Whilst the graphics themselves are acceptable, you will quickly grow old of staring at the same scenery again and again and again. The final serious gripe with this game is the fact that you are always playing 'catch up' with the cars in front. They always start a while ahead, and once you have caught them up, there is very rarely any real threat of them overtaking you again. WHilst this doesn't detract too much from the racing experience, it would be nice to have some sort of challenge once you have taken the lead. Posted Image The multiplayer in Ridge Racer DS is fairly decent. There is a six-player single-cart download play feature, which is good fun. However, the downloading player is limited to using the first six cars available, so all the races are likely to be very slow. Despite this, the game is still good fun in multiplayer. The multi-cart multiplayer feature is even better, without the limitations of slow cars. The graphics in-game are acceptable, but they're never really any better than just that. They are also let down by overly similar looking tracks. However, the cars themselves are much better looking, and are of a reasonable quality. Posted Image The sound in Ridge Racer DS is above average. You choose your music to listen to throughout the race at the beginning of every track, and not many of the songs are too bad, although there are very few memorable tunes. Overall, Ridge Racer is yet another failed attempt to get a good racing game onto the Nintendo DS. If you're a fan of the series, then maybe it's worth buying. But otherwise, it's one to avoid. Presentation 6 Graphics: 6 Sound: 6 Gameplay: 5 Lasting Appeal: 5 Overall Rating: 5.5 |
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