Ridge Racer 2: Ridge Racer Platinum Price: £34.99 Players: 1-2 Widescreen: Yes Online: No Multiplayer between PSPs: Yes Shortly after the PS2 came out, Sony released Ridge Racer 5 and, as you'll see, it really didn't grab me at all, so slotting this UMD into my handheld I wasn't expecting great things from it. Oh, how I was surprised. I don't know what's changed in my brain between now and then, or perhaps it was just the transition to a small screen where I can look directly into the screen and enjoy some fun while I'm out and about, whereas you tend to expect more from a standard console game played on a TV screen.

Of the ways to play Ridge Racer 2, the main games are the Arcade mode - just one race before you're back to the selection screen - or the more fulfilling World Tour mode where you can select your car and go up the rankings, which is really only shown by unlocking new cars and tracks as you complete the tours in succession, each one usually having two or three races - of 3 laps apiece - to go through and you'll be told whether you need to come first, second or third in order to qualify. The keys to succeeding in this game include powersliding, something that is quite easy to get to grips with and very satisfying to do, in order to get round corners, and also using the nitrous boost – a necessary tactic and one that must be done at the right times, often when you're on a long straight, or as close as you can get to that. Like all racing games, you have a map onscreen but this one, in the top-right, only shows the first-place car in relation to where you are and no others. That seemed a bit odd at first, but then again that’s all you would really need as otherwise it would clutter up such a small screen compared to a console being played on a TV. Even when you don't need to come first, the first few cars are generally bunched together quite close so it's a good indication of how much more ground you need to cover. You can also keep an eye on how the track bends from the map so you don’t come a cropper.

The American commentator shouts endless encouragement, sometimes giving advice on where to go but you might end up telling HIM where to go as he’s so effervescent, but at least he reminds you that the nitrous is ready, as often you’ll not notice while hurtling round the track at speed. You'll notice that parts of the track are sectioned off as they’ll be opened up next time you visit the track for a later, slightly different, race, which isn't a new thing in car games but you can look and speculate whether you'll be heading down that lane next time. Note that in order to build up the aforementioned nitrous boost you'll need lots of turns and twists to build it up. It's no good without those so on a track without tight turns it makes for a bit of a boring race and you also wonder where the guy in the lead got his nitrous from that he uses to get away from you, since if you’re on his tail you can see whether or not he’s doing sharp turns to build it up! For those who want something extra, the additional modes include Duel - go head-to-head against the CPU, but this isn't as much fun as a standard race since it's more interesting to race against 11 other cars instead of just one; Survival - race against three others and the person in last place at the end of each of the three laps is eliminated from the race, plus the self-explanatory Time Attack and, finally, the Wireless Battle mode, but I couldn't find anyone online to play with so I just had to twiddle my own joystick.

Overall, with 42 tracks taken from a variety of versions of the Ridge Racer series, 42 songs to listen to and 62 cars to unlock in total, Ridge Racer 2 is so much fun, even if it’s the usual ‘try to take over as many cars as possible since despite the fact you all started at the same time, most of the cars are ridiculously so far further ahead than you are’. You can sort of get revenge in return by trying to slide into another car to slow them down so you can pass, but make sure you don’t hit them from behind or you’ll suffer by losing speed and they’ll get the advantage of your shunt. For someone who wasn't looking forward to playing this at first, I found it very exhilharating and adrenaline-pumping, even though it did try to catch me out later on with tracks that make you play in reverse, compared to the way you originally learned, which are a bugger to get to grips with. Not to mention the annoyance of why does the CPU car in the lead never crash? A couple of other nice additions here are that you can watch replays of races and there's also a funky little top-down arcade game that’s like an old arcade game where you went round a circuit, the name of which escapes me but you'll be back in retro heaven when you dip into it.

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Review copyright © Dominic Robinson, 2006.