Oh dear. I decided to dig out my ancient Japanese copy of Ridge Racers for the PSP. Once I’d worked my way through baffling Japanese menus and started racing, I was presented with a glorious, smooth, silky rendition of the chugging, barren iPhone version.

It’s a completely different experience on the two platforms. Apart from the speed difference – which is absolutely huge, even though the speedometer says otherwise – the main difference is in the feeling of the handling. The PSP version is a heavenly glide with the car doing everything you say, whereas the iPhone version is a constant fight to stay on the road and pointing in the right direction.


Ultimately, that’s what saves the iPhone version, oddly enough. The barely contained danger, the triumph when everything goes right, the actual feeling of tipping your iPhone left and right to keep on course – it’s much more tense and exciting second-by-second than the more easily controlled PSP version.

If the PSP version is a new-fangled 3D-equipped digital cinema, then the iPhone version is a run-down flea pit with an ancient projector that speeds up, slows down and shows you the movie on a screen that’s torn in one corner and covered in dubious stains. You go to one, you sit down in padded stadium seats and eat your Ben & Jerry’s, in the other you avoid the grey, dusty popcorn, look for a seat that may have some remaining springs and are left with a feeling of intense relief if you make it out without being stabbed. They’re completely different representations of their source material, but one’s definitely more of an adventure than the other.