Ridge Racer 2 (PSP)

A new update appeared at the weekend. The biggest change is that it adds options for a virtual analogue stick or d-pad. I’ve tested out the analogue stick and it makes the game play more like a traditional Ridge Racer title. It’s certainly easier, but loses the seat-of-the-pants, pants-wetting, on-the-edge-of-control feel of the tilt controls.

For balls-out, dry-mouthed, seat-of-your-pants excitement I don’t think anything else on the iPhone comes close. The sheer sensation of speed using the Class 5 cars is unmatched and the twitchy, fluid, almost organic handling is like the nightmarish, drooling flipside of the clinical, digital precision of Ridge Racer on the PSP. Brilliant.

This is so appallingly broken that I hate myself for liking it so much, but I do. It’s really hard, with a spin or a crash never more than a breath away, but that makes for an incredibly tense, exciting drive – and when you nail a series of drifts perfectly there’s no feeling like