Playing Ridge Racer on the Vita in the 2020s

Plenty of gamers are picking up a Vita for the first time, or digging out their dusty handheld and giving it a fresh go. Some might look at PlayStation legend Ridge Racer, one of the console's few racing games (alongside Need for Speed: Most Wanted) and fancy a blast.

The good news is, it still looks gorgeous in the 2020s, with vibrant scenery, smart RR cars that you can paint up and the good old Ridge-style drift and boost, with slipstream mechanics. On the EU PSN, there are two versions, the Ultimate edition for £19.99 which includes the Gold and Silver pack content, and the base game for £7.99 where you need to buy the rest of the tracks and cars as DLC. 

Go Uktimate if you can as downloading every bit of DLC individually is a royal pain in the butt. 

The bad news is, Cellius the Namco/Sony co-development studio (founded to work on games that got the most from the PS3's Cell chip, but only ever released this version of Ridge Racer) gutted the PSP's joyous single player mode, so there's limited challenge left in the game. 

The simplest solution for that is to download the PSP version (available on US PSN and maybe others) and play that. But, if you want to give the Vita version a go, grab the game, and download any of the free track and car content, or pay for the others if you feel the need. Music packs are free if you have a nostalgic yearning for some of the great tunes that drove earlier versions of the series. 

In play, there's still the Spot Races against seven computer-controlled cars, so you can do that for a while, along with time attack modes, useful for learning tracks and climbing up the fastest time rankings. 

TIP: Friend request players through the Top Racer Inteview secgion (ideally, those in your region) and invite them to race if you need some multiplayer competition. Note the feature is very slow but still works! 

Online with Ridge Racer

Online mode is still active (for now) but finding people to race against is spotty. On the World Race tab, you can still try the Online Battle lobbies, but the few players you'll come across are high-level ninja racers. Tapping Search More Lobbies repeatedly is frustrating, so create your own (remember to disable power saving) to see who comes along, if you have the time and want to add some VP points.

Also, would it have been so hard for the developers to put an "xx players online now" stat to help out? Or a quick race to throw people together rather than tap, tap, waiting for network, tap, tap, tap, tap wait for players? All criticisms they could have fixed on launch or patched, as most reviews pointed out. 

TIP: Load the game every day, even if you don't plan to race, and view the Team Vision message to usually get 1050 credits to help upgrade your car in the Garage. 

If race mode fails to provide any opposition, try Ghost Battle mode and from the Global List, aiming to beat the times of other players. There are some 600 times downloaded in the past four months, proof that other people still play the game. About half the ghosts will be for the tracks or cars you can access. (Note, Sony disabled Near some time back, so you can't play Near Ghost Battles). 

Don't play against Ghosts way above your level (on the right of each entry) as you'll never compete with their times. When you find a ghost your skills are a match for, try it a few times to learn their lines and gain points when you win. Your level will slowly rise and you can take on the big boys. 

If anyone does want a race, look me up on Twitter or PSN (Goffeentl) and I'm happy to arrange a session (time zone limited). Or, add your PSN to a #VitaIsland tweet so other players can find you. For those elusive online trophies, you find people in a similar predicament here, Another way to find more recent active racers is to look at the Top Racer Interviews and invite recent drivers to buddy up. 

With the Vita at the end of its life, what happens to games like this? WipEout 2048 has lost its multiplayer, Monster Hunter Frontier Online has faded away, and on console it is harder to hack servers to keep communities going? Is this really the end for Ridge Racer?