Ridge Racer

THOU SHALT NOT COVET THY NEIGHBOUR’S HANDHELD

Surely the PSP isn’t retro just yet? We’re afraid it is, so put those pitchforks down and instead grab a copy of this ace racer

» PSP » 2004 » NAMCO

Recently, it occurred to me that the way we anticipate consoles has changed, because we get them within days of release now. It used to be so different – the machine would come out in Japan, and you’d get incredibly excited about screenshots of even the most impenetrable historical war sim. Then the American system would come out, with games you could actually read, and if you had the money you’d probably import it. Finally, the rest of us would get it many months later, and in the really bad old days, we’d get crummy PAL conversions with it. So I got to thinking, when was the last time I went through those painful months of waiting? Looking at it, the PSP was the last system with a truly agonising European delay. Japanese players got their consoles in December 2004 and Americans had to wait until March 2005, but we didn’t get it until September 2005.

I still vividly remember my first encounter with the PSP. HMV was offering a ‘first look’ at the system months in advance, which in practice meant one member of staff bringing a system out to the shop floor. He showed me Ridge Racer, and although I was a bit more excited about Wipeout Pure, I’m pretty sure that was the best choice possible. It didn’t matter that it just contained old tracks – the screen really was as good as people were saying, and the game was running at a silky smooth 60 frames per second! After all of about 30 seconds, Namco had convinced me that the PSP was every bit as good as I had hoped, and I hadn’t even played it yet. So I asked the member of staff if I could do so. No deal, though to be fair the poor guy was probably scared I’d do a runner with it, as I suspect he’d bought his own import system and was coerced into bringing it into work. I immediately knew I needed it, and if I’d had the money I’d have bought one from America that night – which probably wasn’t what HMV intended.