The core aspect of the entire
Ridge Racer series is
drift racing, that is traditional lap racing against opponents with the added twist of intentionally
oversteering and sliding the car through sharp corners and turns, known as "drifting", which earns the player several bonuses during a race. In most respects
Ridge Racer 2 can be considered more of an update than a true
sequel to the original PSP title - it shares the same game play engine, user interface and game design as the previous title, and includes almost all of the elements, cars, and tracks of its predecessor. Featuring three times as much gameplay time as its predecessor however, the differences lie in the addition of a total of 42 new racing tracks, consisting 21 unique tracks and variations where the track is driven in reverse; 18 are taken from previous titles in the
Ridge Racer franchise. Two tracks are from the original
Ridge Racer, three tracks are from
Ridge Racer Revolution, four tracks are from
Rave Racer, eight tracks are from
R4: Ridge Racer Type 4, and four tracks are from
Rage Racer. Every track from every
PlayStation Ridge Racer game released is included as part of this package. Numerous new game play modes are included to supplement the originals of the previous title such as:
Duel and
Survival modes. As with the previous title,
Single Race and
Wireless Battle mode is still included, although
Single Race was renamed to
Arcade. The game also features a total of 62 fictional cars (referred to as "machines" throughout the game) from seven fictional manufacturers (Kamata, Âge, Danver, Gnade, Assoluto, Himmel, and Soldat) that are staple throughout the Ridge Racer series. The full complement of cars is available to the player after completing three Tours (consisting of 16 races each) of increasing difficulty levels (Basic, Pro, and EX) and several various mini-games. In addition to newer cars,
Ridge Racer 2 features "prizes" that are unlocked after the completion of a tour, such as opening movies of previous Ridge Racer titles and
E3 demo presentations. The
Special Class cars from
Ridge Racer (PSP) have been modified for this release and categorised into two tiered categories with four cars each.
Special Class 1 denotes cars embodying more traditional
supercar designs and appearances, while
Special Class 2 is made up of radical or novelty designs that boast the highest top speeds attainable in the game. Specifically, the 'Kamata Angelus' (Special Class 1) and 'Soldat Crinale' (Special Class 1) possess their appearances from
Ridge Racer V, while the
Pac-Man car (Special Class 2) now resembles a miniature aircraft in design (with Pac-Man himself depicted as piloting it), and is no longer powered by propellers. The
New Rally-X car has been removed entirely and replaced by the 'Danver Hijack' (Special Class 1); a large, super-charged
Pickup truck as seen in
Ridge Racer 6. The 'Yamasa Raggio' (Special Class 2), which appeared in the 2006
Tokyo Auto Salon as a heavily modified
Honda NSX, is unique to
Ridge Racer 2 and also appears in a "prize" movie that is unlocked after completion of the game's "EX tour". The car was later made into a
Tomica die-cast toy car for limited release. The three other special class cars are the Âge Angelus Kid (Special Class 2), Âge Crinale Kid (Special Class 2), and Terrazi Wild Gang (Special Class 1). The game also features a
FMV opening, that shows series mascot
Reiko Nagase.
Nitrous Notable also is the "
nitrous boost" system from the previous game, which works in the same manner as before. The player has a
Nitrous Gauge made up of three nitrous tanks, which at the start of a race are either completely depleted or only partially full. As the player drifts through the corners (especially at very high
slip angles) during the race, their nitrous gauge fills up. When the player fills up one of the three nitrous tanks, it can be activated to achieve a temporary speed boost. The nitrous tanks cannot be recharged while any tank is in use though, but the residual speed increase when the nitrous boost expires can be used just before entering corners to recharge the player's nitrous tanks at a faster rate than normal. ==Reception==