Review #814: Ridge Racer Revolution

 Oh, here's the second track!... but where are the rest??

 Well... it's more Ridge Racer. Ridge Racer Revolution is little more than an upgraded version of the original, to the point that it's almost ridiculous how small this thing is. That said, it's still fun as hell, and pretty much every change they did was for the better. Except for the soundtrack.

 Once again, one track and one track only is all that you get, but you get six different tweaks: Beginner, Mid and Expert versions, as well as unlockable mirrors of each. Each different level adds a new part to the track, so after playing the beginner course you'll have played 80% of the game. Each track can be played in either Race(3 laps), Time Trial(VS CPU) or in an endless Free Run mode. It's a better set up than the original, that's for sure, and I appreciate how every version of the track adds something on top of the other, unlike the original in which some variations only upped the max speed. I'd also like to mention that this new track is more detailed and more fun to race in than the one in the original, so bonus points for that. It's also a bit more challenging. And, y'know, despite it only being one track, it has a nice assortment of pieces and panoramas to make it interesting to look at and race on. The graphics as a whole are a bit better, but on the other hand, the soundtrack isn't as amazing. It's still a really good soundtrack, like 9/10 instead of the original's 10/10.

 There's a multiplayer mode now.... if you own two Playstations, two copies of Ridge Racer Revolution and the fabled link cable, so it might as well not be there at all. There's still no analog support, and, once again, the brunt of the playable vehicles are hidden behind a brief Galaga 88 loading minigame. There's a cheat to automatically destroy them all this time around, which is welcome.

 And that's pretty much it. Same fantastic gameplay, a slightly better set-up and another single, but more entertaining, course to race through. It's still far from being a good product in this day and age, but I'm more comfortable vouching for this one since it feels like it has slightly more content than the original. And once again, scoring the game is tough, because as far as gameplay is concerned, it checks all boxes, but there simply isn't enough content here to justify a purchase.
 4.0 out of 10