Ridge Racer Accelerated Drifts Into The App Store

Ridge Racer first hit the scene in 1993 as an arcade title, but gained mass appeal in 1995 as a launch title for Sony's original Playstation thanks to its reliance on drifting, which gave it a very unique feel for an arcade racer, at least in those days.  That same great game is now, in a sense, available in the App Store. Ridge Racer Accelerated for the iPhone and iPod touch features the same easy to learn but difficult to master drifting system from the original game.  To drift in the iPhone and iPod touch version, all you have to do is let off the gas on a corner and then re-apply.  The trick, however, is to know how far to turn in order to not spin out.  The game also contains the same, and now rather dated, graphics from the original version, but what has people clamoring is what the game doesn't contain. First off, Ridge Racer Accelerated is "recommended" for the iPhone 3GS, and apparently iPhone 3G optimization is coming later, which is rather puzzling considering the game doesn't exactly look all that astonishing.  The other major downside is that this is just an initial release with a very limited amount of content.  The game only features two courses (four if you count forward and reverse) and 18 cars at launch.  You can purchase another three courses via in-app purchase for $2.99, and another nine cars for $1.99.  Namco indicates that the track pack contains six courses, but really it's just the same three in reverse. Namco has promised, however, that they will be adding many more courses and cars via free updates throughout next year, along with a variety of other in-app purchases, so this might all work out in the end, but as it stands, Ridge Racer Accelerated is basically a $2.99 preview.

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