Well this is a bit worrying. According to a couple of Japanese previews from Impress Watch and Famitsu, the Vita title Ridge Racer will apparently only come with 5 cars and 3 tracks from which to choose.
It gets worse. The previews also state, helpfully translated by andriasang, that the game will only run at 30 frames per second and that both boxed and digital versions will require a memory card to play.
The tracks on offer might please longterm fans, with Harborline 765, Highland Cliffs and Southbay Docks all available, having appeared in past games in the series. Apparently you'll be able to play through them as reverse, mirror tracks too.
The game is, at least, carrying a reduced price of ¥3980 (just over £33) price tag, reduced down to ¥2980 (around £25) fif you buy the digital version before 31st March. Compare that to the average price for a Vita launch title in Japan - ¥4980 (roughly £41.50) - and it looks a little better.
Though not by much.
Namco suggests that the reason for the (slight) price reduction is to try and get players involved in the Planetary League mode:
The official Namco Bandai reason for the low price is that it hopes to get as many players as possible in order to make the Planetary League mode more active. In the Planetary League, players throughout the world split into circle, x, triangle and square teams. Every 24 hours, the game sends out new team battle missions. At the end of the month, the game's servers will determine the rank of each of the four teams based off points earned during the missions. (via andriasang)
There's day one DLC planned too, of course, with the Playstation Store a direct option on the game's main menu. Even so...only three courses? Something's seems off. We'll be dropping Namco Bandai a line to confirm.
