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Ridge Racer PSP sequel soon

Out in Japan this September.

Namco Bandai's working on a PSP sequel to Ridge Racer, and it should be out in Japan in just a few months' time.

Rumours of a Ridge Racer PSP sequel have been circulating for a while now, but now it's been confirmed - and outlined in the latest issue of Famitsu, partly translated by IGN.

Famitsu reports that Ridge Racers 2 (the original was known simply as Ridge Racer in Europe) is due out on September 14th in Japan.

It will include a new Arcade mode where the object is to reach checkpoints to earn more time to reach the next checkpoint, and so on.

There will also be new Duel and Survival modes, although details on those have yet to be confirmed. We do know that the main World Tours mode, Time Attack and Wireless Battle return - the latter continuing to offer eight-player ad hoc options.

Namco Bandai aims to include the highest number of courses yet seen in a Ridge game - 18 - made up from elements of those found in the classic console titles but not previously used on the PSP.

There will be six vehicle classes, the developer says, each with three cars to start - and the usual unlockable secret cars and a pair of special classes.

Best of all, the game's nearly finished. Expect us to rip it apart on import just as soon as someone fulfils our pre-order.