PlayStation Plus Subscribers Surprised With One of 1999's Best PS1 Games

Some PlayStation Plus subscribers are about to have "free" access to one of 1999's best PS1 games, courtesy of PS Plus Premium. If you're a PS Plus Essential or PS Plus Extra member, you're unfortunately out of luck, as classic PlayStation games are limited to PS Plus Premium. In other words, if you want access to a growing and evolving library of PS1, PS2, PS3, and PSP games, you wil need to pay for the most expensive version of PS Plus. For the month of March, PS Plus Premium subscribers are getting two PSP games on March 21, Ape Academy 2 and Syphon Filter: Dark Mirror, and one PS1 game on March 21, R4: Ridge Racer Type 4.

If you were a PSP junkie back in the day, those two additions may be the most noteworthy, but for most the big PS Plus Premium game this month is R4: Ridge Racer Type 4, arguably the best game in the Ridge Racer series and one of the best games of 1999. As you may remember, when it was released back in 1999, it released to a Metacritic score of 88. How well does the game hold up in 2023? Not great, but there's certainly plenty of nostalgia to mine from it.

"Ridge Racer's four-wheeled action returns to PlayStation," reads an official blurb about the game from PlayStation. "Boasting a gorgeous visual style, sublime track design and a killer soundtrack, Type 4 builds its arcade gameplay around a multi-race Grand Prix, asking you to pick a racing team to drive for and an extensive range of cars to unlock."

R4: Ridge Racer Type 4 was developed and published by Namco. It first debuted in Japan in 1998, but didn't come west until 1999. The fourt installment in the series and the final one on PS1, it was re-released back in 2011 via the PSN. This gave PS3, PSP, and PS Vita owners a chance to revist the classic. And as of March 21, PS4 and PS5 players will be treated to the same blast from the past.