Summary
- Four PlayStation Plus Premium games, including Tekken 2 and Ridge Racer 2, can now be purchased individually for $9.99 each from the PlayStation Store.
- Previously, these games were only available through a PS Plus Premium subscription or other methods like retro consoles or arcades.
- Mr. Driller is the exception, as it was released on multiple platforms but only available on PS1 and PS Plus in the PlayStation ecosystem.
Four games that are part of the PlayStation Plus Premium catalog — including Tekken 2 and Ridge Racer 2 — can now be purchased individually. This isn’t particularly unusual, as a lot of the games that are available via PS Plus can also be purchased separately by those who either aren’t interested in a subscription or want the added security of knowing the games are theirs even if later removed from the monthly subscription service.
However, up till now, a few have fallen between the cracks and were only available by either subscribing, pulling out a retro console, or maybe going to an arcade. The PlayStation Plus subscription service regularly adds and removes games from its library, and oftentimes people may be plumb in the middle of a playthrough when they learn a title will soon go poof from the service. That’s where buying favorite games individually can come in handy.
Until recently, four Namco-developed games were unavailable for separate purchase, and those who wanted to enjoy the titles on PS4 or PS5 had to be a PS Plus Premium subscriber. Now, Tekken 2, Mr. Driller, Ridge Racer 2, and Ridge Racer Type 4 can all be scooped up for $9.99 each from the PlayStation Store.
Namco PS Plus Premium Games Available to Buy Separately
- Mr. Driller
- Ridge Racer 2
- Ridge Racer Type 4
- Tekken 2
Tekken 2 was originally released in 1995 in arcades and a few years later on the original PlayStation console. A couple of months ago, Tekken 2 was listed on the PS Store for $9,999.00, perhaps when somebody prepping it for release at $9.99 added on a few too many nines. The same issue happened with Mr. Driller a short while later, before both games went back to solely being available through a PS Plus Premium subscription.
As for Ridge Racer 2, other than PS Plus, that game was only released in arcades back in 1994. Despite its name, Ridge Racer 2 is not actually a sequel but rather a revamped version of the PS1 launch title Ridge Racer, which has been ranked by many as one of the greatest games of all time. Ridge Racer Type 4 was previously only available on PS1, having released in 1999. Like its predecessors, the game was overall well received and is considered by a lot of people to be the best of the series.
Mr. Driller is the one outlier of these four Namco titles because it was released on multiple platforms and is even available on Nintendo Switch, Xbox One, and Xbox Series X/S. However, in the PlayStation ecosystem, it was only available on PS1 and PS Plus. And interestingly, Mr. Driller was co-created by the director of Ridger Racer Type 4, Yasuhito Nagaoka, and now fans can grab a digital copy for a very palatable price to play on their PS4 or PS5.
Source: ResetEra