The Ridge Racer Thread

[Alpha2099]

This is ultimately meant for anyone who's played any of the Ridge Racer games, be it arcade or console, to share their feelings here. I'll start off by talking about Ridge Racer Type 4, which I've recently had a resurgent interest in.

I remember first playing R4 from some demo disc years back as a kid. Never owned the game until recently, though. Overall I think it's a lot of fun and quite a strong title in the racing genre. However, some things keep nagging at me and prevent me from calling it a truly spectacular game. For one thing, there's no straight Arcade Mode. I feel like that should be standard in all racing games, and to omit that really hurts the game's lifespan and replayability. I know there's a Versus Mode, but you need another person to use that, so that's not always available.

The other issue I have strikes at one of the core components of the game, which is unlocking all 320 vehicles. While that's fun to do for the most part, the method of unlocking them becomes problematic after a while. Since the cars you unlock are dependent upon how you finish in certain races in Story Mode, I have found myself in numerous situations where I have had to lose on purpose just to get a lower-tier car that I'll probably never use anyway. Also, with so many cars, there's bound to come a point where you notice there isn't much difference between certain ones. And again, with no Arcade Mode, you really can't put any of them to great use, except to try and unlock the super-secret cars in Extra Trial Mode.

The gameplay itself is just fine, and I like the idea of the garage where you can change the paint job of your cars and add decals. But there are those mechanical issues that just sorta bother me and make me hesitate to call it a top-notch game. Though it's certainly one of the better entries in the series.

Please feel free to share your thoughts on any of the Ridge Racer games.

[Neb6]

[QUOTE=Alpha2099;1983952]This is ultimately meant for anyone who's played any of the Ridge Racer games, be it arcade or console, to share their feelings here. I'll start off by talking about Ridge Racer Type 4, which I've recently had a resurgent interest in.

However, some things keep nagging at me and prevent me from calling it a truly spectacular game. For one thing, there's no straight Arcade Mode. I feel like that should be standard in all racing games, and to omit that really hurts the game's lifespan and replayability.

The other issue I have strikes at one of the core components of the game, which is unlocking all 320 vehicles.

Also, with so many cars, there's bound to come a point where you notice there isn't much difference between certain ones. And again, with no Arcade Mode, you really can't put any of them to great use, except to try and unlock the super-secret cars in Extra Trial Mode.
QUOTE]

Arcade mode should be available in EVERY racing game (Ridge Racer and others). All tracks should be available too -- none of this locked tracks crap. In this series and in other games (Forza for example), I'm turned off by the sheer number of cars. The 3D modelers are being allocated to building zillions of cars when they could be modeling more tracks instead. As you mentioned, a lot of the cars 'feel' pretty much the same on the track. So what's the point (other than saying that you unlocked certain brands and models of cars). I also doubt the accuracy of how each type of car handles on the road. I'm not a test-driver, but I seriously don't think most of them handle at all like their real-world counterparts anyway.

So I guess my comment is more of a general one regarding modern racing titles. Developers: Let people choose how they want to play their racers. If people like unlockables, then give those players the incentives and score modifiers. Let the rest of us just put the friggin' pedal to the metal. Even a broad cross-section represented by five cars would be plenty. Leave the exotic unlockable vehicles to those who are into that.

Oh, and I should mention that I freaked out when I saw the original Ridge Racer in the arcades. Great game then and now.

I haven't played all of the Ridge Racer games. Anyone have recommendations on which ones are the best in the series?

[Canadian Psycho]

I'm a huge fan of PS2 Outrun 2006 (favourite racing game ever along with F-Zero X), would I enjoy Ridge Racer 5 or 7?

P.S. I played RR Type 4 back in 1999 or something but didn't really enjoy it (not arcade-y enough for my tastes - controls weren't the best IIRC).

[SpaceHarrier]

I like R4, it's got great graphics for the PS1. I spend more time with the included bonus disc, which contains a 60-fps version of the original Ridge Racer.

My favorite in the series is Rage Racer. God, I could play those 4 courses forever! The only thing is, I can't for the life of me get the hang of the drift mechanics in this particular installment. I find myself avoiding it whenever possible, just letting off the gas for turns. If not: always into the wall. Always.

[Alpha2099]

I like R4, it's got great graphics for the PS1.
R4 definitely has awesome graphics. While I do own each of the four PS1 RR titles, I've only played R4 and the original, which of course look like night and day compared side-by-side.

The original is limiting in its own way. Technically speaking there is only 1 track, with an extended portion in Hard Mode, and then there are the mirror versions if you beat the Time Trial challenge. Unlocking the cars in that game have nothing to do with racing; you just need to clear out the Galaga enemies on the loading screen. The only car you have to race against to unlock is the Devil 13 car from the Hard Mode time trial. But with that in mind, the original had the arcade feel I so desperately missed in R4, which makes sense because the original was really just an arcade port with some extra features.

[PreZZ]

R4 is my favorite ps1 game. I have unlocked all the cars and played this game so much! I remember enjoying it and didnt really understand how to unlock cars since I always finished first in every race. Then I found out in my EGM magazine a complete "how to unlock cars" and began my quest to unlock every single one of them. I thought finishing 2nd, or third on purpose was pure genius and harder than finishing first. It was like a pokemon game with cars, gotta catch em all!

[parallaxscroll]

Ridge Racer is now 20 years old, as the original arcade game came out in fall 1993. Happy 20th birthday :D

http://flyers.arcade-museum.com/flyers_video/namco/21239001.jpg

http://flyers.arcade-museum.com/flyers_video/namco/21239002.jpg


I've been playing the series ever since.

My favorite releases in the series are Ridge Racer (Arc, 1993), Rave Racer (Arc, 1995), Rage Racer (PS1, 1996/97), Ridge Racer V (PS2, 2000),
Ridge Racers (PSP, 2004/05), Ridge Racer 6 (X360, 2005) and Ridge Racer 7 (PS3, 2006).


I'm more than a little mystified as to why PS4 is not launching with a new one. PlayStation hardware has ALWAYS launched with a Ridge Racer game.

[Neb6]

When it comes to Ridge Racer, I've played the arcade game and Ridge Racer 6.

While the drift aspect of RR6 is... um... interesting, I prefer the feel of the original arcade machine.

Any suggestions for similar virtual driving experiences (Ridge Racer or otherwise)?

Note: I like wide tracks and cornering that doesn't throw you into the far reaches of space (and Rally races are great too).

[parallaxscroll]

I suggest playing the arcade version of RAVE RACER, either an actual coin-op machine or via emulation in VivaNonno. It has a somewhat different feeling than the original arcade Ridge Racer, but the City and Mountain tracks are so worth it.

http://flyers.arcade-museum.com/flyers_video/namco/21201302.jpg

The City track seems to have been inspired by Tsuen Wan in Hong Kong with the factories and overhead bridges. Awesome.

[parallaxscroll]

BTW, for those of you who cannot get enough RAVE RACER, then owning PSP Ridge Racer(s) or Ridge Racer(s) 2 is a must.

Not only do you get renditions of the tracks that were in the 1995 arcade game, City (renamed Midtown Expressway) and Mountain (renamed Greanpeak Highlands) but you also get 2 Rave Racer inspired tracks,
Downtown Rave City and Silvercreek Dam which are loosely based on Rave Racer but were not in the original arcade game.

Downtown Rave city is also in RR6 for X360 and RR7 for PS3, but Silvercreek Dam is not, it's only in the PSP games.

I recommend getting the Euro version of Ridge Racer 2 because all the tracks are immediately available, it's in English and most PSPs (2000, 3000) are region free, AFAIK.

[parallaxscroll]

Oh and here's very early footage of the never-released Rave Racer port for PowerVR accelerated PCs, with comparison to the arcade version.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aBuGwrWP-s4

PowerVR Rave Racer was running in 640 x 480 res. at 30 FPS (half the arcade) using a lower polygon count on a Pentium 133 machine-- Yet even with the reduced framerate & detail (compared to the arcade) was still doing 4 times the amount of graphics work as the 1994/95 version Ridge Racer on PlayStation.

Pretty impressive stuff. Shame it never got finished and released.

[jammajup]

My favorite in the series is Rage Racer. God, I could play those 4 courses forever! The only thing is, I can't for the life of me get the hang of the drift mechanics in this particular installment. I find myself avoiding it whenever possible, just letting off the gas for turns. If not: always into the wall. Always.

I am with you SpaceHarrier it is Rage Racer for me too,I just like the feel of Rage and do not like the fact that later RR games has to much of what i call "Mario Kart Syndrome" (I know your in front and are not making mistakes but I am going to send an impossibly fast car up your rear end anyway just in case you slip up and you are going to get passed just before the line-you know it) :(

[Haoie]

R4 has one of the best soundtracks of the PS1 era!

Namco did some of the best music during that time [see Ace Combat, Klonoa, etc]

[Alpha2099]

R4 has one of the best soundtracks of the PS1 era!

Namco did some of the best music during that time [see Ace Combat, Klonoa, etc]
The soundtrack is indeed wonderful. Very modern for its time, with that sort of mellow club-like dance atmosphere.

[Ed Oscuro]

It's Ridge Racer!

I played a bit of the N64 one a bit a while ago through Project64 (ugh) - is it just that emulator or did people on real hardware have the feeling that geometry past tunnels was really flat? I noticed that in my first race and couldn't get over it.

I will check out that Raver Racer. How about Rage Racer (PSX only, I think)?

[Niku-Sama]

I really like the ridge racer games up until the most recent 360 and ps3 versions, then they started to lose their fun factor.

they need to go back to the way it was with the originals and even R4 and R5 was pretty good.
Ridge racer 5 had a lot of extra stuff in it when you really got into it, pacman and ghost cars and all sorts of funky stuff.

the best things always been the sound track on almost any of these games and the most important thing of all....


was when they made it so you could turn the annoying announcer off

[Xexyz]

I love this series, although I don't think I've played even half the installments. The newest one I ever played is also my favorite, Ridge Racer 5 on the PS2. It seems like a step back from R4 in terms of content, but I loved how it was essentially a remake of the original Ridge Racer (same basic track) with much better drifting mechanics and some sweet unlock able cars. I tried the 99 lap endurance race once, couldn't get higher than 4th place. That's a brutal race I'd like to clear someday, even though all you get apparently is a trophy.

[SEEtheREPLAY]

RR for the PS1 was and still is by far my favorite RR. I can't express into words how awesome it was to finally master drifting the blue car around the lap. Having to practice and practice so that I could beat the black lambo. Those were the days of awesome gaming.

[TheRetroVideoGameAddict]

I had the original Ridge Racer for the PS1 back in 1995 when I got the system, I've since gotten it back and it lives nicely within my video game collection. At the time this was a pretty damn good racing game and is still fun to play to this day, sure it was easily eclipsed by Gran Turismo back in the PS1's lifespan, but it was one of those fun launch titles that really showed off what the console could do versus the 16-bit competition.

[wiggyx]

Arcade Ridge Racer taught me how to drive manual transmission. Literally. My first car was a manual Pontiac Fiero, and when I bought it, I hopped right in and drove it home. Stalled it once or twice, but I knew exactly what I needed to do without any other instruction in addition to my experience with Riiiiiiiiiiiiidge Racer! :D

[Kevincal]

as with 95% of things in life, the original is best.

the original ridge racer is the best for sure. yes, 1 track, yes, very simply, but the whole package has a magical feel, the graphics, the music, the black car. has one of the best and most original video game soundtracks ever.

infact i just uploaded a video of the ridge racer 1 soundtrack.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dAx1VCEQwEk

also, can anyone beat my 1 lap time with the black car? ;) 56 seconds.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iaGCtw3JzSg

[Leo_A]

With how often you hit the wall, it should be very possible unless you're doing it deliberately to gain an advantage (Which you very well might be doing). But I don't think I have what it takes to challenge you.

Ridge Racer 64 is my favorite of the series followed by Ridge Racer Type 4. I wish I had enough skill to finish Ridge Racer 64 someday. I'm 2-3 races away from the end and just can't progress after 10 years + of occasional tries to unstall my progress.

[Kevincal]

With how often you hit the wall, it should be very possible unless you're doing it deliberately to gain an advantage (Which you very well might be doing). But I don't think I have what it takes to challenge you.

Ridge Racer 64 is my favorite of the series followed by Ridge Racer Type 4. I wish I had enough skill to finish Ridge Racer 64 someday. I'm 2-3 races away from the end and just can't progress after 10 years + of occasional tries to unstall my progress.

i think i hit the wall 2 times in that 56 second lap and yes every place i hit the wall was intentional in that lap. 56 second lap is rather amazing trust me its really hard to do. black car is so fast and twitchy. hard to control at that speed.

[Night Driver]

Love RR Type 4. In fact, from an aesthetic standpoint (not a technical one, obviously), it's still the best looking racer I've ever played. Those night tracks are unrivaled. And that acid-jazz soundtrack is one of the best ever.

[wiggyx]

Love RR Type 4. In fact, from an aesthetic standpoint (not a technical one, obviously), it's still the best looking racer I've ever played. Those night tracks are unrivaled. And that acid-jazz soundtrack is one of the best ever.

So, I'm guessing that you haven't played a racing game since?

[Alpha2099]

So, I'm guessing that you haven't played a racing game since?
Oh. No. He. Didn't.

[tom]

So I'm in a second hand shop seeing Ridge Racer for PSP. I purchase it, happy as a bunny I go home, upon opening it I find Tomb Raider inside. Duh, reminds me to keep checking before leaving the shop. Going to exchange it today.

[parallaxscroll]

Ridge Racer is to return this month in the shape of Ridge Racer Slipstream for iOS and Android.

The game will run on a brand new racing engine specifically developed for mobile devices and features “numerous gameplay modes, challenging races and tracks, as well as amped up music.” There will be twenty tracks (actually ten tracks driven forward and backward), vehicle customisation, and a future update will include a multiplayer mode.

http://www.thesixthaxis.com/2013/12/03/ridge-racer-to-return-this-month/

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cgWqUCMvhuU#t=0


Sigh.

Namco has turned their once-brilliant series of arcade racers, into a turd...
The franchise went to hell with RR Unbounded, RR Vita that DLCs you to death, then the Free-to-Play RR Driftopia, and now, an ultra low-budget mobile release...


...Naturally this's not what I'd hoped for.


Know what I was hoping for?

Something like a true next generation Ridge Racer 8 on PS4 with real-time, in-game graphics not unlike the pre-rendered CG intro from Ridge Racer 6 on Xbox 360. Some screen captures of that CG intro, below:







http://i.imgur.com/106dEkx.jpg?1



http://i.imgur.com/bk3QVhp.jpg?1



http://i.imgur.com/OqUfETH.jpg?1



http://i.imgur.com/w3pf14F.jpg?1



Something like that, combined with the mechanics of Rage Racer, some of the classic tracks from the very first game, Rave Racer, Rage Racer, RR6/RR7 plus at least 50% all-new never-before-seen tracks
to make it worthy of a true numbered sequel, Remote Play on Vita and great netcode for PSN online multiplayer.
However that's far too much to ask of the Namco that exists today, a company that's fallen further than even Sega has.



Here lies RIDGE RACER
1993 - 2013
In Loving Memory
R.I.P.

[parallaxscroll]

Well, the series may be dead now, as far as future releases that matter, what fans might care about, but I'm still loving the good games.

I just ordered Ridge Racer 3D for 3DS new off Amazon. It should arrive this Friday.

I know it's only 30fps, in both 3D and 2D, but it looks pretty good. It's meant to have 15 unique tracks, not counting reverse & mirrored ones, which is more than I can say about Ridge Racer Vita from what I understand of that game as it had only shipped with a handful, the others were DLC. Looking forward to getting the 3DS version.


Once again today I fired up PSP Ridge Racers 2 emulated on PPSSPP on my laptop, outputting it to my 42 inch HDTV via HDMI, cranked up the rendering resolution to 4 times higher than PSP's native res, playing with an Xbox 360 controller.
Man what an experience this is. It's so great having ALL the tracks from Rage Racer, Ridge Racer Revolution, Ridge Racer Type 4, the two arcade tracks from Rave Racer plus the additional two Rave Racer-inspired tracks created for the first PSP release, all at 60fps. So freakin sweet and far better than playing it on my actual PSP.

Now I need to re-acquire RR6 for 360 plus RR7 for PS3.

Hard to believe RR7 was a 60fps, native 1080p "Full HD" launch game on PlayStation 3 in 2006, but it was.

[mercuryshadow09]

I'm a huge fan of PS2 Outrun 2006 (favourite racing game ever along with F-Zero X), would I enjoy Ridge Racer 5 or 7?

P.S. I played RR Type 4 back in 1999 or something but didn't really enjoy it (not arcade-y enough for my tastes - controls weren't the best IIRC).

I just picked up Outrun 2006 last week and I really like it. Ridge Racer on Playstation wasn't my first racing game but it was my first relevant racing game, so many hours trying to run the perfect last race, so many good memories!

[parallaxscroll]

I have OutRun 2 on the original Xbox, as well as OutRun 2006: Coast 2 Coast.


With OutRun 2 on Xbox, there were two bonus courses. One of them is all the arcade Daytona USA 2 tracks strung together
and the other is all of the arcade Scud Race / Sega Super GT tracks strung together.

They were a decent homage to those games, however, neither the actual Daytona USA 2 nor Scud Race / Sega Super GT games were ever brought home.

For a while I held out some hope they would be, after Sega released a 100% flawless port of the original Daytona USA in High Definition for PSN / PS3 and Xbox Live / 360 back in October 2011.

But hat hope is now long gone, once again.

[parallaxscroll]

For those who never got to play it, or even see it, I found a great video of arcade Rave Racer the way it was meant to be played: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8-ngzxhBxaU

Rave Racer's 'City' track with its signature banked curves, 3 jumps, overhead bridges, and industrial area complete with factory and smoke stacks.

Has to be one of my all-time favorite tracks in the entire RR franchise.