886th played so far
Genre: Driving
Platform: Playstation 1
Year of Release: 1998
Developer: Namco
Publisher: Namco
The Ridge Racer series naming convention really gets confusing – aside from there being a second Ridge Racer with the same name on the list, this seems like the fourth one – although I keep forgetting it’s part of the franchise as the name is buried in the title.
With this being a Playstation 1 era game, you just know that this was taking the sprite based racer into a new 3D dimension. These days that just feels dated – while it would have worked for me, we’ll see why it’s still notable now.
Our Thoughts
While I wouldn’t call this a story heavy racing game, it is interesting to see that it at least seems to have a bit more than most. You chose between four teams at the start and while they have some statistical differences, they also have different storyline bits before each race – a short introduction that, in my case, set up the story of a woman who bought her own racing team but needs you to win so she can make her money back and be successful. It’s a nice little addition, something that makes it feel like something that’s not just an arcade racer.
Then there are the tracks themselves. They were decent, especially for the Playstation 1 era. The tracks needed to be learned anyway, but it feels odd now that we’re still dealing with limited chances at a race. We’re dealing with a home console now, retries of races should be fine. One place where this really showed for me, for example, is in the second level. It was set at sunset, which obviously looked nice and made for something different, it really got too dark to keep playing the game. Sure, we’ve struggled with this here before, but it seems unnecessary here. You can’t learn the track as easily, so this gets in the way.
Final Thoughts
This Ridge Racer sequel does step up the quality, but it still has its unnecessary arcade qualities. It was fun, sure, but still didn’t quite work for me.