Ridge Racer (2004 Video Game)
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''Ridge Racer'', released in Japan as , is a 2004
racing In sports, racing is a competition of speed, in which competitors try to complete a given task in the shortest amount of time. Typically this involves traversing some distance, but it can be any other task involving speed to reach a specific g ...
video game A video game or computer game is an electronic game that involves interaction with a user interface or input device (such as a joystick, game controller, controller, computer keyboard, keyboard, or motion sensing device) to generate visual fe ...
developed and published by
Namco was a Japanese multinational video game and entertainment company founded in 1955. It operated video arcades and amusement parks globally, and produced video games, films, toys, and arcade cabinets. Namco was one of the most influential c ...
for the
PlayStation Portable The PlayStation Portable (PSP) is a handheld game console developed and marketed by Sony Interactive Entertainment, Sony Computer Entertainment. It was first released in Japan on December 12, 2004, in North America on March 24, 2005, and in PA ...
. An installment in the Ridge Racer series, it was released as a global
launch title Since the origin of video games in the early 1970s, the video game industry, the players, and surrounding culture have spawned a wide range of technical and slang terms. 0–9 A ...
for the system, on 12 December 2004 in Japan and overseas in 2005. ''Ridge Racer'' has been described as a 'compilation' of the series, featuring tracks, cars and remixed
soundtrack A soundtrack is a recorded audio signal accompanying and synchronised to the images of a book, drama, motion picture, radio program, television show, television program, or video game; colloquially, a commercially released soundtrack album of m ...
from previous titles of the 1990s. Gameplay-wise, it marked the change from the "classic" style last seen in ''
Ridge Racer V is a 2000 racing video game developed and published by Namco for the PlayStation 2. It was released as a launch title for the console and later followed by an arcade version subtitled ''Arcade Battle''. ''Ridge Racer V'' is the fifth main title ...
'' to the new drifting mechanic and nitrous boost that the series would incorporate from there on, including on '' Ridge Racer 6'' and ''
Ridge Racer 7 is a 2006 racing video game developed and published by Namco Bandai Games for the PlayStation 3. An installment in the ''Ridge Racer'' series, it is an enhanced version of Xbox 360 exclusive '' Ridge Racer 6'' with more content, releasing as a l ...
''. ''Ridge Racer'' was critically acclaimed, praised for its visuals, gameplay and soundtrack; it was notable at the time for providing
home console A home video game console is a video game console that is designed to be connected to a display device, such as a television, and an external power source as to play video games. While initial consoles were dedicated units with only a few game ...
-like graphics at a smooth 60 fps
framerate Frame rate, most commonly expressed in frame/s, or FPS, is typically the frequency (rate) at which consecutive images (frames) are captured or displayed. This definition applies to film and video cameras, computer animation, and motion capture s ...
on a mobile gaming system, harnessing the PSP's graphical abilities. An updated version with more tracks and modes was released for the PSP in 2006 titled ''
Ridge Racer 2 is a 1994 arcade racing game developed and published by Namco for arcades. A sequel to ''Ridge Racer'', it features more quality-of-life changes than substantial new content. One major addition is the ability to play with up to eight human play ...
''; seven years after ''Ridge Racer'' on PSP came ''Ridge Racer'' on
PlayStation Vita The PlayStation Vita (PS Vita) is a handheld game console developed and marketed by Sony Computer Entertainment. It was first released in Japan on December 17, 2011, then in other international territories on February 22, 2012, and was produced ...
.


Gameplay

The core aspect of the entire ''
Ridge Racer is a series of racing video games created by Namco and owned by Bandai Namco Entertainment. The first game, ''Ridge Racer (1993 video game), Ridge Racer'' (1993), was originally released in arcades for the Namco System 22 hardware, later ported ...
'' series is
drift racing Drifting is a driving technique where the driver purposely oversteers, with loss of traction, while maintaining control and driving the car through the entirety of a corner or a turn. The technique causes the rear slip angle to exceed the front ...
, that is traditional lap racing against opponents with the added twist of intentionally
oversteer Understeer and oversteer are vehicle dynamics terms used to describe the sensitivity of the vehicle to changes in steering angle associated with changes in lateral acceleration. This sensitivity is defined for a level road for a given steady state ...
ing and sliding the car through sharp corners and turns, known as "drifting", which earns the player several bonuses during a race. There are a total of 24 courses in the game. Game modes are World Tour, Single race, Time Trial, and Wireless Battle, which supports up to 8 player
multiplayer A multiplayer video game is a video game in which more than one person can play in the same game environment at the same time, either locally on the same computing system (couch co-op), on different computing systems via a local area network, or ...
over the PSP's
ad hoc ''Ad hoc'' is a List of Latin phrases, Latin phrase meaning literally for this. In English language, English, it typically signifies a solution designed for a specific purpose, problem, or task rather than a Generalization, generalized solution ...
Wi-Fi Wi-Fi () is a family of wireless network protocols based on the IEEE 802.11 family of standards, which are commonly used for Wireless LAN, local area networking of devices and Internet access, allowing nearby digital devices to exchange data by ...
network capability. World Tour consists of 2 to 6 races per tour, representing a specific world of ''Ridge Racer''. Notable in the game is the "
nitrous A nitrous oxide engine, or nitrous oxide system (NOS) is an internal combustion engine in which oxygen for burning the fuel comes from the decomposition of nitrous oxide, N2O, as well as air. The system increases the engine's power output ...
boost" system. The player has a ''Nitrous Gauge'' made up of three nitrous tanks, which at the start of a race are either completely depleted or only partially full. As the player drifts through the corners (especially at very high
slip angle In vehicle dynamics, slip angle or sideslip angle is the angle between the direction in which a wheel is pointing and the direction in which it is actually traveling (i.e., the angle between the forward velocity vector v_x and the vector su ...
s) during the race, their nitrous gauge fills up. When the player fills up one of the three nitrous tanks, it can be activated to achieve a temporary speed boost. The nitrous tanks cannot be recharged while any tank is in use though, but the residual speed increase when the nitrous boost expires can be used just before entering corners to recharge the player's nitrous tanks at a faster rate than normal. The game also features a
full motion video Full-motion video (FMV) is a video game narration technique that relies upon pre-recorded video files (rather than Sprite (computer graphics), sprites, vector graphics, vectors, or 3D models) to display action in the game. While many games featur ...
opening, that shows series mascot Reiko Nagase, marking her return following her absence from ''
Ridge Racer V is a 2000 racing video game developed and published by Namco for the PlayStation 2. It was released as a launch title for the console and later followed by an arcade version subtitled ''Arcade Battle''. ''Ridge Racer V'' is the fifth main title ...
''. Available in the game is a fully playable version of the 1980 Namco arcade game ''
Rally-X is a maze chase arcade video game developed in Japan and Germany by Namco and released in 1980. In North America, it was distributed by Midway Manufacturing and in Europe by Karateco. Players drive a blue Formula One race car through a multidi ...
'', which appears when the game initially loads up.


Development

The game was announced under the title ''New Ridge Racer'' at E3 2004. An updated demo build was playable at the Tokyo Games Show later that year. Sony confirmed on November 5, 2004 that ''Ridge Racers'' would be a launch title. The title, with the additional 'S' at the end to make it a plural, was made to represent the game as a unified gathering of all the previous ''Ridge Racer'' games. Development took approximately 9 months. The director, Kenya Kobayashi, said their goals were to "hit the sweet spot for fans" and "make the most of the hardware specifications".


Soundtrack

The music in the game is a collection of new songs and songs taken from previous ''Ridge Racer'' games, arranged across several "discs". The "Red" and "Blue" discs contain all-new songs put together specifically for the game while the two "Classic" discs contains a collection of
remastered A remaster is a change in the sound or image quality of previously created forms of media, whether Mastering (audio), audiophonic, Cinematography, cinematic, or Videography, videographic. The resulting product is said to be remastered. The term ...
songs from ''Ridge Racer'' titles. Lastly, the "Remix" disc contains songs from past titles
remix A remix, also sometimes called reorchestration or rework, is a piece of media which has been altered or contorted from its original state by adding, removing, or changing pieces of the item. A song, piece of artwork, book, poem, or photograph ca ...
ed by their original composers.


Red Disc

# Highride # Warp Trooper # Bassrider # Pulse Phaze # Chrome Drive # Synthetic Life


Blue Disc

# Disco Ball # Night Stream # Light Groove # Vanishing Horizon # Tunnel Visionary # Tek Trek


Remix Disc

# Rotterdam Nation Remix - from the PlayStation titles, ''Ridge Racer'' and ''Ridge Racer Revolution''. # Speedster Remix - from the PlayStation titles, ''Ridge Racer'' and ''Ridge Racer Revolution''. # Drive U 2 Dancing Remix - from the arcade title ''Ridge Racer 2'' and the PlayStation title, ''Ridge Racer Revolution''. # Rareheroes - featured in many past ''Ridge Racer'' titles. # Blue Topaz Remix - from the arcade title, ''Rave Racer''. # Motor Species Remix - from the PlayStation title, ''Ridge Racer Type 4''.


Classic Disc 1

# Ridge Racer - A remastered version of the title tune from the PlayStation title, ''Ridge Racer''. # Grip - from the arcade title, ''Ridge Racer 2'', and the PlayStation title, ''Ridge Racer Revolution''. # Euphoria - from the arcade title, ''Rave Racer''. # Silver Stream - from the PlayStation title, ''Rage Racer''. # Naked Glow - from the PlayStation title, ''Ridge Racer Type 4'' # Your Vibe - from the PlayStation title, ''Ridge Racer Type 4''.


Classic Disc 2

# Move Me - from the PlayStation title, ''Ridge Racer Type 4''. # Movin' in Circles - from the PlayStation title, ''Ridge Racer Type 4''. # Eat 'Em Up! - from the PlayStation title, ''Ridge Racer Type 4'' (this was a secret track acquired along with the ''Pac-Man'' car after unlocking all 320 of the cars featured in the game). # TsuiTsui - from the PlayStation 2 title, ''Ridge Racer V''. # Samurai Rocket - from the PlayStation 2 title, ''Ridge Racer V''. # Daredevil - from the PlayStation 2 title, ''Ridge Racer V''.


Reception

''Ridge Racer'' received "generally favorable reviews" according to the
review aggregation A review aggregator is a system that collects reviews and ratings of products and services, such as films, books, video games, music, software, hardware, or cars. This system then stores the reviews to be used for supporting a website where user ...
website
Metacritic Metacritic is an American website that aggregates reviews of films, television shows, music albums, video games, and formerly books. For each product, the scores from each review are averaged (a weighted average). Metacritic was created ...
. Its graphical ability and visuals were incredible on a portable device in 2004, and it was further praised for its gameplay, soundtrack (which also consisted of remixed tracks from older ''Ridge Racer'' titles) and multiplayer option. ''PALGN'' praised the game's graphics and the gameplay and considered the best ''Ridge Racer'' title for PSP. In retrospect, Adam Ismail of
Kotaku ''Kotaku'' is a video game website and blog that was originally launched in 2004 as part of the Gawker Media network. Notable former contributors to the site include Luke Smith, Cecilia D'Anastasio, Tim Rogers, and Jason Schreier. History ...
Australia wrote about the game: "It's truly difficult to convey how staggering this game was to behold on a PSP. Seemingly overnight, we went from sprite-scalers and almost-but-not-quite 3D racing games on the
Game Boy Advance The (GBA) is a 32-bit handheld game console, manufactured by Nintendo, which was released in Japan on March 21, 2001, and to international markets that June. It was later released in mainland China in 2004, under the name iQue Game Boy Advanc ...
to a 60 frames-per-second experience that could compete with anything on a home console." In Japan, ''
Famitsu , formerly , is a line of Japanese Video game journalism, video game magazines published by Kadokawa Game Linkage (previously known as Gzbrain), a subsidiary of Kadokawa Corporation, Kadokawa. ''Famitsu'' is published in both weekly and monthly f ...
'' gave it a score of two eights and two nines for a total of 34 out of 40. It was re-released in 2005/2006 as a platinum title.


Notes


References


External links

* {{Ridge Racer series 2004 video games Multiplayer and single-player video games Multiplayer online games Namco games PlayStation Portable games PlayStation Portable-only games Racing video games Ridge Racer Sony Interactive Entertainment games Video games developed in Japan Video games scored by Yuu Miyake