I’m convinced that any console needs to launch with a racing game in order to be successful. During the fifth generation of home consoles Sega had Daytona USA, Nintendo Cruis’n USA, and Sony with Namco’s arcade hit Ridge Racer. The latter of these is the only one that’s still pertinent today, and it also happens to be the subject of this review. The original Ridge Racer was a launch game for the Sony PlayStation. How does it hold up? Let’s take a look!
There’s no story, scenario, or anything like that. Ridge Racer is pure arcade action. Seriously, press the start button a few times and you’re in a race. It’s as simple as that. The game is a fully 3D racer in which you select a car, course, and then you’re thrown into a competitive race against twelve A.I. controlled opponents. Because of this game’s arcade nature there isn’t much in the way of customization, options, or anything else to waste your time on. There’s just racing.
Let’s start with the gameplay. Ridge Racer promised high speed smooth racing action. This it delivers. The engine runs really well with very few hiccups. There’s also a great sense of speed and some of the turns will really test your reflexes. The key to success here is practice and memorization. To become a master at this game you need only learn and remember every turn and just how you need to brake to get past it without losing too much speed.
Any crash in this game is pretty devastating. The cars seem to stick a bit when you’re accelerating which I thought was just me, but it happens no matter which vehicle you choose. Turning is plenty loose and feels great. The original Ridge Racer came at a time before drifting became synonymous with the franchise. This means you’ll actually need to use the brakes (unlike in many of the sequels). This is a bit of a bummer, but by no means does it break or even greatly hinder the experience.
Let’s talk about the elephant in the room. Ridge Racer is extremely light on content. This is nothing new when it comes to home ports of arcade games, but it’s a bigger problem than normal here. You see, there is only one track on which you can race. Choosing different difficulty modes adds new sections to the stage, but it’s clearly still the same track you’re competing on. There is very little variety and I’ll be honest – it’s more than a little disappointing even for an older title. Even Daytona USA, which released earlier than this, offered multiple options for race tracks.
To alleviate the issue Namco made this game hard. It’s fairly easy in the lower difficulty modes allowing for a more relaxing experience. As you up the ante the course becomes more complicated adding new areas that are otherwise closed off. Your top speed is also raised. This changes the dynamic on just about every turn. You’ll need to get used to braking more and at different times. This is a pretty decent idea and does add a bit of replay value to the package. Unfortunately it’s just not a whole lot. Despite the changes to the track it never feels like it’s a different stage or anything.
When you finish the main game (on the highest difficulty of course) you unlock mirrored versions of the course. This may not sound like a big addition to the game, but it actually is. Because Ridge Racer is so focused around memorization in regards to braking that a change like this is surprisingly drastic. That’s just about all that Ridge Racer has to offer in terms of diversity though. Even with mirror mode the package feels very light on content.
There are a few different options to mess with. You have four different modes of play (they don’t differ much though), four different cars you can use (each are rated differently in things like acceleration, top speed, and handling) and six different music tracks. The game also features some of the most inventive loading screens of all time. Rather than being a static screen you instead play a miniature version of Galaxian. Should you destroy all the ships on-screen before the game finishes loading you unlock six additional cars. That’s really neat and a cool nod to Namco’s fans.
Ridge Racer has seen better days. What was easily the most impressive launch title for the Sony PlayStation is no longer the graphical showcase it once was. The game suffers from that typical polygonal warping that makes it feel like the environments are shimmering. Additionally the sprite elements look really out of place and pretty bad to be honest. With that out of the way let’s talk about what’s good. The cars are very colorful. I found this very pleasant against the sometimes plain backgrounds (time of day does change sometimes). The framerate is never terribly smooth but the game does maintain pretty well even with multiple cars on-screen.
Where Ridge Racer really shines is in its soundtrack. The option to choose six different songs is really cool. These compositions are mostly pop/electronic and really fit the racing action well. I found myself a big fan of the music here. If you don’t share the sentiment you can always put in your own audio CD in a widely known trick. The game loads entirely into the RAM so it doesn’t need to read the disc except for the audio. You can essentially trick the game which is neat.
Like most of the other games in the console’s launch line-up Ridge Racer is a pretty meager offering. It doesn’t even offer two player mode. The game is fun to play, but will soon wear on you as you become hungry for more options that just aren’t there. The sequels have more to offer, and at a higher quality as well. The original Ridge Racer has its place in history but you can safely skip it and instead play one of the many vastly superior sequels. You can thank me later.
