Ridge Racer

released on Nov 30, 1993

Ridge Racer was initially released on the Namco System 22 arcade system board, and was later ported to the PlayStation console. It is the first title in the long-running Ridge Racer series of games released for arcades and home consoles. The game's objective is to finish in first place in a series of races. Ridge Racer was among the first racing games to utilise polygon graphics to its full potential.


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truly the racing game of all time

É um jogo bom, apesar de ser bem mais rústico que o type 4 (as osts são quase no mesmo nível no entanto), problema maior é o drift ser muito escorregadio e o carro que não o faz virar que nem manteiga as vezes.

A long time ago, a little company by the name of Namco released a small little game known as Sim Drive at the JAMMA 1992 AM Show. As the title would apply, it was merely just a simple racing game, primarily meant to show off the technology that the game’s system board, the Namco System 22, was capable of, using gouraud shading and texture mapping to creature 3D environments that, nowadays, may look like nothing but a bunch of polygons to us, but back then, was revolutionary for the genre. While it was impressive, it was simply just a prototype for a bigger product, one that would be completed over the course of the next eight months in an effort to compete against other companies like Sega. This title would then be released to the public, and would simply be known as Ridge Racer… you know, RIIIIIIIIIIIIDGE RACEEEEEEEEEER! Remember that one?....................... look, if I didn’t make the joke, someone else was going to, so I had to take that chance.

Back before I had started reviewing games on this website, I hadn’t really played any other racing games that weren’t named Mario Kart, so I hadn’t really checked out any Ridge Racer game before this one. I had heard about it on several occasions, hearing about some of the titles being pretty good, but for the most part, I had assumed it was just your typical racing series with nothing too grand or incredible to show for it. But hey, you can’t judge a book by its cover as they say, so I decided to check out the first game in the series to see how it has held up, and yeah, at least for this title, it is just your standard arcade racing game. For what it is worth though, it is still a good game, and one that I had a decent amount of time with, but it is probably not gonna be a racing game that I am ever gonna go back to because of how barebones it ends up being at the end of the day.

The graphics are incredibly dated, which is to be expected from an early 3D racer, but for what it is worth, it was the best looking racer at the time, and it still holds up in some regards to this day, the music is pretty great, with there being several tracks that fit the vibe that the game is going for, and it gets you pumped to leave your competitors in the dust and maybe even smash into them, the control is extremely basic for an arcade racer, but one that does its job well, and the traction, speed, and turning on the car does feel pretty good while being manageable, and the gameplay is extremely basic, not offering much in terms of content, but offering plenty in terms of speed and several other factors.

The game is your typical arcade racing game, where you take control of either just one car, or in the case of the PS1 version, MANY cars (you know, just in case you get tired of the color red), take on plenty of different races of varying difficulty all taking place on… one track (we’ll get more into that later), race against plenty of different opponents that will do their best to keep you behind them at all times, make sure to turn and brake at appropriate times to make sure you don’t slam straight into the wall and look like an idiot, and blast your way all the way to first place and finish all three laps before time runs out to prove that you are the ridgiest racer that ever ridged a race. It has everything you could ever want from an arcade racer while also lacking everything else that you could want from one, but to its credit, one of the things that it does have going for it at that point in time.

Before this game, there weren’t many other 3D racers that could reach this high level of quality. The only other really noteworthy 3D racer before this was Virtua Racing, which, while being a nice stepping stone for the genre to leap into the next generation, now looks like a bunch of angles and shapes trying to trick you into thinking it is a racing game. With Ridge Racer, on the other hand, it looks much, MUCH better, not only having plenty of detail given to all of the cars, but also the many different environments that you will be driving past and through. In addition to this, there is also a good amount of realism that was implemented into the game as well. There were multiple gears that you would have to shift through as you would go faster, the turning and braking feels much heavier in several occasions, and when you collide into another car, not only does the other car swivel around due to the impact, but you yourself FEEL that same impact, especially when you are in first-person view. This may not seem like anything nowadays, but again, for the time it came out, you have to admire what it did for the genre as a whole.

However, that does not save it from being one of the most barebones and basic racing games I have ever played, even more so than other ones released before it. In this game, you only get one track to race on. ONE TRACK. Sure, there are varying difficulties that increase the speed you go on on this track, and there are additional modes like a Time Trial and, for the PS1 version, a mirror mode that allows you to experience the track in plenty of different ways, but at the end of the day, it is still just one fucking track. This game desperately needs more tracks to make it more desirable to play, and they don’t even need to be that heavily different from this one. They just need to be there. In addition to this, at the end of the day, it is still just a very basic racing game. There have been plenty of other games ever since, even in the same series, that have taken what this game does and have made many better racers as a result, so there really is no reason to come back to this one at the end of the day. I guess it could be good for those who are big fans of the series, but really, they could just play future, better titles and get the exact same experience from it.

Overall, despite the limited content it has and its basic nature, the original Ridge Racer is still a competent and fun racer, one that can provide you with a speed-filled good time for a while, but it doesn’t do much to make players want to come back for more. I would recommend it for fans of the Ridge Racer series, as well as those who love racing games in general, but for everyone else, there are definitely much better titles out there that you could play over this. Although, for those of you who actually are wanting to try it out at some point, let me give you a warning: don’t look directly into the eyes of the people that are in this game. I may have done this with the girl who holds up the sign at the beginning of the race, and now I fear that I may be getting a visit from her in the near future.

Game #427

An exciting little racing game that's great for an afternoon. It's got a fantastic electronic soundtrack and a cool, breezy aesthetic to pair. Racing aficionados will likely find the depth of the game lacking, and the rubber banding on the extra courses are slightly extreme, but for a casual playthrough; the base fun of going fast and beating the CPUs will suffice.

Not a must for the Playstation system, but a respectable arcade racer that's best enjoyed for as long as it takes to get to the extra courses.

It was one of two games i got with the original Playstation on christmas in 1997. It was ok i guess, but really not that great.

Simple, arcade fun. Nothing to really write home about, but for a ps1 game it runs and looks pretty alright