Battle of the Ports

[J0e Musashi]

I've always adored the game. It has such bold and brave design decisions; they took the rave culture of 1990's Europe which is infused throughout the very circuit board of Ridge Racer and brought on the Sunday morning come down. It's pastel coloured race tracks combine with the ambient dance music to create a chilled out racer, something that's never once been replicated. Hazy skies, office blocks with only a few lights on, night time Japanese cities that have fireworks exploding in the far distance so you can admire across a inky blue sea, it's such a unique and beautiful racer.

I adore the game and won't tolerate any bull**** thrown at it!

That may be so, but it's still rubbish. It cannot hold a candle to the original, Revolution or Rage. V is infinitely better too. V is like a good version of the original. Type 4 could have not had Ridge Racer in its title and nobody would have noticed. It simply isn't a Ridge Racer game to purists.

[Dogg Thang]

You're not actually making any points there, Joe. Wools has offered a pretty comprehensive list of things he likes. All you have is 'rubbish'. Tell us why. I'm genuinely curious, especially as you cite V in there which, to me, was so lifeless and dull by comparison. For me, V was made by someone who just had a post-it with 'car must move' and once that was achieved it was job done. Whereas I felt that 4 was art and it handed brilliantly too.

But then I am also coming at it as someone who has little or no respect for the original. I'm not your purist. I felt it was competent but had none of the flair of the Sega racers for me back then. It was Rage that actually first sucked me into Ridge and then Type 4 was a thing of pure beauty. I still love the car designs too.

[Baseley09]

I can understand the sentiments of R4 being the antithesis of the Ridge Racer ideal, but I dont think that makes it a bad game.

[Wools]

It simply isn't a Ridge Racer game to purists.

I'm a huge fan of the Ridge Racer series but I'm not sure if I would call myself a purist as I don't know what the **** that entails in relation to Ridge Racer, except for the fact Type 4 is connected by the same DNA; Arcade drift mechanic, Euro dance music and great course design.

I love all the Ridge Racers, except for RR Revolution as it was designed to milk more money from the consumer and RR6 as RR7 is the same game but with more content. The less said about RR Unbounded the better! So if you're attempting to argue that Type 4 is rubbish because it isn't a RR game to purists, you'll need to explain yourself better as it's making no sense to me!

[J0e Musashi]

You're not actually making any points there, Joe. Wools has offered a pretty comprehensive list of things he likes. All you have is 'rubbish'. Tell us why. I'm genuinely curious, especially as you cite V in there which, to me, was so lifeless and dull by comparison. For me, V was made by someone who just had a post-it with 'car must move' and once that was achieved it was job done. Whereas I felt that 4 was art and it handed brilliantly too.

But then I am also coming at it as someone who has little or no respect for the original. I'm not your purist. I felt it was competent but had none of the flair of the Sega racers for me back then. It was Rage that actually first sucked me into Ridge and then Type 4 was a thing of pure beauty. I still love the car designs too.

R4 is over-saturated. It has a bunch of pointless cars. It also requires you to not win in order to unlock some of them. It's an arcade racer, which forces you to complete simulation-style tasks in order to progress. The courses are the most mundane in the entire series, and it's all blanketed with its "cool" bubblegum bull****. It's far too busy, and is simply not as fun to play as the others in the series. The absolute worst thing is that the handling is way off and may as well steer for you.

V is amazing. It's a better looking version of the original with more structure thrown in. The DJ makes for the perfect Ridge setting that was so heavily lost in R4. There are a minimal amount of cars (they get upgraded as you progress), which is good. The courses are also fantastic, and the handling has been restored to its original unforgiving awesomeness.

You can always tell when someone hasn't played the original, Revolution or Rage at all or at great length because they always say that V was terrible coming off the back of the sublime R4. They couldn't be further from the truth.

[Asura]

You can always tell when someone hasn't played the original, Revolution or Rage at all or at great length because they always say that V was terrible coming off the back of the sublime R4. They couldn't be further from the truth.

Not so certain about that. I played the original a great deal and still loved RRT4 and disliked V (though, admittedly, a large part of my dislike of V was something about how it looked, though I can't remember what).

You'll probably say I didn't "appreciate the original properly" though, so not much point in pursuing this.

[Dogg Thang]

I didn't but I played Rage to death so, again, you can't always tell. But I appreciate the more in-depth post, Joe, and it helps clarify where you're coming from. A large part of it for you, I suspect, is about the starting point of loving the original. Type 4 was different. For me, that was fantastic and exactly what was needed, even coming from Rage which was great. I enjoyed the progression. Most of all as a contrast to your view, I loved the tracks.

[Wools]

You can always tell when someone hasn't played the original, Revolution or Rage at all or at great length because they always say that V was terrible coming off the back of the sublime R4. They couldn't be further from the truth.

Now you're questioning someone's knowledge if they disagree with your opinion? Just like how you mention you're a purist, which gives the impression you're so far up yourself, you can't possibly understand how another human being thinks.

This is all moot as I loved V anyway!

[J0e Musashi]

You also said this:

The problem is that Ridge Racer, as demonstrated by the original (and the selected high-quality titles in the series) isn't about 150 tracks and a fleet of cars. It's about a focused, high-quality experience with a relatively modest amount of content. Instead of 40 mediocre tracks, it's about 2-3 amazing ones and challenging you to get the best out of them. Type-4 and 6 understood this, as did the PSP ones.

Which is slightly odd what with R4 having more cars and courses than any other Ridge game in existence.

Simply put, R4 could have been called Super Disco Racer 2000, and nobody would have been any the wiser.

[J0e Musashi]

Now you're questioning someone's knowledge if they disagree with your opinion? Just like how you mention you're a purist, which gives the impression you're so far up yourself, you can't possibly understand how another human being thinks.

This is all moot as I loved V anyway!

Not at all, but to appreciate V you have to have played the original titles. People who started with R4 cannot understand why V is so awesome because it is devoid of everything which made R4 so "Perfect".

[buster_broon]

I played them all back in the day and enjoyed them

My favourite is revolution from memory, if that's the one with the devil and angel cars which I had to have and took long enough to get them, no skill just block them from overtaking you since they seemed to go a bajillion miles an hour

[J0e Musashi]

I didn't but I played Rage to death so, again, you can't always tell. But I appreciate the more in-depth post, Joe, and it helps clarify where you're coming from. A large part of it for you, I suspect, is about the starting point of loving the original. Type 4 was different. For me, that was fantastic and exactly what was needed, even coming from Rage which was great. I enjoyed the progression. Most of all as a contrast to your view, I loved the tracks.

The reason I hate R4 so much is because of the handling. It's just not Ridge Racer. The reason for this is because the handling engine was designed around the Jog-Con. It's intended to be played with rotary steering. It's different to every other game in the series.

[Dogg Thang]

For me, the change in handling was a plus. Wasn't it the first with analogue handling on the PS1?

[J0e Musashi]

Technically no. All of the previous games were compatible with the Neg-Con, but weren't built around specifically using it.

[Dogg Thang]

It was the first that actually used the PS1 analogue sticks though and that was always going to be a change.