Retro|Spective 017: Ridge Racer

[Asura]

Loved it. Played (at least) dozens of hours of it.

Despite that, I don't remember it all that well, like I have more memories of tracks and moments in 4 than 6. And I hated the announcer voice.

[Nu-Eclipse]

Got my RR6 and RR7 confused, as [MENTION=5490]wakka[/MENTION] pointed out, haha!

RR6 on 360 definitely wasn't full 1080p@60fps. I didn't actually play it much but it did introduce one of my all-time favourite tracks from Sanodg in the entire franchise.



Fun fact: Ridge Racer 3D on 3DS incorrectly lists this track as "Radiance".

[wakka]

That was 7

6 was the 360 version a year prior. Think it was only 720p and the framerate wasn't so consistent.

[Nu-Eclipse]

That was 7

6 was the 360 version a year prior. Think it was only 720p and the framerate wasn't so consistent.

Indeed it was! That's what not paying attention will get ya!

[Atticus]

2) Ultimate Charge. I never hear anyone mention this but for me it's what made nitro in Ridge Racer really work. Essentially all it is is the idea that just as you finish a nitro boost, you have two or three seconds in which you have the opportunity to fill your nitro bar much faster than usual. Your nitro bar is filled by drifting. So once you were half decent at the game, you could time your boosts so that they would finish just as you were hitting a corner, and you could slam through it to quickly earn more boost. You could pretty much chain your way round some of the courses at top speed once you had the hang of it. It was a lot of fun and as a mechanic I think worked really well.

Yeah, this was a brilliant feature, requiring thoughtful timing to keep topping-up. It was almost a Cave-like mechanic.

[monel]

Hasn't there been a thread on Ridge Racer? Are you remastering threads now?

[wakka]

There will never

NEVER

be enough threads on Ridge Racer.

[Nu-Eclipse]

There will never

NEVER

be enough threads on Ridge Racer.

https://media.tenor.com/images/df3ef7d77d4bf0dd1dae5c006d922095/tenor.gif?ctx=share

[monel]

It was a genuine question. Sorry.

[wakka]

I'm just joshing around.

But seriously. Never enough.

[monel]

Fair enough. It's a great game series. Could do far worse, like Altered Beast or something.

[Neon Ignition]

We had one but it was lost during the purge of 2016. They used to quick summarise the entire franchise in the first post too so a lot of them had limited discussion as a result, I've found that breaking the series down game by game seems to work better so we're on a bit of a victory lap for some of them. The original version of this thread had about 140 posts in it but over 100 of them were just arguing about whether Revolution was a sequel or an update

[Neon Ignition]

Game 10 - Ridge Racer 7
Whilst our journey hasn't reached its end yet, we have reached the end of the mainline franchise with this one. A launch title for PS3, RR7 took RR6 and gave it some spit and polish. Namco also later released a version that offered 3DTV support.



Was this a pinnacle point for the main games and where should a theoretical Ridge Racer 8 have headed next?

[Dogg Thang]

I had skipped RR6 due to giving up on the XBox after RRoD so my next RR was RR7. I really like it. It's really polished, it plays great, has some great tracks. I have zero complaints. And yet, for whatever reason, I found myself going back to the PSP RR games much more than this. Can't quite say what the difference was except that the handheld aspect was handy but I found myself enjoying the PSP ones just a little more than this one.

[QualityChimp]

I think I have 7 after J0e Musashi banged on about and I picked it up.
Although I enjoy the lovely arcadey levels with blossoms falling from trees, birds scattering and planes flying overhead, I just couldn't get past the bobbins handling.

I wrote this in 2018 in the RR8 thread and stand by it.

There's no weight to the drift. You just push a button and the car pivots.

I said it was like racing a set of drawers or one of those Disney Cars Micro Drifters with a ballbearing on the bottom.