If you say R4 has an “OK” Sound track i am in shock. It has some of my favourite songs period! But, if you say rage racer OST is really good, ill have to check it out
I think I might have liked other ridge racer soundtracks more if it wasnt for the the fact I heard rage racer's first, cos for me that set the standard for others to match :)
@@Vakantscull if you're looking for more rock/industrial/breakbeat sounding tracks in R4, check out Lucid Rhythms, Revlimit Funk, The Objective, Move Me and The Ride.
In all fairness, Ridge Racer is meant to be played in first person, the third person view wasn't avaolable at all in the arcade version. (It was added in Ridge Racer 2 though) BTW you know there's a Ridge Racer 8 on PS3? Though it's really RR7 with extra stuff.
The reason why no other company did those loading games like galaga etc is because Namco patented it.... Much like Sega did with view change in racing games after virtua racing - only how everyone else got around the view change patent was by 'snapping' instantly as opposed to animating outwards or inwards to the view clicked.
@@Vakantscull many thanks.... I could tell you loads of useless factoids like that and probably will do in future as you upload... Good channel to follow is guru-larry. I heard of him way back in the 90s after being on the show gamesmaster....
R4's OST is easily one of the best in all of racing game history, and even stands out as music production on its own. If you ever have the desire to do so, I recommend looking up the Ridge Racer Type 4 Direct Audio soundtrack playlist. As it was in the game and played through TV speakers it was just pretty good, but the direct audio version of the OST is incredible on headphones or in a decent car stereo. My favorite night driving music the last few years.
I may look this up, I've said to others that the music is fitting while I was playing, but as a rock and industrial fan it just didn't resonate with me as much as the rage racer and rr5 ost, but I may give it a check out on its own outside of the game :)
Love the video. Type 4’s ost is a masterpiece. Sorry just had to say that. Gameplay wise I feel the best games in the series is between 5 and 7. 5 feels like a perfect evolution from 1 all the way through 4. Each car feels distinctly different and unique to drive. And it’s only complimented by the wonderful track design that plays to all of the cars strengths and weaknesses. On the other hand 7 throws all of that out for its own unique gameplay that still feels like ridge racer. While I feel like the drifting in 7 is oversimplified and almost of the cars drive the same, it’s makes up for it with its nitrous mechanic. Nitrous is the backbone of 6 and 7’s gameplay. All of the unique ways you can use, charge, and earn nitrous creates a ton of unique strategies that you can experiment with throughout the career playthrough. Nothing beats the high you get from chaining ultimate charges and building 3 gauges of boost from one gauge. All while having the angel or devil car 1 inch away from your ass. It’s literally playable crack. I’m glad someone made a Ridge Racer retrospective. Not enough people are aware of the franchise’s existence and even less people discuss the games. That’s makes me appreciate your video even more. Thanks.
Yeah I think I ruffled a few feathers with that R4 music comment :S I never said it was bad, when you're in the game it fits perfectly, but I honestly can't recall a single track from memory. But thank you, you're right about there not being too many retrospectives out there which I why I made this full series video, because no one else had :)
Completely understandable :) It's just personal preference, for me I wanted a continuation of the industrial stuff from Rage Racer. I wouldn't say the music's actually bad in any of the games, there was just something a bit more meaty about the OST for Rage and 5 that made them more memorable for me :)
Ive since played rage racer and i understand why you like it more. If i played rage racer first and then heard r4's soundtrack I'd be a little disappointed too, r4 is so much of a different sounding game it's almost insane. Both have goated soundtracks (also samurai rocket ridge racer v)
Great video, although we're in disagreement about R4's soundtrack, but that's all good! :) I started out with Ridge Racer on the PSP, I instantly fell in love with that game, everything for me was just perfect. The music, the tracks, the graphics, the gameplay is easily my favourite in the series, right next to 6 and 7 as close contenders. I just loved how it's a massive homage to the series with a load of returning tracks and songs with some fresh gameplay and tracks to boot, it has so much content for a launch title, still impressive. Oh, fun fact; the PSP games were the first in the series to introduce the new drifting and nitrous mechanics!
My first introduction to the series was with two PSP games two years ago. Arcade racing is my second favourite videogame genre, and after million of hours spent in Need For Speed, Midnight Club, Burnout, FlatOut and Motorstorn Ridge Racer was like a breath of fresh air. The aesthetic, the music, physics - everything about those games is so unique but familiar at the same time. Also, my PSP 3008 still works, therefore i had to expirience both games on the original hardware and oh my God they ran gorgeus. Immideately after i picked up a used copy of R7 for about 5 bucks or so - liked it even more then PSP titles. Then i decided to try Unbounded and oh boy, that was a mistake. It's a fine racing game, but it's not Ridge Racer. It's a shame that the series died so quickly, i Wonder what they could do on a PS5 considering their superb optimisiation of previous games
With the first two games, you also have to think about how each car drives. The car you showed in the video was more of a “handling” car that you could use in most turns without drifting. Whereas the cars that were set up for drifting, the yellow and blue Solvalous, recovered much better when drifting. The yellow solvalou is a MONSTER in the first game when you know how to use it.
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I find it impossible to drive the original Ridge Racer in outside view, you can't correct cos you can't see where the car is pointing, but in internal view it's far easier, and there's less of that "nose into the wall" stuff 😂
Lol I agree. I've never liked the outside view in RR or Revolution, that stretches all the way back to their launch. I understand why OP can't handle the juice if this is the way he plays :D
The two first games were imho the best in the series, when taken the era into consideration. Remember, it was originally a coin-op game with superb performance, analog steering, manual shifting and even clutching, the psx is just a conversion, and as such does a good job, competing with games like Virtua Racing and Sega Rally. Try playing them in first person like they were intended, the external cam sucks.
I miss old Namco i miss the greatness they produced for the ps1 Tekken 2 and 3 and other great titles i liked way more then Capcom cause they gave me so many good memories not to mention that most of theyr games had killer soundtracks my god! ridge racer 4 was so good, loved those menus the songs were great, cars were gourgeus and the fact they were not based on anything real made it more fun. Rubber banding on these games was a pain tho but still always fun. My copy of RR 4 got stolen from me still have the box tho god i miss that game
Calls Nitro Boosting a mechanic that hasn't been introduced to the series in over 7 games. Ridge Racer 6, Ridge Racers, Ridge Racers 2: "Are we a joke to you?"
RR5 I remember being so good at this game. I had beaten it on all three difficulties. Suck at it now. Tried normal after all these years...yeah barely made it into 4th. 😑
The soundtrack from the from the first 3 games have that Initial D feel to it which I like. But with Mathemabeat in Rage Racer it has that Silver bullet rapper beat infused with Initial D techno. Mathemabeat is a really good one to listen.
I also loved Rage Racer, it took itself more seriously and it seemed so deep and varied when I played it all those years ago. Definitely a fond place in my heart. Currently enjoying Ridge Racer 2 PSP on my PS5
I love the first ridge Racer. Maybe because it was the first playstation game I got. If you master the handling it is a fun game, and it's a real challenge to beat the devil car. After seeing your dismal attempts at cornering I can see why you hate it.
Yeah, I think I was just spoiled by experiencing rage racer first and expecting an earlier less responsive game in the series to play as well as a later one was probably unfair on rr and revolution. oh well, live and learn.
Actually Ridge Racer 3DS was the last true Ridge Racer. Definitely recommend that one. Plenty of tracks to race on with a couple new ones, a TON of cars and purchasable upgrades you get by earning credits, gameplay gets increasingly challenging as you progress through the Grand Prix branch, and there’s a great soundtrack that includes some of the best hits from previous titles. There’s also in-game player icons that represent Namco arcade throwbacks like Dig Dug, Galaga, Mappy, Idolmaster, and my personal favorite Ace Combat. One of my favorite games on the 3DS hands down.
@@Vakantscull i've played every ridge racer game from the first one on playstation to ridge racer 7, and still to this day, ridge racer 64 is my favorite of all of them. was sad it was missing from this video! great job otherwise, though. (:
@@adesignersperspective Weird drifting aside it's better than the original Ridge Racer and Revolution IMO. Maybe not Rage Racer but I haven't played that one yet. It wasn't developed by Namco, but a team at Nintendo.
Ridge racer 1 was actually really good. It was hard but once you got the cornering timing it was great. Later there was a black car that parked up ahead and as you go past it races you, need a perfect run to stop it overtaking. This game was also a excellent copy of the amazing arcade game, those arcade graphics blew me away.
Yeah it was called the black devil car and if you beat it three times you unlocked it!! Doing a perfect run was nigh on impossible but you could block it racing in the first person view every time you’ve seen it coming up and ultimately win the race to unlock the car and it was the fastest and most best handling car in the game!!
To me, I feel like a lot of people have a hard time playing the first few Ridge Racer games because they play in the 3rd person view. I always found that Ridge Racer was meant to be played in 1st person, regardless of what game it was. I don't know, it just always felt easier to execute drifts in 1st person, ESPECIALLY in the earlier games.
@@theceoofbasedandlitswagger2456 I agree about first person for Ridge Racer games & another thing about the drifting was the cars grip stats. Cars with higher grip weren't meant for drifting so would be more prone to snapping out of the drift. Cars like the Solvalou's & Xevious's were much easier to drift & could actually gain speed while drifting with the right technique.
The "Physics" in Ridge Racer were abstract to say the least... Now in blunt terms Ridge Racer was *actually* much closer to Mario Kart than it was to Daytona USA or Sega Rally. And I'm not even joking here. What I mean is while the Manual Suggests using the Brake to Start a Drift... you actually should NEVER touch the Brake the entire time you're playing. Instead turn in, double-tap accelerator and that's it... just like Mario Kart. Now as a note; if after you release the accelerator you then double tap the opposite direction; you'll do a 360 while *still* Drifting around the Corner normally. Once you're done with the Drift, just release the accelerator for a moment and the car will straighten up. I mean it takes some practise but once you get the technique down; you can reverse drift the entire course. And keep in mind that it was a launch title... it's ALL digital input, no support for the analog sticks., so the amount you steer initially determines the angle of the drift. As such the entire game is similar to say DDR., where you're more-or-less just memorising the ideal button combination around the track.
I've played Ridge Racer since the first game. It just takes practice to be good at the first couple of games. But I do appreciate someone else appreciating the series which I love dearly. The music until the 5th game was epic.
If you shoot and kill all the little aliens in the galaxian mini game while RidgeRacer is loading your will unlock 19 new cars I think!? You also unlock the black devil car if you can beat it in all three races!!
The Galaga RT Carrot was my favorite car in the original ridge racer. It had the best handling if i remember besides the black car. Never really drifted, i replayed the tracks so many times that i could go around the courses just using simple braking at full speed. Battling the black car was always fun, you had to block it several times to not let it pass you. Good times.
Well man it's just a compilation of classic tracks on a 2004 portable running at 60fps, if you ever play Ridge Racer on the PSP play Ridge Racer 2. It's an expansion of sorts to the first launch title RR1 back in the day, it's cool 😎.
Thanks for making this video and covering one of my favourite series. To be fair to Ridge Racer 1 and Revolution, while I agree that the controls are absolute arse in the first two games if you use the 'chase camera' (outside car/3rd person) the games transform if you switch to the 'bumper' (first person) view. I discovered this on day one back in 1995 and immediately switched to the bumper cam and never looked back. Back then, 3D racing games were new and experimental, and I believed (and still do) that RR was designed to played be from a first person perspective (didn't the arcade original only feature the bumper cam?) so unsurprisingly, the chase cam was a failed experiment - a bit like if we could have played an early first person shooter in third person, but with a tacked-on 3D player avatar and called it 'Doom Raider'. Chase-cam RR just feels distant/disconnected - like if you were to control an actual car with RC joysticks whilst running behind it. That's how I've always thought of it. Also, with 3D being relatively new on console at the time, immersion was my preference, and in the case of RR, objectively the best choice. With respect, I've noticed that a lot of players who didn't start with RR 1 seem judge these games from the prism of using their probably-preferred choice of chase cam, then unfairly (but understandably) compare it to the much tighter chase cam controls we're used to in more modern arcade-style racing games such as OutRun 2, Burnout etc. The entire RR and RRR experience then seems deemed to handle like diarrhoea. Honestly, if you switch to the in-car view it becomes a completely different game.
Remember playing Rage Racer (Third one) with friends and we where having a good time. Game had great groove, that would get messed up by only manual cars later on but we would change on shifting duties so groove was back on.
The music from Type-4 forgetable? Haha you're definitely in the minority on that one. I still listen to it and actually chat with one of the composers every now and then! Also, 18:26 km/h is kilometers per hour, not miles per hour. Some people hated Rage Racer because of the name...turns out a lot of people that I've heard say that only started playing Ridge Racer around the time 6 and 7 came out. I 100% agree with you on 7. Looked and played great! The music was really just okay. That's when I stopped really loving RR songs. RR6 had the last "awesome" soundtrack for me.
I don't even enjoy racing games but I love your channel so much. Do you have a new channel that I don't know about? I still can't find your DooM 3 review. Did you end up reviewing it?
I haven't reviewed it yet :( currently working on a whole heap of videos to build up a nice backlog, including a full main series Doom retrospective/ranking ;) will take a while to get them all done but I'm really excited to get them out there, sorry it's taking so long though!
RR7 has a big flaw with it's gameplay ... and it's a MASSIVE one. The powerslide = turbo boost mechanic can be brutally exploited by "fish-tailing" your car back and forth, down straights and thru corners, to fill the boost gauge. Once full, execute the turbo boost and then start fish-tailing again, over and over. This is the fastest way around the track. The seemingly more-logical "drive-straight on the straightaways" and "slide-for-boost around corners" technique will never compete with this bizarre "fish-tail everywhere" style of racing. I never would have known until I went online one day and tried to race against other human players who were simply blowing my doors off with this technique. The game devs NEVER should have allowed boost to be EARNED in this manner. They broke the "normal" racing experience we all had been accustomed to from previous RR titles. THE SOLUTION: all players get a full boost meter at the beginning of each lap that they must ration -- or NO BOOST at all -- just make all the cars go a little faster all the time. RR6 and the PSP titles have this same fish-tail for turbos issue.
I've been a big Ridge Racer fan for years, because I like the cars and drifting, to me Ridge Racer is the king of racing drifting games because it was famous for that, I had type 4 on demo that I used to be playing before I actually own it, and boy when I got type 4 I couldn't stop playing until I lend it out and never got it back, then I got 5 which I still have today, and I play it a lot, but 4 was still my favorite, I only saw 6,7, unbound, in magazines and on social media, I never got to play them because I didn't own them and I was lost in time, not having a PS 3,4 neither 5, or Xbox that had 6, but one day I'm hoping to still put my hands on them because I'll always be a fan of Ridge Racer,....The thing that bothers me is why did Namco give up on one of the greatest racing games of all time? Ridge Racer is an all time favorite, I want them to port 4, 6, 7 and unbound to android so I'll be able to play them, because I'm playing lots of mobile games now seeing I mostly have my phone, and mobile games are taking over, so I would like to see Ridge Racer come over like some of the need for speed are doing, this way they will reach a wider audience.
The Handheld Ridge Racer games are mostly pretty good, the DS entry is a port of R64 - Ridge Racer 64 and it's really good on both platforms, in the PSP their great even though you can really just play Ridge Racers 2 and call it a day. The 3DS and Vita entries are weird, the 3DS game is good and the vita one lacks content, both run at 30fps. The music is excellent but that's pretty much a given with this franchise.
This is one of those series that I've heard about to no end but never actually played, I really need to go back and play some of these. would have loved to play the arcade ports
In my opinion, ridge racer 1 drift is actually not that bad… hear me out please: In my way, when I’m about to hit a corner, switch from X button to the d pad buttons and square button and immediately switch the square to X button. When the car is drifting I immediately turn to the opposite direction while drifting when it looks like the car is going way to the right or left and try to straighten and position my car to exit the drift. Same goes for rage racer since they’re both played similar. Hope this helps
Yeahhhhhhhh, it's not something I'm saying maliciously, I just literally can't remember any music from it even trying to recall it now apart from maybe the between race dialogue/cutscene music
Playing RR with the third person camera feels so wrong to me. The feeling of flying through the stages totally disappears, and I suspect most of the criticisms here stem from playing it that way - I literally can't drift in 3rd person.
So my first true introduction to Ridge races through Ridge Racer 7. Which is the completed expanded version of Ridge Racer 6. With a totally different soundtrack. My first introduction in the world of Ridge Racers through emulation was Ridge Racer DS. It's basically Ridge Racer 64 on the go. Make me wish I would have owned a copies because it is basically the best of both worlds of rr1 And 2 along with some bits and Bobs from Rave racer. And some original tracks here and there. After that it goes off Hill with my final Ridge Racer game I bought being Unbound. Resulting the demise of Ridge Racer coming in 2 years later with Ridge Racer Vita. That glorify Vita exclusive Tech demo kill the franchise. Do not give me started what happened in 2005.
this was an awesome video. it pretty much mirrors my feelings exactly. I also liked ridge racer 3D back when it came out, it was a good launch title to showcase the power of the 3DS. plays similar to RR7 with the use of nitros and slip streaming.
I feel like I'm the only one who actually likes Unbounded, lol. I'm a sucker for "black sheep" games like Wipeout Fusion or even Rage Racer itself. can't believe my journey with this series started with the horrid PS Vita entry (which has great music but little else worthwhile). as someone who had never touched racing games before during my childhood years, I've now become obsessed with them thanks to both Wipeout and Ridge Racer.
Hell Yeah, " Ridge Racer " , was the Emperor of Drifting racing games 🎮 !.. i use to be a Legend on the " RR 1 ", " RR Type 4 ", " RR Five " and " RR 7 ".. Type 4 soundtrack is absolutely legendary ...
I only every played ridge racer 64 a few times. I ended up on test drive 5 for ps1 and f zero x because we actually owned those. I actually remember a series called Crusin USA and Crusin world that I used to play in arcades all the time. Oh god.. Giuliano that's a heavy story for a racer. I know I'm an emotional masochist but I want to at least be prepared for an emotional gut punch when I'm choosing the game. Oh shit that boost mechanic reminds me of F zero x. This was an awesomely fun video man. I always look forward to review week!
Thanks Ryan, I was a bit nervous about this one because of how quickly it all came together and how much less jokey it was, but I'm glad you liked it :)
nah man you got to the point and i dont feel there was many joke oppurtunities for this kind of game. you did really good making your points on the old games without being overly critical as they are products of the time. and you sold me on the newer ones being a drastic improvement. great video dude!
The alliteration was excellent work. I've never played a single RIIIDDDGEEE RACERRRR but on the topic of racing games I played one on sega mega drive that I couldn't remember the name of and it looked a bit like micro machines judging by micro machines footage I'd seen ....it was Micro Machines, there was a very valid reason for the similarities.
What I want to see, is that Namco continues to make the Ridge Racer series and port them to Android as well, if not, they should sell it to another company who will continue the legacy, because the king of drifting racing games, doesn't deserve to be done away like that it is too big and too famous, just as we talked about racing games with drifting Ridge Racer is the first one that comes to people's minds, so we want it back, you hear that Namco, is either you stand up for your masterpiece racer, or sell it to another who will continue the legacy, And Ridge Racer games for Android would be perfect and reach more audiences world wide, because back then people did have to own a playstation 1,2,3,4, 5, PSP and Xbox to play, but almost everybody have smartphones and a lot of people know about Ridge Racer, Gran Turismo, Need for Speed, Burnout and Midnight club just to mention a few, we grew up playing those games so they can't and shouldn't die, their are the biggest names in racing games, so they should always be in people's hands.
I understand that this is a matter of taste but I absolutely disagree with you on on Ridge racer type fours music being 'forgettable'. It has some of my favorite soundtracks in any racing game. Ridge racer Type 4 was my introduction to the series in one of the first racing games I played as a kid. It might be nostalgia for me but I mean I listen to the soundtracks on a weekly basis. No hard feelings, just wanted to share.
The reason you said R4 feels slow is because the speedometer is reading in KPH instead of MPH. Also nitrous was not introduced in Ridge Racer 7, but in Ridge Racer 6. Great video though. Ridge Racer 6 is my first main game in the series. It runs great on my Xbox Series X!
I fess to the speedo error, but I still think that it actually feels slower compared to any other game in the series, but I'm glad you enjoyed the video :)
I always play Ridge Racer from the in car view as it’s much easier to pull off the drifts and I disagree on Ridge Racer not being a good game because it’s my favourite of the series even over Revolution, I loved Rage Racer.
idk if its just me, but i found RR 1 easier to control than revolution or Rage Racer. might have to go back to it though since I was trying to grip race when I might should've embraced drifting for those. Revolution in particular I think actually WORSENED the whole "straighten out of a drift, snap into wall, and die" thing, at least for grip oriented cars.
Just wanted to let you know that in Ridge Racer type 4 when you said about the speed and said it was going 175 “miles per hour” but it’s actually in kilometers per hour Just wanted a heads up nice opinion on the series by the way😁👍
Not to mention you have to play Ridge Racer 5 on hard to actually finish the game including the 100 lap race, it was a unforgiving, frustrating game...
Brilliant episode I love Ridge Racer ....also you need to get the psp ridge Racer 2 game ....it's such a joy to play compare to the rest ....trust me on this 👍
Rage Racer is by far the best and only one of the RR games that has interesting maps and good gameplay. It was the king of PS racing before the arrival of GT.
I haven't played any ridge racer game after psp entries so it was interesting to hear about these late titles. I might even pick up the 7th entry when I found it. Personally my favorite is by far the 4th episode. Ridge Racer 2 on the PSP is another favorite of mine.
I have to disagree with Ridge Racer Type 4's OST being serviceable and forgettable, for me it enhanced the experience to a level racing games have never been able to top. Of course music is massively subjective and Rage Racer did also have a killer soundtrack too.
Dumb question but is ridge racer 7 playable on ps4 or a ps5? I'm wanting to play it badly i only played a demo back when i had a ps3 and life kinda got in the way
Yeah, you don't know how to play original RR. You're supposed to break at the exact moment you hit the corners. It's...literally a learning curve. Don't automatically blame it on the game, it may be that you're too impatient. RR and RRR are lots of fun.
To do a drift and ridge racer all you have to do is let off the gas for a split second and then get back on it!! Being as it was the first game released on new hardware back in 1995 in the United States, I admit pulling the car out of the drift sucks every time but once you perfect it it’s not so bad but you always lose that little bit of RPM that slows you down upon exiting the drift….
(Dude left out Ridge Racer 6 and Ridge Racer 64. However, RR6 and RR64 are similar enough to RR7 and the original RR arcade game, respectively, that he probably would've loved RR6 and despised RR64.) With this guy's perspective on Ridge Racer 1, normally, I'd be thinking, "Well, why don't you just get better at the game?". But, the problem is that a lot of 3D games from the 1990s age very badly, so I can see where the reviewer is coming from. They have a lot of janky controls, graphical errors, poor level design and boss design decisions, etc. It's not due to incompetence. It's because, in the 1990s, 3D gaming was very new and unknown. 3D games from the late 2000s/2010s age so much better than the ones from the 1990s because they had time to learn from their mistakes with prior entries and improve gameplay concepts, physics, camera, and level design. When you play a 3D game from the 1990s, you can tell that they were still experimenting and learning as they went along in this new realm of gaming. For example, -Irritating camera errors and janky controls in Mario 64 and Sonic Adventure 1 (nonexistent in Sonic Colors and Mario Galaxy, both of which were released in the late 2000s/2010s.) -First-person shooters like Goldeneye 007, Unreal Tournament 1998, and Duke Nukem 3D being virtually unplayable nowadays because games like Half-Life 2 and Killzone 2 exist. Hell, even Ridge Racer 1994 itself isn't worth going back to because Ridge Racer Type 4, 5, 6, & 7 all exist. Type 4 ages unusually well for a game from 1998, I'll admit. Otherwise, there're too many examples to list.
thanks for uploading this video, but I feel RR4 has been let down here a little since it's a seriously good game. play it on my phone with a ps5 controller sometimes. at the moment I found my pa3 again and boy rr7 is on. can't get enough! I hope namco will sometime produce an RR8. anyway, subscribed and liked and thanks again for the video!
I think my favorite games in the series could either be R4 or 5 since those probably have the best feeling drifts to me although i'm leaning a little more towards 5 lately since it feels more fully featured, only really losing out on the aesthetic and music that R4 presented. The earlier Ridge Racers are a bit hard for me to like since the drifting in them (and the "Nitrous" games to an extent) feels more like a true false variable that you turn on once you've hit a corner with not much else mattering in the long run. What I mean is that in the first game up until Rage Racer (and RR64 which I think came after R4) when you drift, you noticeably get attached to whatever invisible curve they set for the vehicles that just sort of guides you into a turn and then when you come out of a turn you rocket forward or your car awkwardly resets its momentum when you come out of it as if drifting and your cars actual rotation and acceleration are separate. The thing I really like about R4 in specific is that it either completely gets rid of this or they did such a good job dressing it up that I didn't notice since there are some turns like the right angle one in Out of Blue that you literally won't be able to make unless you start your drift early or risk slamming into the wall sideways. This isn't to say I can't have fun with the older games, i've been playing the DS for the past week and despite it having a lot of the same issues i've been enjoying my time with it since it has a nice sense of speed and it is very challenging.
Enjoyed your video as I particularly like opinions on the games that I loved the most. It was great having someone talk about the Ridge Racer series. We do have a few disagreements though. My favorite game sort of wanders between Ridge Racer V and Rage Racer. Sure Type 4 was great in it's time, but the "content" was just stretched out races where I stopped before the finish line to get 3rd to get the other 200 cars that were left. No thanks. The highest classes sure were fun, but didn't have much content as you basically used the fastest cars in one last race if you won the full championship. There was nearly no content for the funnest part of the game. And yeah, the slow feeling did vanish with the last few cars, although it never reached levels that Rage Racer offered. Ridge Racer Type 4 excelled at presentation and story and all those things, but as a game it wasn't as good. Still awesome, but it's not the best Ridge Racer has to offer imo. Ridge Racer & Revolution is your own fault. Those games are truely of a different era. They gave you three tracks to complete the challange and get the Angels and Devils cars but at the time, just playing more races was the content. And mastering the racing was a challenge, but it's not as bad as you make it out to be. I suppose after 3h or so you should havve gotten the hang of it. Rage Racer was absolutely brilliant and offers depth of gameplay that Ridge Racer Type 4 axed later on. The Drift vs Grip, the varying torque (and consecutive ability to accelerate or get slowed down by hills), the sense of speed and progressive steering angle (along with the tricky transitions on banked corners) the many ways to end a drift and lastly: shifting. Shifting was a major point in development. That's why the last best cars are manual only (sure, there is the mental Class 6 too, but it doesn't seem like you ever got there) - because it's a mechanic to control drifts and catch errors as well as using the engine brake. It's an important part of the games mechanical depth. I still play that game on emulation and it stuns me everytime I come back to it from a much more polished modern game. You can feel it's age with it's unforgiving penalties, sometimes wonky collisions and very direct input. At the same time it makes this game feel raw and it unapologetically lets you feel when you make a mistake. Soundtrack was an absolute banger, with many tracks not really fitting into genres that I recognised. Ridge Racer V was different. I think we share the sentiment here. It was absolutely brilliant, but at that time, tracks & racing alone wasn't enough to make a game. It was a brilliant effort to reimagine what Ridge Racer was in the modern era, but it flopped. I absolutely love it for it's smooth high speed thrills and focused effort on bringin the best racing experience. I think it was a statement that understood that simulations like Gran Turismo weren't the opponents they were up against. At the same time it was a swan song the the arcade racer of the nineties. Never played Ridge Racer 7, but I got my hands on the PSP titles, Accelerated and Slipstream which feature similar drift mechanics and feel. While the speed thrills are still there, specially the mechanical depth of the game tanked as the focus shifted to nitrous. Nitro basically made other mechanics redundant. So ...I'm glad you liked it, due to your recommendation I will try to see if I can get Ridge Racer 7 and see if it is massively better than the PSP games. Don't get me wrong, they are sweet and fast and fun. But compared to Rage Racer or Ridge Racer V they are nowhere. Every time I spin up one of the PSP Ridge Racers I sort of feel like dancing on the grave of something that I loved. Sorry for the rant, I enjoyed your video and your oppinion (not last because it differs from mine on major points and I can appreciate your sentiments). But seriously: Give manual transmission in Rage Racer a try. If you get it, shifting will open up drifting in a way that AT will never do - going back to AT will feel like wearing a straight jacket if you made MT your second nature.
I also refuse to accept RR Unbounded’s place in this series. It’s from the dark era when Japan gave their franchises to western developers only to destroy them. On tip I have for succeeding in RR and RRR is to not drift at all. It’s broken. What I do is to just constantly hold the gas button through the whole race. During tight corners keep the gas held and just break as needed. That’s how I won the entire games and unlock the secret cars.
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If you say R4 has an “OK” Sound track i am in shock. It has some of my favourite songs period! But, if you say rage racer OST is really good, ill have to check it out
I think I might have liked other ridge racer soundtracks more if it wasnt for the the fact I heard rage racer's first, cos for me that set the standard for others to match :)
It surely is a matter of taste, especially with the styles being so different. But yeah, R4 has one of the best soundtracks in a game ever.
Nice avatar rx
If you like soul and jazz… r4 soundtrack is unmatched
@@Vakantscull if you're looking for more rock/industrial/breakbeat sounding tracks in R4, check out Lucid Rhythms, Revlimit Funk, The Objective, Move Me and The Ride.
In all fairness, Ridge Racer is meant to be played in first person, the third person view wasn't avaolable at all in the arcade version. (It was added in Ridge Racer 2 though)
BTW you know there's a Ridge Racer 8 on PS3? Though it's really RR7 with extra stuff.
The reason why no other company did those loading games like galaga etc is because Namco patented it....
Much like Sega did with view change in racing games after virtua racing - only how everyone else got around the view change patent was by 'snapping' instantly as opposed to animating outwards or inwards to the view clicked.
Oh wow! I didn't actually know that! Pinned :)
@@Vakantscull many thanks.... I could tell you loads of useless factoids like that and probably will do in future as you upload... Good channel to follow is guru-larry. I heard of him way back in the 90s after being on the show gamesmaster....
The Nitrous mechanic was introduced in the PSP entries, and Ridge Racer 6 on the Xbox 360. It became a mainstay in future entries.
R4's OST is easily one of the best in all of racing game history, and even stands out as music production on its own. If you ever have the desire to do so, I recommend looking up the Ridge Racer Type 4 Direct Audio soundtrack playlist. As it was in the game and played through TV speakers it was just pretty good, but the direct audio version of the OST is incredible on headphones or in a decent car stereo. My favorite night driving music the last few years.
I may look this up, I've said to others that the music is fitting while I was playing, but as a rock and industrial fan it just didn't resonate with me as much as the rage racer and rr5 ost, but I may give it a check out on its own outside of the game :)
@@Vakantscull I can agree that Rage Racer's OST fit its game better than R4's did, for sure.
Love the video. Type 4’s ost is a masterpiece. Sorry just had to say that. Gameplay wise I feel the best games in the series is between 5 and 7. 5 feels like a perfect evolution from 1 all the way through 4. Each car feels distinctly different and unique to drive. And it’s only complimented by the wonderful track design that plays to all of the cars strengths and weaknesses. On the other hand 7 throws all of that out for its own unique gameplay that still feels like ridge racer. While I feel like the drifting in 7 is oversimplified and almost of the cars drive the same, it’s makes up for it with its nitrous mechanic. Nitrous is the backbone of 6 and 7’s gameplay. All of the unique ways you can use, charge, and earn nitrous creates a ton of unique strategies that you can experiment with throughout the career playthrough. Nothing beats the high you get from chaining ultimate charges and building 3 gauges of boost from one gauge. All while having the angel or devil car 1 inch away from your ass. It’s literally playable crack. I’m glad someone made a Ridge Racer retrospective. Not enough people are aware of the franchise’s existence and even less people discuss the games. That’s makes me appreciate your video even more. Thanks.
Yeah I think I ruffled a few feathers with that R4 music comment :S I never said it was bad, when you're in the game it fits perfectly, but I honestly can't recall a single track from memory.
But thank you, you're right about there not being too many retrospectives out there which I why I made this full series video, because no one else had :)
Nice vid. Totally subjective though but I think Type 4's OST isn't forgettable at all and every song is literally a banger 😳
Completely understandable :) It's just personal preference, for me I wanted a continuation of the industrial stuff from Rage Racer. I wouldn't say the music's actually bad in any of the games, there was just something a bit more meaty about the OST for Rage and 5 that made them more memorable for me :)
Type 4 has the best soundtrack to a racing game I've ever heard. Love V's too
Ive since played rage racer and i understand why you like it more. If i played rage racer first and then heard r4's soundtrack I'd be a little disappointed too, r4 is so much of a different sounding game it's almost insane. Both have goated soundtracks (also samurai rocket ridge racer v)
R4 had the BEST soundtrck. cant agree with it being forgettable at all. I still listen to it from time to time
Type 4 has the aesthetic nailed down. Whatever flaw that game had was overshadowed by the overall vibe. The soundtrack is god-tier.
Great video, although we're in disagreement about R4's soundtrack, but that's all good! :)
I started out with Ridge Racer on the PSP, I instantly fell in love with that game, everything for me was just perfect. The music, the tracks, the graphics, the gameplay is easily my favourite in the series, right next to 6 and 7 as close contenders. I just loved how it's a massive homage to the series with a load of returning tracks and songs with some fresh gameplay and tracks to boot, it has so much content for a launch title, still impressive.
Oh, fun fact; the PSP games were the first in the series to introduce the new drifting and nitrous mechanics!
RR4 with negcon, CRT and some Yamaha 70 Speakers one of the best experience you can get in gaming today.
My first introduction to the series was with two PSP games two years ago. Arcade racing is my second favourite videogame genre, and after million of hours spent in Need For Speed, Midnight Club, Burnout, FlatOut and Motorstorn Ridge Racer was like a breath of fresh air. The aesthetic, the music, physics - everything about those games is so unique but familiar at the same time. Also, my PSP 3008 still works, therefore i had to expirience both games on the original hardware and oh my God they ran gorgeus.
Immideately after i picked up a used copy of R7 for about 5 bucks or so - liked it even more then PSP titles. Then i decided to try Unbounded and oh boy, that was a mistake. It's a fine racing game, but it's not Ridge Racer. It's a shame that the series died so quickly, i Wonder what they could do on a PS5 considering their superb optimisiation of previous games
That first game just took some time to master my sister's and I literally perfected racing around the tracks in that game. Great times. Great times.
You should play Ridge Racer 6 on 360.
With the first two games, you also have to think about how each car drives. The car you showed in the video was more of a “handling” car that you could use in most turns without drifting. Whereas the cars that were set up for drifting, the yellow and blue Solvalous, recovered much better when drifting. The yellow solvalou is a MONSTER in the first game when you know how to use it.
I find it impossible to drive the original Ridge Racer in outside view, you can't correct cos you can't see where the car is pointing, but in internal view it's far easier, and there's less of that "nose into the wall" stuff 😂
I play the same way, it's great.
Lol I agree. I've never liked the outside view in RR or Revolution, that stretches all the way back to their launch. I understand why OP can't handle the juice if this is the way he plays :D
The two first games were imho the best in the series, when taken the era into consideration. Remember, it was originally a coin-op game with superb performance, analog steering, manual shifting and even clutching, the psx is just a conversion, and as such does a good job, competing with games like Virtua Racing and Sega Rally. Try playing them in first person like they were intended, the external cam sucks.
Ridge racer 7 & 4 are great i got into the series late but man i wish they'd make a Ridge racer 8.
if it was a real ridge racer 8 I'd be totally down for that, but not that poor excuse for a sequel Ridge Racer Unbounded
@@Vakantscull The sad thing is that there was gonna be a RR8 but got cancelled :c
Forgettable music in R4? Did you play on mute or what?
No, just genuinely can't remember any of the music from it, it's good while it's playing but I couldnt recall any of it afterwards
I miss old Namco i miss the greatness they produced for the ps1 Tekken 2 and 3 and other great titles i liked way more then Capcom cause they gave me so many good memories not to mention that most of theyr games had killer soundtracks my god! ridge racer 4 was so good, loved those menus the songs were great, cars were gourgeus and the fact they were not based on anything real made it more fun. Rubber banding on these games was a pain tho but still always fun. My copy of RR 4 got stolen from me still have the box tho god i miss that game
Calls Nitro Boosting a mechanic that hasn't been introduced to the series in over 7 games.
Ridge Racer 6, Ridge Racers, Ridge Racers 2: "Are we a joke to you?"
I have been made aware of this previously, my bad, I'd never played any of them, only the ones I talk about in the video 😅
RR5 I remember being so good at this game. I had beaten it on all three difficulties. Suck at it now. Tried normal after all these years...yeah barely made it into 4th. 😑
The soundtrack from the from the first 3 games have that Initial D feel to it which I like. But with Mathemabeat in Rage Racer it has that Silver bullet rapper beat infused with Initial D techno. Mathemabeat is a really good one to listen.
I also loved Rage Racer, it took itself more seriously and it seemed so deep and varied when I played it all those years ago. Definitely a fond place in my heart. Currently enjoying Ridge Racer 2 PSP on my PS5
I love the first ridge Racer. Maybe because it was the first playstation game I got. If you master the handling it is a fun game, and it's a real challenge to beat the devil car. After seeing your dismal attempts at cornering I can see why you hate it.
Yeah, I think I was just spoiled by experiencing rage racer first and expecting an earlier less responsive game in the series to play as well as a later one was probably unfair on rr and revolution. oh well, live and learn.
Nice one. And I agree rr7 is perfect :)
Nice retrospective. I've only played Ridge Racer 64, being mostly a Nintendo person, but I liked how you talked about the other RR games.
I still wouldnt mind trying rr64, as long as it handles better than the first 2 games haha
Actually Ridge Racer 3DS was the last true Ridge Racer. Definitely recommend that one. Plenty of tracks to race on with a couple new ones, a TON of cars and purchasable upgrades you get by earning credits, gameplay gets increasingly challenging as you progress through the Grand Prix branch, and there’s a great soundtrack that includes some of the best hits from previous titles. There’s also in-game player icons that represent Namco arcade throwbacks like Dig Dug, Galaga, Mappy, Idolmaster, and my personal favorite Ace Combat. One of my favorite games on the 3DS hands down.
@@Vakantscull i've played every ridge racer game from the first one on playstation to ridge racer 7, and still to this day, ridge racer 64 is my favorite of all of them. was sad it was missing from this video! great job otherwise, though. (:
@@adesignersperspective Weird drifting aside it's better than the original Ridge Racer and Revolution IMO. Maybe not Rage Racer but I haven't played that one yet. It wasn't developed by Namco, but a team at Nintendo.
Ridge racer 1 was actually really good. It was hard but once you got the cornering timing it was great. Later there was a black car that parked up ahead and as you go past it races you, need a perfect run to stop it overtaking. This game was also a excellent copy of the amazing arcade game, those arcade graphics blew me away.
Yeah it was called the black devil car and if you beat it three times you unlocked it!!
Doing a perfect run was nigh on impossible but you could block it racing in the first person view every time you’ve seen it coming up and ultimately win the race to unlock the car and it was the fastest and most best handling car in the game!!
To me, I feel like a lot of people have a hard time playing the first few Ridge Racer games because they play in the 3rd person view. I always found that Ridge Racer was meant to be played in 1st person, regardless of what game it was. I don't know, it just always felt easier to execute drifts in 1st person, ESPECIALLY in the earlier games.
@@theceoofbasedandlitswagger2456 I agree about first person for Ridge Racer games & another thing about the drifting was the cars grip stats. Cars with higher grip weren't meant for drifting so would be more prone to snapping out of the drift. Cars like the Solvalou's & Xevious's were much easier to drift & could actually gain speed while drifting with the right technique.
The "Physics" in Ridge Racer were abstract to say the least...
Now in blunt terms Ridge Racer was *actually* much closer to Mario Kart than it was to Daytona USA or Sega Rally.
And I'm not even joking here.
What I mean is while the Manual Suggests using the Brake to Start a Drift... you actually should NEVER touch the Brake the entire time you're playing.
Instead turn in, double-tap accelerator and that's it... just like Mario Kart.
Now as a note; if after you release the accelerator you then double tap the opposite direction; you'll do a 360 while *still* Drifting around the Corner normally.
Once you're done with the Drift, just release the accelerator for a moment and the car will straighten up.
I mean it takes some practise but once you get the technique down; you can reverse drift the entire course.
And keep in mind that it was a launch title... it's ALL digital input, no support for the analog sticks., so the amount you steer initially determines the angle of the drift.
As such the entire game is similar to say DDR., where you're more-or-less just memorising the ideal button combination around the track.
I've played Ridge Racer since the first game. It just takes practice to be good at the first couple of games. But I do appreciate someone else appreciating the series which I love dearly. The music until the 5th game was epic.
Still waiting on Ridge Racer 8
A man can dream
If you shoot and kill all the little aliens in the galaxian mini game while RidgeRacer is loading your will unlock 19 new cars I think!?
You also unlock the black devil car if you can beat it in all three races!!
The Galaga RT Carrot was my favorite car in the original ridge racer. It had the best handling if i remember besides the black car. Never really drifted, i replayed the tracks so many times that i could go around the courses just using simple braking at full speed. Battling the black car was always fun, you had to block it several times to not let it pass you. Good times.
EDIT: I have been made fully aware that Nitrous was included in the PSP Ridge Racer games, I have never played a PSP...
Well man it's just a compilation of classic tracks on a 2004 portable running at 60fps, if you ever play Ridge Racer on the PSP play Ridge Racer 2. It's an expansion of sorts to the first launch title RR1 back in the day, it's cool 😎.
Thanks for making this video and covering one of my favourite series. To be fair to Ridge Racer 1 and Revolution, while I agree that the controls are absolute arse in the first two games if you use the 'chase camera' (outside car/3rd person) the games transform if you switch to the 'bumper' (first person) view. I discovered this on day one back in 1995 and immediately switched to the bumper cam and never looked back.
Back then, 3D racing games were new and experimental, and I believed (and still do) that RR was designed to played be from a first person perspective (didn't the arcade original only feature the bumper cam?) so unsurprisingly, the chase cam was a failed experiment - a bit like if we could have played an early first person shooter in third person, but with a tacked-on 3D player avatar and called it 'Doom Raider'. Chase-cam RR just feels distant/disconnected - like if you were to control an actual car with RC joysticks whilst running behind it. That's how I've always thought of it. Also, with 3D being relatively new on console at the time, immersion was my preference, and in the case of RR, objectively the best choice.
With respect, I've noticed that a lot of players who didn't start with RR 1 seem judge these games from the prism of using their probably-preferred choice of chase cam, then unfairly (but understandably) compare it to the much tighter chase cam controls we're used to in more modern arcade-style racing games such as OutRun 2, Burnout etc. The entire RR and RRR experience then seems deemed to handle like diarrhoea. Honestly, if you switch to the in-car view it becomes a completely different game.
Remember playing Rage Racer (Third one) with friends and we where having a good time. Game had great groove, that would get messed up by only manual cars later on but we would change on shifting duties so groove was back on.
17:50 You’re right it does sound weird. You say MPH when I see KMh 🤔
Love the original Ridge Racer games. Brilliant voiceover btw, sound professional and clear.
0:26 Omg Alien VS Predator!! That is so cool!!
Wipeout, RR and ghost in the shell are current rotation in the ps1 hooked to a CRT and 1000w home system. Give me that cheesy 90s fast techno all day
The music from Type-4 forgetable? Haha you're definitely in the minority on that one. I still listen to it and actually chat with one of the composers every now and then! Also, 18:26 km/h is kilometers per hour, not miles per hour. Some people hated Rage Racer because of the name...turns out a lot of people that I've heard say that only started playing Ridge Racer around the time 6 and 7 came out. I 100% agree with you on 7. Looked and played great! The music was really just okay. That's when I stopped really loving RR songs. RR6 had the last "awesome" soundtrack for me.
Music is really good in the series but these engine sounds are like some angry coffee grinders
I don't even enjoy racing games but I love your channel so much. Do you have a new channel that I don't know about? I still can't find your DooM 3 review. Did you end up reviewing it?
I haven't reviewed it yet :( currently working on a whole heap of videos to build up a nice backlog, including a full main series Doom retrospective/ranking ;) will take a while to get them all done but I'm really excited to get them out there, sorry it's taking so long though!
RR7 has a big flaw with it's gameplay ... and it's a MASSIVE one. The powerslide = turbo boost mechanic can be brutally exploited by "fish-tailing" your car back and forth, down straights and thru corners, to fill the boost gauge. Once full, execute the turbo boost and then start fish-tailing again, over and over. This is the fastest way around the track. The seemingly more-logical "drive-straight on the straightaways" and "slide-for-boost around corners" technique will never compete with this bizarre "fish-tail everywhere" style of racing. I never would have known until I went online one day and tried to race against other human players who were simply blowing my doors off with this technique. The game devs NEVER should have allowed boost to be EARNED in this manner. They broke the "normal" racing experience we all had been accustomed to from previous RR titles. THE SOLUTION: all players get a full boost meter at the beginning of each lap that they must ration -- or NO BOOST at all -- just make all the cars go a little faster all the time. RR6 and the PSP titles have this same fish-tail for turbos issue.
I rarely play online or multiplayer for anything so this was something I was blissfully unaware of, sounds pretty damn interesting though!
Well, you’ll get used to it.
I just played Type 4 recently and can agree the speed feel slow but then it becomes fastsd especially the 3rd race onwards
I've been a big Ridge Racer fan for years, because I like the cars and drifting, to me Ridge Racer is the king of racing drifting games because it was famous for that, I had type 4 on demo that I used to be playing before I actually own it, and boy when I got type 4 I couldn't stop playing until I lend it out and never got it back, then I got 5 which I still have today, and I play it a lot, but 4 was still my favorite, I only saw 6,7, unbound, in magazines and on social media, I never got to play them because I didn't own them and I was lost in time, not having a PS 3,4 neither 5, or Xbox that had 6, but one day I'm hoping to still put my hands on them because I'll always be a fan of Ridge Racer,....The thing that bothers me is why did Namco give up on one of the greatest racing games of all time? Ridge Racer is an all time favorite, I want them to port 4, 6, 7 and unbound to android so I'll be able to play them, because I'm playing lots of mobile games now seeing I mostly have my phone, and mobile games are taking over, so I would like to see Ridge Racer come over like some of the need for speed are doing, this way they will reach a wider audience.
The Handheld Ridge Racer games are mostly pretty good, the DS entry is a port of R64 - Ridge Racer 64 and it's really good on both platforms, in the PSP their great even though you can really just play Ridge Racers 2 and call it a day. The 3DS and Vita entries are weird, the 3DS game is good and the vita one lacks content, both run at 30fps. The music is excellent but that's pretty much a given with this franchise.
a man can achieve great things but there is no achievement greater than unlocking that bleeding pacman car
This is one of those series that I've heard about to no end but never actually played, I really need to go back and play some of these. would have loved to play the arcade ports
In my opinion, ridge racer 1 drift is actually not that bad… hear me out please:
In my way, when I’m about to hit a corner, switch from X button to the d pad buttons and square button and immediately switch the square to X button. When the car is drifting I immediately turn to the opposite direction while drifting when it looks like the car is going way to the right or left and try to straighten and position my car to exit the drift.
Same goes for rage racer since they’re both played similar. Hope this helps
d.....d......did you just call Type 4's soundtrack serviceable and forgettable?
at the end of the day, totally subjective but that shocked me lol
Yeahhhhhhhh, it's not something I'm saying maliciously, I just literally can't remember any music from it even trying to recall it now apart from maybe the between race dialogue/cutscene music
Never had the chance to play this as a kid, might try it now 😁 Loved it man
Playing RR with the third person camera feels so wrong to me. The feeling of flying through the stages totally disappears, and I suspect most of the criticisms here stem from playing it that way - I literally can't drift in 3rd person.
Ridge Racer 7 is still my favourite arcade racer ever. Ridge Racer 2 on psp is a strong second. Highly recommend it.
So my first true introduction to Ridge races through Ridge Racer 7. Which is the completed expanded version of Ridge Racer 6. With a totally different soundtrack. My first introduction in the world of Ridge Racers through emulation was Ridge Racer DS. It's basically Ridge Racer 64 on the go. Make me wish I would have owned a copies because it is basically the best of both worlds of rr1 And 2 along with some bits and Bobs from Rave racer. And some original tracks here and there. After that it goes off Hill with my final Ridge Racer game I bought being Unbound. Resulting the demise of Ridge Racer coming in 2 years later with Ridge Racer Vita. That glorify Vita exclusive Tech demo kill the franchise. Do not give me started what happened in 2005.
this was an awesome video. it pretty much mirrors my feelings exactly. I also liked ridge racer 3D back when it came out, it was a good launch title to showcase the power of the 3DS. plays similar to RR7 with the use of nitros and slip streaming.
Nice retrospective. We need Ridge Racer Type 8.
I feel like I'm the only one who actually likes Unbounded, lol. I'm a sucker for "black sheep" games like Wipeout Fusion or even Rage Racer itself. can't believe my journey with this series started with the horrid PS Vita entry (which has great music but little else worthwhile). as someone who had never touched racing games before during my childhood years, I've now become obsessed with them thanks to both Wipeout and Ridge Racer.
Hell Yeah, " Ridge Racer " , was the Emperor of Drifting racing games 🎮 !.. i use to be a Legend on the " RR 1 ", " RR Type 4 ", " RR Five " and " RR 7 ".. Type 4 soundtrack is absolutely legendary ...
I only every played ridge racer 64 a few times. I ended up on test drive 5 for ps1 and f zero x because we actually owned those.
I actually remember a series called Crusin USA and Crusin world that I used to play in arcades all the time.
Oh god.. Giuliano that's a heavy story for a racer. I know I'm an emotional masochist but I want to at least be prepared for an emotional gut punch when I'm choosing the game.
Oh shit that boost mechanic reminds me of F zero x.
This was an awesomely fun video man. I always look forward to review week!
Thanks Ryan, I was a bit nervous about this one because of how quickly it all came together and how much less jokey it was, but I'm glad you liked it :)
nah man you got to the point and i dont feel there was many joke oppurtunities for this kind of game. you did really good making your points on the old games without being overly critical as they are products of the time. and you sold me on the newer ones being a drastic improvement. great video dude!
I like both Ridge Racer 4 and rage racer soundtrack. Despite this, I respect your opinion.
I recall it as fun, but never played since.
Great video! You've inspired me to play RR Type 4 and RR 7
The first ridge racer is not that bad, it’s pretty good for a launch game. It’s far far better than Daytona on the Saturn
As the person that play Ridge Racer PSP as the first racing game, I desperately want Bandai Namco to release RR8
I'd love them to do it as long as it follows 7 and not unbounded, who knows, maybe one day...
@@Vakantscull RR7 is a masterpiece and RR Unbounded is just a Split Second ripoff with nitro and no power play
@@Vakantscull For RR7 online races, you should watch this guy.
ua-cam.com/users/TREX320RR7
The alliteration was excellent work. I've never played a single RIIIDDDGEEE RACERRRR but on the topic of racing games I played one on sega mega drive that I couldn't remember the name of and it looked a bit like micro machines judging by micro machines footage I'd seen ....it was Micro Machines, there was a very valid reason for the similarities.
Great video! R4 is my personal fav and I agree that RRV's difficulty was crazy at first.
What I want to see, is that Namco continues to make the Ridge Racer series and port them to Android as well, if not, they should sell it to another company who will continue the legacy, because the king of drifting racing games, doesn't deserve to be done away like that it is too big and too famous, just as we talked about racing games with drifting Ridge Racer is the first one that comes to people's minds, so we want it back, you hear that Namco, is either you stand up for your masterpiece racer, or sell it to another who will continue the legacy, And Ridge Racer games for Android would be perfect and reach more audiences world wide, because back then people did have to own a playstation 1,2,3,4, 5, PSP and Xbox to play, but almost everybody have smartphones and a lot of people know about Ridge Racer, Gran Turismo, Need for Speed, Burnout and Midnight club just to mention a few, we grew up playing those games so they can't and shouldn't die, their are the biggest names in racing games, so they should always be in people's hands.
I understand that this is a matter of taste but I absolutely disagree with you on on Ridge racer type fours music being 'forgettable'. It has some of my favorite soundtracks in any racing game. Ridge racer Type 4 was my introduction to the series in one of the first racing games I played as a kid. It might be nostalgia for me but I mean I listen to the soundtracks on a weekly basis. No hard feelings, just wanted to share.
…to hear you say Type 4’s music is mid is *wild* to me 💯 - I was literally introduced to the game via it’s fire-ass ost 🔥
The reason you said R4 feels slow is because the speedometer is reading in KPH instead of MPH. Also nitrous was not introduced in Ridge Racer 7, but in Ridge Racer 6. Great video though. Ridge Racer 6 is my first main game in the series. It runs great on my Xbox Series X!
I fess to the speedo error, but I still think that it actually feels slower compared to any other game in the series, but I'm glad you enjoyed the video :)
@@Vakantscull Keep up the good work, man.
@@Vakantscullit feels slow for real... even in kilometers it does not match at all 😂
300KM feels like 100
Wat is best for nfs fan that never played games before 2003 aka 12
7 :)
Your logo reminds me of a company whose name I've forgotten.
I always play Ridge Racer from the in car view as it’s much easier to pull off the drifts and I disagree on Ridge Racer not being a good game because it’s my favourite of the series even over Revolution, I loved Rage Racer.
idk if its just me, but i found RR 1 easier to control than revolution or Rage Racer. might have to go back to it though since I was trying to grip race when I might should've embraced drifting for those. Revolution in particular I think actually WORSENED the whole "straighten out of a drift, snap into wall, and die" thing, at least for grip oriented cars.
"The 1st Ridge Racer is not a good game"
....? It's a fantastic game.
Always struck me how close that woman in the bikini was to getting killed
Just wanted to let you know that in Ridge Racer type 4 when you said about the speed and said it was going 175 “miles per hour” but it’s actually in kilometers per hour
Just wanted a heads up nice opinion on the series by the way😁👍
6 was the best.
👍
Great review some of these are great and the music is awesome
Not to mention you have to play Ridge Racer 5 on hard to actually finish the game including the 100 lap race, it was a unforgiving, frustrating game...
“That I don’t think I’ve seen others doing”
Because Nancy patented it so no one else could…
Lovely. Always a fan of the leggy ladies in racing games. Marvellous stuff!
But this looks really cool to see it all evolve and get more complex!
Brilliant episode I love Ridge Racer ....also you need to get the psp ridge Racer 2 game ....it's such a joy to play compare to the rest ....trust me on this 👍
I'd love to get more in the series, just a shame that ridge racer 6 was an xbox 360 exclusive :(
@@Vakantscull yep ...but to be honest 7 is 6 but better ...but my most played is ridge Racer 2 psp ...I can lose days on that game
Nice i need some psp games 😁
Rage Racer is by far the best and only one of the RR games that has interesting maps and good gameplay. It was the king of PS racing before the arrival of GT.
No part 6?
xbox exclusive, but apparently 7 is just an upgraded version of it
@@Vakantscull the levels are different.
Ridge Racer 1 and Revolution play perfectly fine using the ego perspective. Viewing the car from outside feels horribly floaty for some reason.
I haven't played any ridge racer game after psp entries so it was interesting to hear about these late titles. I might even pick up the 7th entry when I found it. Personally my favorite is by far the 4th episode. Ridge Racer 2 on the PSP is another favorite of mine.
I have to disagree with Ridge Racer Type 4's OST being serviceable and forgettable, for me it enhanced the experience to a level racing games have never been able to top.
Of course music is massively subjective and Rage Racer did also have a killer soundtrack too.
Dumb question but is ridge racer 7 playable on ps4 or a ps5? I'm wanting to play it badly i only played a demo back when i had a ps3 and life kinda got in the way
I've just had a quick search of the store can't see it on there sorry :(
Yeah, you don't know how to play original RR. You're supposed to break at the exact moment you hit the corners. It's...literally a learning curve. Don't automatically blame it on the game, it may be that you're too impatient. RR and RRR are lots of fun.
To do a drift and ridge racer all you have to do is let off the gas for a split second and then get back on it!!
Being as it was the first game released on new hardware back in 1995 in the United States, I admit pulling the car out of the drift sucks every time but once you perfect it it’s not so bad but you always lose that little bit of RPM that slows you down upon exiting the drift….
(Dude left out Ridge Racer 6 and Ridge Racer 64. However, RR6 and RR64 are similar enough to RR7 and the original RR arcade game, respectively, that he probably would've loved RR6 and despised RR64.)
With this guy's perspective on Ridge Racer 1, normally, I'd be thinking, "Well, why don't you just get better at the game?". But, the problem is that a lot of 3D games from the 1990s age very badly, so I can see where the reviewer is coming from. They have a lot of janky controls, graphical errors, poor level design and boss design decisions, etc. It's not due to incompetence. It's because, in the 1990s, 3D gaming was very new and unknown.
3D games from the late 2000s/2010s age so much better than the ones from the 1990s because they had time to learn from their mistakes with prior entries and improve gameplay concepts, physics, camera, and level design. When you play a 3D game from the 1990s, you can tell that they were still experimenting and learning as they went along in this new realm of gaming. For example,
-Irritating camera errors and janky controls in Mario 64 and Sonic Adventure 1 (nonexistent in Sonic Colors and Mario Galaxy, both of which were released in the late 2000s/2010s.)
-First-person shooters like Goldeneye 007, Unreal Tournament 1998, and Duke Nukem 3D being virtually unplayable nowadays because games like Half-Life 2 and Killzone 2 exist.
Hell, even Ridge Racer 1994 itself isn't worth going back to because Ridge Racer Type 4, 5, 6, & 7 all exist. Type 4 ages unusually well for a game from 1998, I'll admit. Otherwise, there're too many examples to list.
thanks for uploading this video, but I feel RR4 has been let down here a little since it's a seriously good game. play it on my phone with a ps5 controller sometimes. at the moment I found my pa3 again and boy rr7 is on. can't get enough! I hope namco will sometime produce an RR8. anyway, subscribed and liked and thanks again for the video!
I think my favorite games in the series could either be R4 or 5 since those probably have the best feeling drifts to me although i'm leaning a little more towards 5 lately since it feels more fully featured, only really losing out on the aesthetic and music that R4 presented. The earlier Ridge Racers are a bit hard for me to like since the drifting in them (and the "Nitrous" games to an extent) feels more like a true false variable that you turn on once you've hit a corner with not much else mattering in the long run.
What I mean is that in the first game up until Rage Racer (and RR64 which I think came after R4) when you drift, you noticeably get attached to whatever invisible curve they set for the vehicles that just sort of guides you into a turn and then when you come out of a turn you rocket forward or your car awkwardly resets its momentum when you come out of it as if drifting and your cars actual rotation and acceleration are separate. The thing I really like about R4 in specific is that it either completely gets rid of this or they did such a good job dressing it up that I didn't notice since there are some turns like the right angle one in Out of Blue that you literally won't be able to make unless you start your drift early or risk slamming into the wall sideways.
This isn't to say I can't have fun with the older games, i've been playing the DS for the past week and despite it having a lot of the same issues i've been enjoying my time with it since it has a nice sense of speed and it is very challenging.
Enjoyed your video as I particularly like opinions on the games that I loved the most. It was great having someone talk about the Ridge Racer series.
We do have a few disagreements though. My favorite game sort of wanders between Ridge Racer V and Rage Racer.
Sure Type 4 was great in it's time, but the "content" was just stretched out races where I stopped before the finish line to get 3rd to get the other 200 cars that were left. No thanks. The highest classes sure were fun, but didn't have much content as you basically used the fastest cars in one last race if you won the full championship. There was nearly no content for the funnest part of the game. And yeah, the slow feeling did vanish with the last few cars, although it never reached levels that Rage Racer offered. Ridge Racer Type 4 excelled at presentation and story and all those things, but as a game it wasn't as good. Still awesome, but it's not the best Ridge Racer has to offer imo.
Ridge Racer & Revolution is your own fault. Those games are truely of a different era. They gave you three tracks to complete the challange and get the Angels and Devils cars but at the time, just playing more races was the content. And mastering the racing was a challenge, but it's not as bad as you make it out to be. I suppose after 3h or so you should havve gotten the hang of it.
Rage Racer was absolutely brilliant and offers depth of gameplay that Ridge Racer Type 4 axed later on. The Drift vs Grip, the varying torque (and consecutive ability to accelerate or get slowed down by hills), the sense of speed and progressive steering angle (along with the tricky transitions on banked corners) the many ways to end a drift and lastly: shifting. Shifting was a major point in development. That's why the last best cars are manual only (sure, there is the mental Class 6 too, but it doesn't seem like you ever got there) - because it's a mechanic to control drifts and catch errors as well as using the engine brake. It's an important part of the games mechanical depth. I still play that game on emulation and it stuns me everytime I come back to it from a much more polished modern game. You can feel it's age with it's unforgiving penalties, sometimes wonky collisions and very direct input. At the same time it makes this game feel raw and it unapologetically lets you feel when you make a mistake. Soundtrack was an absolute banger, with many tracks not really fitting into genres that I recognised.
Ridge Racer V was different. I think we share the sentiment here. It was absolutely brilliant, but at that time, tracks & racing alone wasn't enough to make a game. It was a brilliant effort to reimagine what Ridge Racer was in the modern era, but it flopped. I absolutely love it for it's smooth high speed thrills and focused effort on bringin the best racing experience. I think it was a statement that understood that simulations like Gran Turismo weren't the opponents they were up against. At the same time it was a swan song the the arcade racer of the nineties.
Never played Ridge Racer 7, but I got my hands on the PSP titles, Accelerated and Slipstream which feature similar drift mechanics and feel. While the speed thrills are still there, specially the mechanical depth of the game tanked as the focus shifted to nitrous. Nitro basically made other mechanics redundant. So ...I'm glad you liked it, due to your recommendation I will try to see if I can get Ridge Racer 7 and see if it is massively better than the PSP games. Don't get me wrong, they are sweet and fast and fun. But compared to Rage Racer or Ridge Racer V they are nowhere. Every time I spin up one of the PSP Ridge Racers I sort of feel like dancing on the grave of something that I loved.
Sorry for the rant, I enjoyed your video and your oppinion (not last because it differs from mine on major points and I can appreciate your sentiments). But seriously: Give manual transmission in Rage Racer a try. If you get it, shifting will open up drifting in a way that AT will never do - going back to AT will feel like wearing a straight jacket if you made MT your second nature.
Why no review on RR6 ?
I don't own it, same goes for rr64 and rr1 and 2 on psp
He likes rear ending the competition.
I also enjoy crashing into the back of other cars in ridge racer 😉
ridge racers i played and still playing rr7 online
I also refuse to accept RR Unbounded’s place in this series. It’s from the dark era when Japan gave their franchises to western developers only to destroy them.
On tip I have for succeeding in RR and RRR is to not drift at all. It’s broken. What I do is to just constantly hold the gas button through the whole race. During tight corners keep the gas held and just break as needed. That’s how I won the entire games and unlock the secret cars.