Tag Archives: Ridge Racer Unbounded

Highs and Lows of The Ridge Racer Franchise

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Incredible to believe that Ridge Racer has been around since 1993. whilst the latest instalment leaves much to be desired, join us as we take a look back at the highs and lows of perhaps one of the most incredible race franchises of all time.

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Ridge Racer Arcade Game and Ports

In 1993 a racing video game was released into the world by Namco. That game was Ridge Racer. It was initially released on the Namco System 22 arcade system board, and was later ported to the PlayStation console. It was released in competition to the rift of racing games released at the time by Sega such as Daytona and VR Racing and became an instant hit owing to the photo realistic nature of the graphics and arcadey style driving engine which was easy to pick up and hard to put down.

The first home version of Ridge Racer was released in Japan in 1994 as a launch title for the original Sony PlayStation console. Some players may say that it was an ‘arcade perfect port’ which was a term that was banded around at the time but I still would say otherwise. One thing is for sure is that the game played a major role in establishing Playstation console and in giving it an early edge over its nearest competitor, the Sega Saturn. Nice touches included the option to change the in game music by removing the game disc and inserting your own favourite CD – a move that has never been repeated since.

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Ridge Racer Revolution

Firmly following the mantra of ‘if it isn’t broke don’t fix it’ Ridge Racer Revolution’ simply offered more of the same. I personally did not like it as it had dodgy collision detection, but I know loads of players who loved it as it had a two-player link-up mode which when played allowed the players access to the two courses from the original Ridge Racer game known as ‘Special 1’ and ‘Special 2’.

Normally only 4 cars are selectable, but all 12 are selectable if a player is able to defeat 100% of the enemies on the Galaga ’88 game before the title screen. In addition if this was done in less than 44 shots, not only were all the cars selectable, but the car bodies were smaller and the wheels bigger, looking much like buggies. Other changes included a commentator with a higher-pitched voice and different handling of the cars. However, while you can still race the three bonus cars, you cannot win them in the buggy mode. One way to easily access the buggy mode from the beginning is to hold L1, R1 select, down and triangle all simultaneously from when the game loads until the space invaders game – a special laser then emitted from the ship to kill all of the enemies on the space invaders game. Don’t say I don’t give away secrets.

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Rage Racer

Whilst arcade gamers got Rave Racer, Playstation owners got Rage Racer. They sound similar but believe me they are anything but. Visually the game took a different approach compared to the previous PlayStation titles. It looked more realistic and had a darker colour scheme.  For the first time in the Ridge Racer series, Rage Racer introduced a brand new advanced single player career system which used credits which were received from winning races which then could be used to buy and upgrade cars. I rate this as a low because although I loved the way it brought something new to the genre and I have fond memories of taking a Beetle look-alike round the track at break-neck speed the graphics were really rough around the edges and the music was horrendous.

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R4: Ridge Racer Type 4

This was the fourth game in the Ridge Racer series on the PlayStation.

With Namco now properly turning the attention to the home market this title was solely made for the home console.  There were eight tracks and a whopping 321 vehicles, Having realized their mistakes in the previous title back came gouraud shading on the polygons, giving the game a visual depth that was really lovely to the eye. The intro and presentation of the game was incredible. It was also the first Ridge Racer game on the Sony system to feature a two-player split screen mode, and featured two different driving models.

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Ridge Racer 64

This was the next in the racing instalment developed by Namco and Nintendo Software Technology for the Nintendo 64 in 2000. It featured tracks from Ridge Racer and Ridge Racer Revolution and its very own set of desert tracks exclusive to the Nintendo 64. On the Car Select screen you could join the Dig Racing Team, Pac Racing Club, Racing Team Solvalou and R.C. Micro Mouse Mappy all from Ridge Racer Type 4. It marked ahigh point of the series and you could also change the colours of the car instead of the normal colours. The music was equally great and moving away from solely producing titles for Sony’s home machines Nintendo 64 owners finally had a racing game they could be proud of.

 

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Ridge Racer V 

(RRV), was the fifth game in the Ridge Racer series on the PlayStation. It was in one word Incredible. One of the launch games for the PlayStation 2. It featured 14 tracks and 18 vehicles, with 5 modes of play. Taking full advantage of the new spec hardware available in the next generation console the colours were bright, the in game graphics and speed was insatiable and the music was banging. I remember going over one ridge in the game and having the lens flare coarse into my eyes furthermore the night time tracks too were amazing; dimly lit streets that forced you to really peer ahead on the road to see the next hairpin bend. One other thing that is worthy of note was the ‘endurance race’ 99 laps of hardcore racing that tested even the most veteran of racing games. When you completed it all you got was a well done screen though, although you still had bragging rights to your friends for doing so.

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R: Racing Evolution

This title marked a low point in the franchise. Released in Japanin November 27, 2003, in North America on December 9, 2003 and in Europeon April 2, 2004, R is a racing-sim. Much like considered a cross over like Rage Racing and Gran Turismo. Opting to feature 33 licensed cars and in-depth customization options the game also featured a system referred to as the pressure meter, a fighting game-esque gauge that filled up as the player gets closer to a rival car; the higher the meter, the greater the likelihood that the AI will make a critical mistake.

The game offered a story mode where the player followed the racing career of Rena Hayami as she struggles to deal with the busy life of a professional race car driver and the politics of the sport. The mode featured some 14 chapters that were supposed to bring something new to the franchise, however none of these factors could protect the game from critical feedback. ‘Boring as hell’ said one reviewer; ‘If I wanted to play a racing sim I would have bought Gran Turismo’ said another.

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Ridge Racer 6

This was the sixth instalment in the Ridge Racer series. Released exclusively on Xbox 360 in 2006, it was marked as an achievement for Xbox owners who previously never had a Ridge Racer title. The game featured a Full Motion Video opening, which showed the series mascot the gorgeous Reiko Nagase in full action. Defending their decision to produce a game for another even rival console Namco announced that it expected to sell over 500,000 copies of Ridge Racer 6 for the Xbox 360, although in reality that never happened; far fewer copies were actually sold; although that does not stop it from being a good game in its own right. Ridge Racer 7 for the PlayStation 3 is something of a “remix “of Ridge Racer 6, but with major differences such as new vehicles that were not seen in Ridge Racer 6 such as Sinseong, a Korean brand company, for the first time.


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Ridge Racer 7

This was the seventh console instalment in the Ridge Racer series of racing games, released exclusively on the PlayStation 3. The game has around 40 cars, many of which return from Ridge Racer 6 and the PSP incarnations of the game. There are also 22 courses, available in forward, reverse and mirror mode. The game runs at 1080p resolution and at 60 frames per second. It also features Dolby Digital 5.1 surround
The game marked a long awaited return to the Sony console and was a real hit in terms of what the console could do. Namco really pulled out the stops and later – to help Sony place further emphasis on 3D gaming, produced a Patch called “Ridge Racer 7 3D License Version” which enabled owners of Ridge Racer 7 to play the game in 3D for free and it offers free online game play via the PlayStation Network too.
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Ridge Racer Unbounded

I’m not going to say why here all you need to know is it is a real low point in the series. You can find my review in Frostmagazine’s very pages to find out

Ridge Racer Unbounded Review

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Namco should be slapped on their botties for letting what could have been a tremendous title go to waste and with good reason sent to their room for the rest of the month.

One question deserves to be continually asked: Why oh why would you give away a game with so much history and so much of a following and allow it to be utterly ruined? It is the equivalent of having a million pound winning lottery ticket and giving it away to an alcoholic.

Imagine this: you have an incredible franchise that you develop over the years. Sure, it may not be realistic enough to warrant the title ‘A Driving Simulator’ but hey, it is a fun arcade racer, the graphics are top notch, the speed and the flavour of racing is such that you build a world-wide following of fans that stay with you over three generations of consoles. At the last hurdle, maybe time is the issue or resources either way you allow another developer to step in and as such they drop the ball, next thing you know it is 3 nill to your opponents…

I really wanted this game to be good, I really did. So much so that when I read some of the other reviews on the game I refused to believe them. When one of my friends pointed out that the key to the game is about learning how to use the ‘Drift Button’ effectively. Inside I jumped for joy; maybe it was a whole misunderstanding for the other reviewers but now, two whole days later, I realised he was under the same deluded self deception as me. You see, gamers like us who grew up on the whole Ridge Racer series just don’t want to believe their beloved franchise is in the pan. But trust me, for this game it is; it is in the pan with a little bit of extra virgin oil and under a high heat.

I’ve always said that I would put the boot in when it came to crap titles but the only thing that is worse in this world than a crap game is an expensive crap game. Oh and this game is crap with more crappy pieces than a crappy bits lunch box meal made by a crappy deep fried chicken chop shop that is crap. You see I wouldn’t enjoy this game if it came as a PSN cheap download – the fact that it costs £40 is plain pathetic and a waste of money. I actually owe it to gamers to stop them going out there and buying this tosh.

Where do I start? Ridge Racer Unbounded tries to bring in core elements of Split/Second and Burnout series to the franchise of old. By itself this should not be a nail in the coffin. Like Split/Second you can open up shortcuts around the track by filling a power meter which generates by sliding and tailing other racers you can use this power in one of four ways; to provide a quick boost, open up shortcuts, smash into your opponents or create explosions. Unlike Split/Second however, you don’t trigger the explosions or shortcuts remotely: you smash into them to explode them or open them up. The problem here is in the execution. Question: When is a shortcut not a shortcut? When you take it and more often than not it puts you behind the competitors…duh… It’s an idea that sounds pants on paper and in reality is pants to see. Practically all shortcuts I have seen besides looking good, offer very little else. The explosions are nothing to write home about and have none of that ‘Ream-ability’ factor seen in Split/Second.

Secondly is control. Ridge Racer has always been renowned for its pick up and play capability. It is an arcade racer; mistime your brake and you don’t always screw up or end up in a wall. Unbounded follows this legacy; in fact most of the walls are destructible, which to its credit is a nice touch, but rather than keeping with the common traits of the genre i.e. gas, brake, boost, what we have here is an addition in the form of a ‘slide button’ that is supposed to allow you powerslide round corners. You see, if you hit the brake, handbrake, or hit a wall you lose a lot of speed but if you power-slide you lose just a little bit of speed but go into a wide angle slide in which you will hit the wall anyway. Makes sense doesn’t it? I thought so. Adding to this is that your opponents never make mistakes – the AI difficulty is incredible and there are no options to change it – this all means you will be sitting there for a long time playing the same tracks again and again just to qualify one race. Now some of you might be forgiven for thinking ‘I bet you he is just having a moan because he is not good at racing games’ but the reality is I have played and completed most of this game’s competitors and it is their qualities that make this game pale in comparison.

Graphics is average. Split/Second (a game that is almost a year and a half old) and Motorstorm Apocalypse easily outdoes this title in terms of quality and execution and even with Unbounded’s exploding walls or vehicles it brings nothing that hasn’t been seen or done better elsewhere. And what happened to the 3D? Is this yet another title that had dropped the notion of 3D gaming?

Music is poor. A classic element of Ridge Racer was the banging tracks and cheesy voice over. Thankfully the voice over is gone but where are the tracks? A host of Japanese unknowns and a couple of drum and bass tracks are all you get for your money. My gosh, that is such a wasted opportunity; Namco could have done remixes from the whole of the franchise, even SSX had tracks you knew or could dance to. This is just a really appalling effort.

To be fair to Bugbear, they have tried to introduce variety into the game and franchise but I don’t think they really spoke to the fans, or truly had a grasp of what made the original games so much fun. The only thing I could say I liked was the game’s much-hyped track editor. After all who wouldn’t want to build a Ridge Racer track from scratch? I found it flexible and easy to use, putting together a decent course in a very short space of time which was great, obviously, but the underlying problems that affect the racing on the ‘actual’ tracks still applied. Ho-Hum…

My Verdict

Ridge Racer Unbounded is nothing but a shame and a waste of money. I simply cannot recommend a game when I know there are superior, cheaper alternatives out there. Even if you find it out on your travels as a cheapie, avoid like the plague. You have been warned.

2 out of 10

Gamefest 2011 Review

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It has been aptly described as the ‘Gaming Event of The Year’, ‘A gaming extravaganza’ by others and a ‘Shame if you failed to get a ticket mate’ by the people online. I am of course talking about GAMEfest; the first-ever gaming festival from high street and online computer game retailers GAME. If you are into games – and you weren’t watching Chelsea lose – there is only one big question: where were you?

The things I have to do to keep Frost readers happy is beyond belief, but I’ll let you know I aptly ‘stayed calm and carried on’ to take one for the team with my sole intention of bringing you the ‘no nonsense’ report of gaming goodness. The saying goes take five a day – well when it comes to games I’ll happily take 50; heck, make mine 100 if that’s what it takes.

Let’s talk numbers:
100+ Big games on show
70+ Big games available for test
3+ hours taken to queue at longest point during the day for the biggest game showcases
1,500 screens displaying the latest games
1,000’s of games players from all over the world
3 girls from Nuts Magazine – well I wouldn’t be a man if I didn’t mention them would I? More on them later…

Lets talk games:
Tons of exclusives, we are talking Street Fighter X Tekken, Ridge Racer Unbounded, Batman Arkham City, Sonic Generations, Modern Warfare 3, Dragon Ball Z Ultimate Tenkaichi, to name just a few. There is loads to get through, the way I see it, it is a good job that Frost Magazine is web as opposed to paper based as the environment is saved by the sheer numbers of trees no longer needed to be cut down to bring you this report. But hey, let’s talk shop because here, in this report I want to focus on the real games that are going to make a real impact this year. The ones that you need to get on your pre-order list pretty sharpish, capiche.

Modern Warfare 3.
Obviously the first stand I headed to was this one under the mighty games developers Activison. Thanks to GAMEfest I got my sweaty hands on the first playable build of the mode in the UK. Yes it really is that good; Modern Warfare 3 by its looks alone raises the bar of a genre already inundated with shooters and looking quite tired. But how does it play? One word: incredible, with the noise of the exhibition it was really hard to hear all the instructions my character was being told but the controls were fine, the graphics even at this stage were ‘baby soft’ smooth. My only gripe is that there is no 3D version planned and after playing Resistance 3 in 3D I just know it would be incredible. Release date is scheduled for the 8th Nov. Seven words spring to mind: Do Not Miss Out On This Game.

Goldeneye 007: Reloaded
Goldeneye looks better than ever thanks to the upgraded power afforded by the PS3 and it goes without saying that it looks better than its Wii counterpart. Although it has to be said although it looks great, MW3 it is not. Nevertheless it ranks up there as a Bond game to own with enemies appearing extremely agile behind cover. I managed to play this with the Move Controller and although it took some getting used to it worked incredibly well.
Release date is scheduled for Nov

Battlefield 3
This is the year’s ‘other’ most anticipated shooter and of course you know it will be going head to head with Modern Warfare 3. Not sure if it is me but this is turning into a regular duel between Activision and EA over who runs the block. I tried the single player campaign and was quite taken aback by the quality of the graphics; smoke and explosions now being even more realistic. Again the movement was silky smooth whereas the controls needed just that little bit more work. So who runs the block? Well, personally, I am a fan of the Call of Duty franchise but this game is enough to make me hedge my bets. As good old Optimus Prime says ‘One shall stand….and one shall fall…’

X-Men: Destiny
X-Men: Destiny sees you step into the shoes of a newly realized young mutant who is tasked with using their special powers for good or evil? Sounds familiar? Yep I thought so too. I am a huge X-Men fanatic so was hoping this game would be incredible, however to me, graphically it looks on par with the first Infamous game and some of the camera angles looked decidedly dodgy. This was my least liked of the titles from the Activision stand, although I could still easily be proved wrong when it is released on the 30th September this year.

Spiderman: Edge of time
The all new Spiderman game was on show looking very tasty indeed. It looks like there is more time hopping around than the last game, and of the in game footage we were shown it looked like not only was Spidey much more fluid and agile but that there was a solid emphasis on action and combos. It’s enough to bring a smile to anyone’s lips.

Street Fighter X Tekken
This is really squaring up to be one heck of a game. Thank you so much Game for giving us players a direct hands on with more than a handful of characters on each side. The characters of Tekken step into the world of Street Fighter for a fight time spectacular. No wonder the queues went on, this game really has to be seen to be believed, with an overhauled control system that’s easy for fans of the Tekken games to pick up quickly and combos, tag combos and more combos than a KFC bargain bucket this is turning into a ‘must have game’. The backgrounds too are worth a mention; there is one with dinosaurs that looks totally incredible. But what’s that little birdy? There is going to be another game some point later where the characters of Street Fighter step into the world of Tekken? Wow, we better keep that one under our hat….

Dragon Ball Z Ultimate Tenkaichi
Looked pretty incredible, I heard repeated murmurings of gamers going ‘wow’ ‘amazing’ and ‘oh my gosh’ so I went over and pretty soon I was saying the same thing too. Bosses the size that even a 50 inch screen can’t handle and an overhauled control system, all of which takes a little bit of time to get used to but soon had me pulling off 50 hit combos with ease. I liked the look of the sprites, everything just looks spruced up and ‘combat ready’ as they say.

Soulcalibur V
Have you ever picked up sequel hoping that the games developers haven’t taken something out that you really enjoyed? Well if you are, you are a lot like me; the last game I played from this series was Soul Edge, the last Soulcalibur game I heard was cack so I left it alone as that is what you are supposed to do with smelly fish. However this game brought back all the memories and finesse of the original. It looks great, it sounds great. It is easy to pick up and play, but just one question: how many fabled blades are there?

Ridge Racer Unbounded
Is yet another entry into an almost legendary franchise playing like an explosive mix between Burnout and Split-Second. It looks as good as it plays and that is heart in the mouth, pedal to the metal tricky. You build energy by driving dangerously, drifting and overtaking in order to ram cars, destroy buildings and generally just create chaos on the track. Oh yeah and don’t forget to come first – wouldn’t be Ridge Racer if you didn’t have that. The driving controls need tightening up a bit but I actually enjoyed playing this game but and can’t wait to see how it will pan out later.

Ace Combat: Assault Horizon
This was next on my list. I am an avid fan of the franchise and been playing it since the PS One days but if I am honest I think towards the end it went off the rails a bit and got all dramatized. I had heard that the game had been completely overhauled and gone ‘back to the basics’ which can only be a good thing. Immediately from grabbing the control pad I could see the graphics and the control system had been completely revamped; a choice of controlling a plane or helicopter was the first decision I had to make and then in no time at all planes, bullets and explosions met me during an epic duel in the skies; dodging between huge buildings standing out against the horizon. However, I don’t know if it is just me but I found that despite these improvements essentially you are still just lining up your shots as before. Let’s hope it does not get repetitive as its predecessors did.

Ace Combat 3DS
This looked absolutely fantastic; the 3DS taking full advantage of the analogue sticks and whole 3D thing. Bullets, guns and explosions; now you can enjoy them on the bus, the train, on the way to work, you get the picture.

Bethesda Softworks
Bethesda was my personal saviours on the day, providing myself and my nephews with some super sized bags to put our accumulated goodies in. I have to be honest; I have heard of Prey and seen Rage but I had not heard of Skyrim before. Entering their Walkthrough after an hour or so of queuing I could see what the fuss was all about. All three titles looked astoundingly good. RAGE looks like a no holds barred FPS genre with solid action.  

SKYRIM  though was the real surprise for me; swords, wizards, trolls, magic, you get the picture, but what really surprised me was the quality of the graphics and the idea that the game develops around you as you play, sort of like World of Warcraft but with extra 3rd person perspective mmm. I will be keeping my beady little eyes on this one.

The Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword
This is one of the titles that my nephew really wanted to play and even now a day later he is still going on about it. Thanks to the Wii Motion Plus Controller you take full control over Link’s sword swipes on a one-to-one basis, taking on the enemies. It looks fabulous with a real nice graphical style to it that sets it apart from its predecessors and the boss fight I saw was pretty ridiculous in terms of combos and big moves. Wii owners have a good reason to rejoice.

Saints Row: The Third
This game looked like it was shaping up very nicely indeed, colourful solid sprites with a kind of tongue in cheek storyline being at the core. The fight and combo moves feel quite satisfying. Apparently Hulk Hogan and a certain porn actress are playable characters in the game. That certainly brought a smile to my nephew’s face.

Need for Speed: The Run
Only got to see videos of this owing to the time – it was such a shame. From what I saw the game has few on foot sections, and those it does have seem to serve to push the story forward as opposed to being a part of the race itself. One thing I did see was a kind of ‘rewind’ feature that rewinds time back to just before a crash giving you time to avoid it. Use of this is incredibly limited and is quite exciting when you think of it especially if it transfers to online play. Speed was on par with the fastest Burnout and the cops were unrelenting.

The Black Eyed Peas Experience
Hot on the heels of the Michael Jackson Experience comes this title. Opting to feature digitized sprites instead of stand-ins, this can have you dancing and singing as a group or as any one of your favourite lead singers or their entourage. Now, There is no denying that the Black Eyed Peas aren’t spectacular but are they on the same level as the king of pop? I am not so sure – whats next? The N-Dubz Experience. Anyhow it has to be said the game does look good and it was fun to play – lets just hope we are not seeing the dawn of another dancing, singing, play the guitar type franchise take over the world only to crash and burn and leave players angry.

SEGA
SEGA have been in the computer game business for almost three generations now, wisely backing out of the console making business to focus on games. It looked like they had brought their gaming offices with them showing off some of their biggest titles to date. First up – Mario and Sonic at the London Olympic Games on Wii and 3DS – good solid game filled with cutesy Wii’ness that tough guys like me stay away from…o.k I can explain about the photo….

Next up Rise of Nightmares for the Xbox Kinect only, and it has to be said that it is not a bad first attempt at a survival horror title for the Kinect. Rise of Nightmares begins a bit like a SAW movie with a bad guy who just likes doing bad things to people for fun. Waking up on a moving train you have an argument with your for girlfriend for being buried in the bottle, she storms off and then the dreaded monsters attack killing almost everybody. Using the Kinect controls is a bit of a hit and miss in my opinion and take some getting used to, but if you think of melee combat similar to Dead Island you are not far wrong. Although the premise is good time will tell whether the actual gameplay will be improved enough before the release.

Next up House of the Dead Overkill on the PS3 and thankfully this is a whole new state of affairs. Compatible with Playstation Move and in 3D with effects that I have got to say jump out of the screen like your heart jumps out of your mouth, this ‘on the rails shooter’ should be on your pre-order list pronto.

Sonic Generations on Xbox 360, PS3 and 3DS was a crowd pleaser, namely because it seemed to offer something for SEGA fans in the way of nostalgia that only the Megadrive collection with all your favourite hits missing could possibly do. You have a choice of both types of Sonic, new – with 3D run into the screen gameplay and old – sideways stages. Both types offered new stages, blistering speeds, familiar faces and lets not forget his go-go I can do anything attitude which is really hard not to fall in love with. My nephew was undecided on this title, however I enjoyed it immensely.

Warner
Popping over to the Warner stand the first thing I saw was a huge Batman statue – yes this was Arkham City territory and the crowds here was unbelievable. The game hosts had good sense to have the games on a timer with players on a roll on roll off queue to prevent any game hogs and it is easy to see why people would not want to give up their joypad. The quality of this title is simply incredible. The way Batman moves, the new detective mode, the combat system, the epic vistas; everything just looks bigger, better, badder and downright tastier. I don’t know about you but I can’t wait.

The Lord of the Rings: War in the North took me by surprise – where did this game come from? The monsters are simply huge and although RPG in nature in reality the gameplay seemed a lot like Baldur’s Gate with slo-mo finishers and non stop combat. A video showed some flying sections too with the character on the back of an eagle. Could be well worth a look on its release.

And, so ended the first-ever fantastic gaming festival. But the show would not be complete without making the most of every opportunity and funny enough big boy’s magazine Nuts were on hand to show that games festivals can be fun in every way. Arm firmly twisted firmly behind my back I was frog-marched over to the table to have my Nuts Magazine signed by the lovely Stacy, Daisy and India and oh look someone took a photograph. The things I have to do eh?