30 Years of Ridge Racer on the PlayStation
It's a new record!
Genre: Racing
Number of Players: 1
Developer: Namco
Publisher: Namco
Release Date: September 5, 1995 (US), December 3, 1994 (JP), September 29, 1995 (EU)
Platform: PlayStation
Also Available On: N/A
As I sit down to write this, my mind harkens back to being a kid too young to have been around to have seen a 20 or 30-year-old entertainment medium come into being. Every time I read or watch retrospectives of video games and consoles that came out before the late 80s (I’m talking 1989 kind of late 80s), I feel a twinge of jealousy because I wish I had lived long enough to have seen it take shape and experience the zeitgeist.
And suddenly, I’m 40 years old, and jealous no more! Every emerging form of entertainment I encountered from the age of 10 is now celebrating its 30th anniversary this year, including the North American launch of the PlayStation. And equally as important was its conversion of Ridge Racer.
When it was initially released in arcades in 1993, Ridge Racer was a big deal. Running on the Namco System 22 arcade board, the game impressed players and onlookers with its use of 3D polygonal graphics, Gouraud shading, and texture mapping, all running at 60 FPS. It was a significant step up from Sega’s Virtua Racing—itself an impressive arcade game released a year prior, but getting long in the tooth by this point.
As I’ve said before, a game console was only as strong as its launch titles back then. Such was the case of the PlayStation when it was released stateside on this day, September 9, 1995. As Sony’s first video game system to go toe-to-toe with Nintendo and Sega, the PlayStation came out swinging with Ridge Racer among its launch lineup.
For me, it started in the spring or summer of 1996 when I went over to a friend's house, where I’d often spend weekends. While expecting to play our usual sessions of Streets of Rage 2 or Ms. Pac-Man on his Sega Genesis, he instead loaded Ridge Racer into his newly acquired PlayStation. Once I saw the vibrant graphics and heard the ever-present announcer call out compliments and warnings as you barrel down the road at what seemed like breakneck speeds, it felt like something magical was unfolding.
But I know what some of you might be thinking: “Why all the fuss over a game that prettier, more robust racing games have long since surpassed”? That’s a fair question. When considered only from a standpoint of content, I suppose Ridge Racer would appear to be just an outdated game not worthy of a second look these days. Objectively, you were only really racing on the same track circuit in several different configurations. But far more was happening here than just content alone. It represented a shift in what was possible for home console racing games.
Developed by Namco, Ridge Racer was early proof that the PlayStation was capable of providing a convincing arcade-like experience in a way that simply couldn’t be done on the Super NES, Sega Genesis, or any other 16-bit console. It nailed that vibe of fun in the sun, speeding down the coastal highway in your sports car, drifting around corners without needing to engage the brake hardly at all. From the jump, when you booted up the disc and played that quick round of Galaxian while the game loaded, Ridge Racer sent a clear message: you won’t experience this anywhere else.
There are only four courses in the game (eight if you count the mirrored tracks), but they’re enjoyable while they last. The beginner course is a short two-lap race around the coastline. The intermediate course is the same as the previous one, but with three laps instead of just two. The expert course is also three laps with an extra section added on to it with some tight lanes and tricky S-curves to throw you a surprise if you're not familiar with the layout.
And finally, there’s a time trial course, which is simply a 1-on-1 race with the CPU on the expert course. With each successive course, your car’s top speed increases as well. That being said, after you make the leap from the novice to intermediate, the differences in speed are somewhat negligible.
Racing along with you are 11 other cars, of particular note the yellow rival car (or the red “F/A Racing” vehicle if you selected the yellow car). This is the one you’ll have to look out for while you’re vying for first place with everyone else. The rival car is a fairly worthy opponent that can easily overtake you if you miscalculate a critical corner or two. Beginners getting used to the physics of drifting in this game will likely have a hard time staying ahead of the rival at first. But as your skills improve, the rival car will eventually be little more than an annoyance you can keep at bay.
Ridge Racer provided a more immersive racing experience with its small but effective nuances. The sound of your engine echoed slightly when entering a tunnel. The scenery seamlessly changed from daytime to dusk, to nighttime, and then back again. Smoothly maneuvering through tough hairpin turns and S-curves garnered a compliment from the announcer watching the competition.
Now and then, a helicopter swooped in to capture footage of the race as you sped by. After crossing the finish line, you’d see a replay of highlights from the first lap with smooth sweeping camera angles and aerial shots. Best of all, the game ran velvety smooth. It had all the wow-factor necessary to make a lasting impression long after you stopped playing for the day.
While there is much to like about this game, it still has its fair share of flaws. First and foremost are the “bumper car” physics. It’s all too easy to clip another car from the back or side, which will catapult your opponents ahead by a few feet and force you to lose precious speed and momentum. It totally ruins your strategy when attempting to position your car on tricky turns when there are several cars anywhere near you. It’s a problem that also plagued some of the sequels until later in the series.
Then there’s the lackluster AI. All the CPU cars follow the same predetermined path. They make no real effort to block your approach or seriously outpace you; the only exception being the rival car mentioned earlier. This takes away from some of the challenge and makes it ridiculously easy to reach first place (or close to it) well before the race is over. To be fair, the racing courses themselves become noticeably more challenging when playing the reversed “extra” races. Certain hairpin turns seem to sneak up on you since you’re approaching them from the opposite direction of the standard courses.
And while there are 13 cars total you can drive, only the first four have any meaningful differences in performance. The other eight are essentially carbon copies of four, which makes their lack of originality all the more disappointing, given that the additional cars had interesting designs and decals. It would have been nice to have a richer variety of performance capabilities. However, none of these faults overshadow the overall enjoyment to be had in this game.
Maneuvering your car is pretty straightforward, but it does feel imprecise when negotiating steep turns due to the drifting physics. If you’re accustomed to playing more realistic racing games like the Gran Turismo or Forza Motorsport series, then you'll need to retrain your dexterity. Newcomers will likely find it tricky to ease off the accelerator smoothly, then resume accelerating again. It’ll take some trial and error before you get it right.
Granted, playing this on a modern HDTV will make its visual presentation less than praiseworthy. Nonetheless, for an early PlayStation game, Ridge Racer featured some impressive graphics with vibrant scenery. You'll first start off the race with a roaring crowd and detailed buildings in the surrounding area. The beach features leaning palm trees, a nice view of the water, and a nearby hotel resort, complementing the scenery.
You’ll also notice the occasional roar of an airplane flying overhead throughout the race. There’s also a small overhead highway that runs just above your car as you approach the final corner before the finish line. This was all quite an impressive number for its time. I personally love the minor details, like the billboards advertising some of Namco’s other arcade games.
The best part of Ridge Racer to me is the soundtrack. It was groundbreaking and unlike anything I had heard in a driving game. Composed by Shinji Hosoe, all six songs well captured the new possibilities that the CD audio provided. Some highlights for me were the self-titled “Ridge Racer” track with its bass guitar airy synths front and center, “Rare Hero” and its buzzy bassline, and “Rhythm Shift” featuring a rave motif.
I’d be remiss not to mention the gabber track that plays during the replay footage, complete with blaring air raid sirens to infinity and beyond. It’s Rotterdam hardcore at its Rotterdamdest. I remember when my friend and I heard this for the first time, we burst into spontaneous laughter after hearing the air raid sirens. It was quite a memorable moment.
Another feature unique to the PlayStation version was the ability to replace the game disc with a music CD and listen to your favorite tunes while you race. You may have even noticed the bullet list lauding the game’s features on the back of the jewel case, encouraging would-be players to “put the pedal to the metal with your own music CDs”. Although the instruction manual didn’t explicitly spell out that you needed to open the disc door and swap out the game with an audio CD, most of us eventually figured it out or learned by word of mouth.
Ridge Racer was more than just a thriving arcade port from Namco’s talented staff. The multiple car selections, extended replay footage, and ending sequence make the PlayStation port the ideal way to experience the definitive version of Ridge Racer when compared to the offerings of the arcade original (which I reviewed earlier). It was the poster child for what the 32-bit console gaming experience should be. As good as other popular racing games like OutRun, Rad Racer, Super Mario Kart, and Virtua Racing all were, nothing looked as good or felt as fast and enthralling to behold as Ridge Racer in your home.
The game helped establish Namco as a top-tier game developer for the PlayStation. As the months rolled on, whenever you saw the Namco label on the cover—be it an arcade port or a new IP—you were at least curious to try it, given their laser-focused commitment to high-quality experiences on the PlayStation. With the releases of other arcade titles like Air Combat, Tekken, and Xevious 3D/G+, you knew to expect a near-arcade experience and a bevy of extras thrown in for good measure. And it all started here with Ridge Racer.
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