The Ridge Racer Legacy, part 23...

The steady decline of arcade gaming in the US over the late '90s meant that more and more developers began to take their franchises to home consoles. Ridge Racer V, released in 2000 was an extremely rare game that saw success on both the Playstation 2 as well as the arcade. Namco knew that the US would not support the arcade market as they once had through the late '70s and '80s. Console, PC and mobile gaming had completely eclipsed the out-of-home experience.

Namco made a solid effort to ensure that every iteration of Ridge Racer offered experiences that could not be matched in the arcade. The most important of these game design elements being time. An arcade game is meant to be enjoyed in a few short bursts. Longer, more drawn out stories and adventures were rarely presented. If the arcade title was meant to last 5 or 10 minutes then it was usually very difficult, and required players to continuously add credits to the machine. Console players never had to worry about running out of money or time. They expected to get the greatest possible experience for their dollar as they could. Namco did everything in their power to make arcade visitors feel like they were having the superior experience. This was partly the reason why the company created the Wonder Eggs theme park. It featured many attractions based on Namco titles.

Ridge Racer Type 4 set the bar impossibly high. No arcade to console series would ever match the numbers in that game. There were four manufacturers, four teams and eight tracks for players to choose from. That doesn't sound very impressive but the 321 cars that could also be unlocked certainly was. Namco gave racing fans a reason to go through multiple replays. When technology improved so did the franchise. Ridge Racer V gave audiences a taste of the classic arcade experience but with enhanced graphics and many more secrets to unlock. In 2003 Namco tried their boldest experiment yet. R: Racing Evolution (RRE) was an attempt at redefining the franchise. It was not a radical shift as in Ridge Racer Unbounded. The game still had the classic racing experience but featured actual manufacturers instead of fictional ones. The story elements from Ridge Racer Type 4 were fleshed out with a defined hero named Rena Hayami and a villain with the corporate sponsors G.V.I. Console players however were hoping that Namco would return to their roots.

In 2005 Namco released Ridge Racer 6. It was an Xbox 360 exclusive much to the surprise of Sony fans. The visuals had jumped exponentially over the previous game. The new hardware was capable of creating cars and tracks which were amazing. For the first time the studio could claim to have photorealistic visuals for their long-running franchise. Ridge City and the surrounding communities looked as vivid as any real world location that had been featured in a rival AAA title. Reiko Nagase had even returned in the opening animation and all seemed right with the world. What audiences did not know was what the studio was secretly working on. The developers were refining the cars, locations, tracks and animations over the course of that calendar year. In 2006 the Playstation 3 received a superior version of the game labeled Ridge Racer 7. Again the bar had been raised, this time in full HD and with online gameplay that would have been a dream a decade earlier.

The new Ridge Racer experience had improved in several ways, not the least of which were track designs. Namco actually came close to topping Sega's best work in several courses. The studio had a record of using storytelling elements in several of their games, including the Ace Driver, Cyber Cycles and Final Lap. The elements featured in those tracks never pushed the envelope as far as Sega did. Namco made up for the lack of spectacle with realism. Certainly a track could exist near some ancient ruins but it would never desecrate the history of that region by putting a winding course through a temple. In the Mist Falls and Lost Ruins courses Namco developers connected portions of an ancient road with a modern expressway. Cars would drift between several different eras in the Southeast Asian-themed tracks during each lap. Part of the course would run through caves and rice patties and part or the road was tethered to pylons and floating above the tide on pontoon bridges. Visually it was another stunner but every element incorporated into the track was inspired by actual locations and even road technology. My Cambodian and Vietnamese friends would comment on how familiar the sights looked, including the foliage and rural villages as I raced around the courses.

It was often the little details that were overlooked in other racing games that Namco capitalized on It was like a trade secret for the studio. In many of their locations players could actually see a walkway that followed the edge of the track. The majority of the locations featured in the Ridge Racer series were supposed to be used as public roads when cars were not racing on them. Because of that many of the tracks in the series actually had temporary barriers and cones cutting off side streets. Players could still make out sidewalks, driveways and exits on the side of the road. Even the tiniest of details, like stairs, bridges and doorways meant for pedestrians were easy to make out in the edges of each course. It was an absurd amount of work that went into each and every course but the end result was worth it to gamers.

No other fictional place looked as inviting in any other racing series. Namco never lost focus on the big picture. The courses had to be visually appealing even while traveling well over 200MPH. Many of the smaller details that I had described were nothing more than a blur at high speed. The larger set pieces that the developers had created as scenery certainly stood out. The enormous sitting Buddha in the Thai-inspired tracks was one example. The studio had been creating enormous scenery features since the very first game. The multitude of bridges that were featured across several sequels were always memorable. In fact it would be hard to imagine a Ridge Racer track that did not have at least one unique bridge incorporated into the layout. Enormous suspension, truss and cantilever bridges were impossible to ignore from a distance, even while traveling at a very high speed.

Every track in the Ridge Racer series had been set at a particular time of day, most often with the lighting and weather that best highlighted the location. The majority of the tracks featured perfect weather, some with a hint of sun gleaming off the screen. Other tracks were set at dusk when the color of the sky was a blend of bright colors. Some of the greatest tracks however were presented at night. No other city created by Namco, or many other developers for that matter, looked better than Rave City at night. Not Ridge City, Bayshore or even the Bugbear developed Shatterbay. Rave City had come a long way since it debuted in 1995.

Gone were the billboards advertising arcade games from the '80s and '90s. Gone were the see-saw screen tilts, chunky car textures and annoying voice-overs. The new Rave City and its multitude of courses were cast in perpetual midnight. The enormous skyscrapers that lined the roads were illuminated with millions of lights. Drivers could make their way across the bay by taking a series of massive bridges or by using a series of underground tunnels colored by neon lights. To add Sega-style spectacle to the location there was even a theme park, casino, shopping complex and stadium located through, next to and under the courses. It was essentially the great timeline version of the Wonder Eggs theme park that Namco hoped to have built. Sharp-eyed arcade fans could spot a rollercoaster modeled after the classic fantasy title The Tower of Druaga. Even in this world every Namco shout-out had to be acceptable in canon.

Fireworks could be seen lighting up the sky over the The Rave City theme park. The gigantic ferris wheel sparkled with thousands of multicolored LED lights and part of the Druaga coaster track was suspended over the street course. There was even a huge man made volcano that would spit out smoke and fire on regular intervals. The enormous castle was undoubtedly modeled after Tokyo Disneyland and the volcano after the one in the neighboring Tokyo Disney Sea park.

A portion of the backlot could be raced through, making the Downtown Rave City and Crossbay Tunnel courses almost as memorable as Sega's legendary Joypolis 2020 course from Daytona USA 2. The Namco response was essentially Wonder Eggs World 3030. This was the Ridge Racer experience that long-time fans were hoping to see on newer consoles. It was the evolutionary step from Ridge Racer Type 4 that wasn't reached in Ridge Racer V. The experience was far more fantastic than any previous title yet maintained a certain sense of realism, rather than reality.

The sense of the impossibly fast races and futuristic landscapes was absent when Bugbear Entertainment developed Unbounded. Everything suddenly became dark and gritty. The streets were dirty and cracked, the world was covered with a layer of grime. Cinematic reality was the goal that the developers had achieved. It was visually amazing but somewhat depressing at the same time. The atmosphere in Unbounded was nihilistic, the studio wanted drivers not to feel bad about destroying the city of Shatterbay with unstoppable muscle cars.

Bugbear Entertainment had changed the world of Ridge Racer to suit their vision. I don't hold it against them. Unbounded was a great game, but it was not a Ridge Racer experience. Namco had made the mistake of following a trend rather than charting out its own destiny. Destruction racing, action racing, whatever the gaming media dubbed it was almost a decade old before the Japanese publisher decided to cash in on it. The worst thing was that Namco had turned its back on the promise of tomorrow.

The future was the strongest selling point that the series had going for it. Every version of the game was meant to push the boundaries of racing. It dared to ask the question of what would happen if there was an era without conflict and without strife. What sorts of entertainment achievements could be achieved in that time? How much more amazing of a spectacle would racing become if the biggest industries were invested in it rather than in the instruments of war? The next blog will answer that question. As always if you would like to sponsor me please visit my Patreon page and consider donating each month, even as little as $1 would help make better blogs and even podcasts!

The Ridge Racer Legacy, part 6...

Rage Racer was the first completely original sequel designed from the ground-up for the Playstation. Namco had taken to heart everything that worked in Ridge Racer Revolution but cleaned the slate in order to start from scratch. The 1997 hit was at the time considered one of the best racing games ever created. Creatively it was an entirely new way to interpret the franchise. The over-the-top celebratory nature of the original arcade hit became much more subdued. The entire city had still turned out for the race but it was carried out in a much more serious affair.

The racers were fueled by a sense of urgency and an insatiable desire to compete according to the opening cinema. The colors had become more muted, the tracks had changed and the city transformed from metropolitan to classical European. French arcs and Spanish cathedrals were mixed with whitewashed Mediterranean villas and Greek temples. The eerie part was how much this new city paralleled Ridge City. The trademark for many Ridge City courses was driving underneath a modern mirrored skyscraper at the start of each race. Rage Racer had the cars drive through a gothic temple instead. It was as if audiences were going through the classical European sister city instead of the traditional Ridge City. The new artistic direction had completely rethought the world and canon of the game.

The title had a few tracks, the Mythical Coast, Over Pass City, Lake Side Gate and The Extreme Oval. Yet each of these courses was also very long and challenging. The world had been influenced greatly from the work that the team had put into Rave Racer a few years prior. The courses went up and down steep hills creating massive jumps exhilarating blind turns to test the courage of racers. The courses also included a large number of banked curves which were different than the flat roads that the drift-friendly streets of Ridge City provided. Even small details were not overlooked. The helicopters that were prevalent in earlier entries had returned but now they were joined by a blimp which also followed the action from high overhead. Visually the game looked like an improvement over Ridge Racer Revolution. New graphical touches were added as standard features. The time of day for example changed depending on which class players were competing in.

The morning, noon and night lighting added a lot of atmosphere to the game. Players were encouraged to personalize their cars. The game came with an editor that allowed players to change the color of their car and body kit and even add decals to the hood. While customization is in multiple genres today a few decades ago it was revolutionary. Players could also choose the song that would play on each course using a sort of radio selector in the menu screen. It was a nice touch that allowed players to enjoy their favorite mix as they tore through the circuits. Many of the manufacturers from previous games had returned but they featured new models of the familiar cars. Players had to race and earn enough prize money to afford faster cars.

The pace of teach race depended on the class that was competing. The learning curve was not bad considering how realistic the cars handled at the beginning of the game. Drivers still had to obey the common techniques in order to win races. They had to know when to brake, how to approach the apex of each turn, how to draft behind an opponent and even how drifting worked for certain roads and not others. As the player went up in class then the speed at which the tracks were played went up by a few miles per hour. Players had to learn to respond faster to each course and even anticipate the turns ahead of time. Little by little the difficulty would increase and before players knew it they were blazing through the courses at insanely high speeds. The Diable GP for example featured an extreme class of cars that handled like the Angel 0 and Devil 13. The cars could accelerate like a rocket and take turns at over 200MPH. Had the game started at that pace then gamers would have thrown the title out of the window. In the final races players were almost expected to be pre-cognizant as to every turn and opponent a second or more before they got there. Yet somehow instead of being upset with the difficulty players had become addicted to the quick pace and demand for equally fast reflexes.

There was nothing magical about what Rage Racer did to audiences although it seemed like that after a few hours of playing. The developers knew that in order to become great at a racing game players would have to compete through the same courses again and again. This made racers familiar with the course but it also built muscle memory. Racing on the same course multiple times could get tedious but Namco had the answer. Rotate through the stages, change the time of day in order to limit the distance players could see ahead of them and make the competition a little harder. In this way players would get to relearn each stage and be encouraged to buy nicer cars in order to keep up. By increasing the pace of each stage a little bit in each class the players were being programmed to respond and react faster and faster. By the final courses the muscle memory was completely dialed in and players knew the best lines to take without even having to think about it. Audiences could fly through turns with flawless precision and shave minutes off of their best times. Rage Racer turned out to be more than just a fantastic game for the original Playstation. It made serious racers out of even the most casual game players. That was something that not many console games could ever claim to do.

It would take a few years for Namco to come up with the next iteration of the series. As experimental as Rage Racer was it did not encapsulate how far Namco was willing to push the franchise. In 1999 the studio debuted R4 Ridge Racer Type 4. Considered by many to be the peak of the franchise and most accessible sequel. To compare it to a different game it was the "Tony Hawk's Pro Skater 2" of the series. It was a game that made everyone feel like they could finally understand the appeal of the genre and at the same time provided enough of a challenge for die-hard fans to keep returning. The next blog will take a closer look at what the fourth game did for the series. As always if you would like to sponsor me please visit my Patreon page and consider donating each month, even as little as $1 would help make better blogs and even podcasts!

The Ridge Racer Legacy, part 5...

Sega had set the standard for arcade racers and Namco could never quite topple their legacy. When it came to track design Sega was unparalleled. They had demonstrated that a great track could and should tell a story. The developers at Namco on the other hand wanted to create a city that was perfect for street racing. It had to be somewhat believable but have elements that made it a drivers paradise. The story that Namco would create would be based on a town that celebrated racing in every format. The studio invented Ridge City. It was an interesting location but the story took a while to develop.

The town had influences from Japanese cities, European countrysides and USA bay area scenery. Courses were designed based on the layout of the city, its roads, highways and residential neighborhoods, coast and mountain range. Multiple circuits would evolve over the years based on portions of these tracks. One might cut through the cities and the mountains, one might cut through the beach and the city as well. Players could get used to familiar portions of the track and become very adept at racing through them at very high speed.

Expressways would be connected by massive, colorfully lit tunnels. Bridges of different types would connect valleys and islands on the absolute outskirt of town. Circuits were not limited to the freeway system either. They could go through an industrial strip, suburban paradise or an airport runway as well. The exact layout of Ridge City would become standardized through the life of the franchise. In Sega racing games the tracks in one title had nothing in common with those in a sequel. They all looked fantastic however and all told an amazing story. As Ridge City grew it told a story that was more grounded in reality. The courses felt familiar to players through every sequel, it was like revisiting a friend each and every time they started a new race.

The studio was eager to expand on the locations featured in the game as well as the themes that each track explored. They wanted to create a narrative on the city, or cities based on landmarks, architecture and road layouts. In short they wanted to introduce the art of storytelling to the circuits. They did this in the third game of the series, Rave Racer from 1995. The track layouts were much more dynamic in the game, with roads rising and falling very sharply in elevation. When that was combined with the see-saw action of the screen it was easy for players to get disoriented. The designers were trying to give audiences a sense of speed with the graphic tricks.

Rave Racer expanded greatly on the types of winding courses that the series would become synonymous with. Mediterranean architecture and European rally influences had begun to creep into the layout as well. Within three games the courses had grown large enough to outgrow the city backdrop and include the entirety of Ridge County. Sega may have created the most exotic of locations but there was something to be said of all the how diverse one location had become.

As the series went on the development teams would literally pick up where they had left off. Not all audience members had realized it but Ridge City was in a perpetual state of construction and refinement. Each time drivers visited the game they were supposed to feel as if nothing had changed. The cars were all still very sporty and the drifting mechanic was still a major selling point however audiences were encouraged to look beyond the retaining wall. Ridge City itself was growing in between the games. Buildings that were being erected in one title had been completed a few years down the road. Warehouses, and docks that once stood empty were now bustling with ships and traffic.

The skyline of the virtual city was in a constant state of flux just like the real world cities. In terms of graphics the game was only going to look better over the next 20 years but the heart of Ridge City would remain. The Sega race tracks would always be memorable to arcade visitors but the courses from Ridge Racer would also retain a sense of timelessness for console owners. It was the shift to the Playstation that had the biggest impact on the evolution of Ridge Racer. The console could never match the visual quality of newer arcade racers but it did offer satisfying ways to experience the racing genre. Some of the biggest and best moments in the franchise were owed to the games that followed Ridge Racer Revolution. The next blog will look at one of these titles. As always if you would like to sponsor me please visit my Patreon page and consider donating each month, even as little as $1 would help make better blogs and even podcasts!