Ridge Racer -- ResetEra's top 3 games in the series

[halcali]

I rented Ridge Racer in 1995 and thought it was the most exciting and challenging racing game I'd ever played, from that point.
Although, I haven't played half the games in the series, I'm wondering which are the "BEST 3" in your opinion?

And may we consider this a RIDGE RACER Appreciation Thread, in hopes that we may see a revival of the series on PS5 *prays*

 

[nogoodnamesleft]

Ridge racer type 4

Ridge racers 2 (psp)

rage racer

 

[Dest]

Type 4

Ridge Racer PSP 2

Rage Racer

hey wait

 

[ghibli99]

R4, Rage Racer, and Ridge Racer.

R4 came out at the time during the PS1 era when Namco just had such a command of the hardware (AC3, Klonoa, etc.). Really enjoyed that one, and the soundtrack was superb.

Rage Racer was also lots of fun and varied. It also was one of the earliest games I can remember on the PS1 that had an impressive draw distance compared to most 3D games. The livery/art editor was also fun. I plastered a Totoro on the hood of my car. :)

The first Ridge Racer is just part of my DNA at this point. Can still pick up and play it, drift around corners and come blasting out of them like it was yesterday. Even though it just has one track with extensions and variations, it's just infinitely replayable to me, as any good arcade game should be. Playing Galaxian during the initial load screen was also memorable. RRR was great too, but maybe a little too much of the same thing.

I fell off the series from 5 onwards.

 

[halcali]

is it true R4 came with R1 in 60fps ??

 

[Duane]

R4 is the best by far.

Rage Racer and the PSP one are the other two choices, I guess. Actually, RR1 on the brand new PS1 was a pretty awesome moment too, and my friends and I played it a bunch.

Actually, I'm going to say

R4
Ridge Racer
Rage Racer

I really hope a PS5 launch title comes out of nowhere. PS4 didn't launch with one, but the others all did (and so did PSP). It's a tradition that needs to come back.

 

[tutomos]

Ridge Racers 2 PSP
It's got the best courses and music from RR1-5 packed into 1 game.

Ridge Racer Type 4
The first racing game that really marries music and racing in a perfect way.

Ridge Racer Unbounded
An underrated game that plays like the best bit of modern-day NFS, except it came out 8 years ago.

 

[mute]

1 and 4 are all I've ever played and I've never had any arcade racing game give me the vibes like 1 did. 4 is an amazing game for sure but the tone (I know, racing game, lol). It is like Sega's blue skies, that stuff is so addictive.

 

[Zaki2407]

Ridge Racer Type 4 : Looks and plays great for a PS1 game
Ridge Racer V : First impression of what PS2 was capable at that time. and also 60fps.
Ridge Racer PSP : Feels like playing RR5 on a tiny and gorgeous LCD screen, still with 60fps.

 

[Deleted member 34949]

Ridge Racer PSP 2 - A fantastic best of package for the series

Ridge Racer V - Maybe it's nostalgia, but I remember this being one of my first PS2 games, and easily the one I had the most playtime on

Ridge Racer Type 4 - Aesthetic bliss.

 

[JamesQuall]

Ridge Racer Type 4 : Looks and plays great for a PS1 game
Ridge Racer V : First impression of what PS2 was capable at that time. and also 60fps.
Ridge Racer PSP : Feels like playing RR5 on a tiny and gorgeous LCD screen, still with 60fps.

Click to shrink...

This would also be mine.

Coincidentally, I just picked up 7 the other day to get a new (to me at least) fix while I hope for a PS5 announcement. Haven't had the chance to give it a go yet.

Am I correct that the second PSP game never got a US release? Would like to give that a shot one of these days based on all the praise I see.

 

[SharpX68K]

Rave Racer (arcade)

Rage Racer (PS1)

Ridge Racers / Ridge Racers 2 (PSP)

For those that don't know the difference between Rave Racer and Rage Racer, they're completely different games, although Rage Racer's track design seems to be partly influenced by Rave Racer's.

 

[ciddative]

Got Rage Racer same day as Mario Kart 64 (maybe shared release date?)

MK was bad, RR was fantastic, still remember Mathemebeat and the Assoluto Dragone/Diablo

 

[Dreamboum]

is it true R4 came with R1 in 60fps ??

Click to shrink...

yeah, in a second disk
Namco was flexing

 

[qaopjlll]

yeah, in a second disk
Namco was flexing

Click to shrink...

Didn't they have to remove all of the AI cars in 60fps mode though?

 

[SkoomaBlade]

What's the consensus on the 3DS entry? There's a copy sitting at a thrift store I frequent and I'm tempted to pick it up.

 

[Sparkedglory2]

Ridge Racer Type 4
Ridge Racer 5
Ridge Racer 7

Special mention: R Racing Evolution

 

[Oneself]

RR PSP2
RR PSP
RR7

Loved Type 4 and Rage Racer back in the PS1 days but everything, especially the gameplay, peaked around RR PSP & RR6 IMO.

 

[mingo]

No love for RR7? If by some miracle the PS5 can play PS3 games, that maybe the first title ill try.

Best RR in no order, RR7, RR psp and RRT4

 

[Hayama Akito]

Ridge racer type 4

Ridge racers 2 (psp)

rage racer

Click to shrink...

Basically this.

 

[EggmaniMN]

R4
Rave Racer
Rage Racer

joke answer Ridge Racer 64 for the ability to drift 360s going against the turn while still perfectly turning

 

[Samanosuke Akechi]

I love ridge racer 5. For a launch game, it was damn fun and quite pretty too, despite the jaggies.

 

[alpha]

1. R motherfuckin' 4
2. Rage Racer
3. RR5

 

[Chakoo]

Ridge Racers 1/2 (I mostly consdier them the same since it was just the game with some extra content).
R: Type 4
Last one probably Rage Racer (I had a hard time taking to the handling changes in V, also the damn interlacing makes it hard to return to).

 

[CSX]

1. Ridge Racer PSP
2. Ridge Racer 4
3. Ridge Racer 7

 

[Chakoo]

What's the consensus on the 3DS entry? There's a copy sitting at a thrift store I frequent and I'm tempted to pick it up.

Click to shrink...

It's alright if you liked RR PSP/R7/R8. It just feels too recycled and the 3d effect was bad for me. Still it didn't stop me from putting a crap ton of time into it at launch. Yet I'd rather go back and play RR PSP over it.

 

[ThisIsBlitz21]

1) Type 4
2) Type 4
3) Type 4

 

[Chakoo]

This topic reminds me to question. what the hell was namco thinking when they did RR Vita. Such a catastrophic mess that wasn't needed. They should have just delayed the game till all the content was ready to put into a single release. :(

 

[Bjones]

Easy
7
4
2

 

[Valkerion]

1. R4: Ridge Racer Type 4 - It's in my opinion, the cowboy bebop of racers/games in general. It's wholely doing its own thing and doing it amazingly well. The vibes of the visuals, music, and more all just blend into one of the most unique feeling racers made. It's essentially impossible to top. Some games got style, some are classy. The pseudo visual novel story between races is fun too. Shoutouts to the French and Japanese storylines.

2. Ridge Racer 7 - It's just RR6+, but I love the refined nitro mechanic here. The track number and car number is second to none obviously. It was a great entry to play and I really enjoyed the rebalanced game play from 6. Also a 1080p launch title!? RR is always a visual treat and so was this one. The amount of unlockable cars and more were really fun.

3. Ridge Racer 5 - It was a huge step up and wholely different beast from R4 but a great first step into the next gen. It really screamed PS2! Aside from trying to replace our girl Reiko I loved this one. The live radio style commentary was a unique touch that I still think about to this day.

Not a super huge fan of the entries before R4, but I did like Rage Racer a shoutout to the PSP entry. The vita game is good as well but I have no damn clue what they were trying to pull with that.

I pretty much gave up on RR getting another entry but the release and seeming success of Ace Combat 7 really gave me hope again. AC and RR both had mediocre/bad reimagingings at the same time so if one can recover the other definitely can too even if RR is even more nice than AC thanks to its driving style.

 

[MufausaThe3rd]

1. Type 4
2. Ridge Racer Revolution (Ridge Racer 2)
3. Ridge Racer (PSP)

 

[Cascadero]

I bought my PlayStation for Ridge Racer. Such a fantastic game. I felt that Ridge Racer Revolution and Rage Racer both even improved on it. Haven't played later games in the series.

 

[Gen X]

Rage
Ridge #1
R4

is it true R4 came with R1 in 60fps ??

Click to shrink...

Yup , still got mine boxed with the JogCon. Geez that controller gave my thumb mean blisters. Was cool having true force feedback as opposed to rumble being labelled as force feedback. Controller was no where near as good as the NegCon though. Still have a boxed one of those as well. Too bad my modded first gen Playstation was stolen, or mysteriously went missing from my games storage chest. I'd love to dig out R4 as I didn't really play it much, finished it in a couple of hours then a few years ago I learned how deep it was.

 

[Deleted member 1589]

Type 4
Rage Racer
Ridge Racer 5

 

[Kraid]

Ridge Racer V
Ridge Racer PSP
Ridge Racer 7

 

[PugSith]

Nothing beats my love for the original, bought it with my PS1 and played the hell out of it (and Rayman). Also paid some insane amount of money to sit in arcade version where they rigged a Mazda MX5 as the arcade cab/controller. I love this series and want the original back as a remaster on the PS5

So Ridge Racer, type 4 and Rage Racer.

 

[Sheng Long]

Type 4

Rage Racer

Ridge Racer V


I kind of liked VII too

 

[halcali]

R4 and RR1 are peak-aesthetics (for me, anyway)

So crisp, so clean, so poly <3

 

[btkadams]

Holy shit a Ridge Racer PS5 game would get me so hyped.

I tragically didn't play the series prior to the PS3 and PSP games but I really enjoyed all of those. I really wish they'd bring Ridge Racer classics onto PSN.

 

[jetsetrez]

Really hard to say because the top 4 for me are all among my favorite racing games ever. I'm gonna cop out and give 6 and 7 a tie for the top spot since they are so close. It's probably slightly 7, but I put an insane amount of time into 6.

Ridge Racer 7/6 (tie)
Ridge Racer Type 4
Ridge Racers (PSP)

 

[Talus]

Ridge Racer Revolution
Ridge Racer 4

 

[yyr]

1. Ridge Racer 6 (and 7). By a thousand miles. The course design in 6 was the strongest ever, there was a ton of single-player content, the sense of speed was phenomenal, the online racing was fantastic, the soundtrack was good, and it still looks great today. (Ridge Racer 7 is virtually the same game, but with some mediocre new courses added, occasional frame drops on said mediocre new courses, no anti-aliasing, more and better music, and a totally different but still very fun single-player campaign. 6 is my favorite but 7 is close behind.)
2. Ridge Racer V. Not enough courses, for sure, but what was there was fantastic. 60fps in a mainline home-version Ridge for the first time was sublime, and it played just as good as it looked.
3. Rage Racer. For its day, nothing felt faster, and the courses were tailor-made to showcase the differences between the available vehicles. This game really made you work for some of those victories, but boy, did it ever feel great to nail those corners!

Honorable mentions: Rave Racer arcade, Ridge Racers 1 & 2 for PSP, Ridge Racer Turbo Mode (60fps) on PS1. And the first two games were fun too, just didn't last very long.

I know that not many people feel this way, but search your soul, you know it to be true: R4 is trash. It just happens to be trash with some of the best graphics on PS1, a fantastic soundtrack, and the same high level of course design as the others. It's also pretty amazing that they were able to add a fun story element. But the gameplay was just not fun to me at all, the weakest in the series by far. If you want more detailed reasoning as to why, I already posted that some time ago: https://www.resetera.com/threads/rt...l-incredible-today.59721/page-2#post-11085811

 

[neptunez]

1. Type-4 - for its unified atmosphere and aesthetic, the game just oozed style in an era where arcade racers were still finding their footing.

2. Ridge Racer 6 (X360) - the most refined installment in the series (along with 7). Took the gameplay from the PSP series and made it better.


3. Ridge Racers (PSP) - reinvigorated the dormant series and gave it a new sense of life and style. Pushed handheld graphics when it launched.

 

[Jimrpg]

Well I haven't played them all so I'll just name my favourite.

Ridge Racer 7 - they got the boost/drift right as a gameplay mechanic and its tied to learning the track. The game runs at 1080p/60fps and its smooth as anything on the system. Sure it doesn't look as good Gran Turismo 6, but RR7 is good at what it does. Another thing, it always bothers me when people talk about how great Burnout 3 is, I feel like RR7 is a much better racing game, Burnout 3 has way over the top rubber banding the AI waits for you if you drive slow and is right behind you even if you make no mistakes. The racing is basically an illusion in Burnout 3. It has pretty crashes, that's about it.

I didn't complete the game it got pretty difficult in the end. Same with RR6 which I also loved.

RR5 was horrid. And both the PSP versions are really good, the Vita version is trash.

 

[Hakimy]

I dislike racing games yet I played the shit out of Ridge Racer type 4 and I also used to love watching the intro with its great music. I don't think we will ever see a racing game like this ever again sadly.

 

[345]

1. type 4
2. 7
3. rage

would put RR2 PSP at 3 but it's kind of redundant with 7.

 

[deroli]

Didn't they have to remove all of the AI cars in 60fps mode though?

Click to shrink...

You were only racing one other car, yeah.

My favorites:

Ridge Racer 2 (PSP): This must be some kind of Best of Ridge Racer. So many cars, courses and music tracks to choose from. And it still looks good to this day. It is time to make use of the custom firmware on my Vita and put that bad boy on it.

Ridge Racer Type 4: This game will forever have a special place in my heart. The story mode was a brilliant idea and the game's presentation is timeless. RRT4 also has favorite videogame OST, I imported the 20th anniversary edition last year. I could do without the non drifting cars however, they always felt wrong to me.

Ridge Racer: I don't know how the original game holds up to today's standards, but it was so awesome playing it for the first time that I just have to include it. The sense of speed combined with rad techno tunes and the crazy announcer blew my mind. The original Ridge Racer is like a blueprint for a great arcade racer to me.

After reading the replies here, I realized that even though RR is one of my very favorite game series, there are many games I haven't played: RRR, Rage Racer and RR 5-7, just to name the main releases. I think I'll dust my Xbox 360 off and get RR6 as it's only 10€ on eBay.
And it is a damn shame that RR8 Switch rumour hasn't come to fruition. That was the one announcement I was really looking forward to :(

 

[Crazymoogle]

I've probably put close to a thousand hours into Ridge 7, so it's the king.

Rage is great though

EDIT:

1. Ridge Racer 7 (I'm sorry, it's better than Ridge 6 and lighting is way improved. It's great)
2. Rage Racer (nostalgia I can never dismiss)
3. Ridge Racer V (Going from PS1 crunchy graphics to this was incredible. On the Painted Desert!!)

EDIT 2:

Also I just want to say RIP Michiyuki Kawashima, one of the duo of Boom Boom Satellites. :( The band ended in 2016 prior to his death from brain cancer. Their music was incredible...

 

[Bennibop]

1.) Ridge Racer type 4 - Bought Playstation classic just for this game :-(
2.) Ridge Racer 5 - Still play it on my PS2
3.) Ridge Racer 7 - Great track selection although not a fan of nitrous.

 

[Ruruja]

1 - Rage Racer
2 - Ridge Racer Type 4
3 - Ridge Racer