Ridge Racer series
| Ridge Racer | |
|---|---|
| Genres | Auto racing |
| Developers | Namco |
| Publishers | Namco Bandai Namco Games |
| Platforms | Arcade, PlayStation, PlayStation 2, PlayStation 3, PSP, PlayStation Vita, Nintendo 64, GameCube, Nintendo DS, Nintendo 3DS, Xbox, Xbox 360, mobile, Microsoft Windows |
| Platform of origin | Arcade |
| Year of inception | 1993 |
| First release |
Ridge Racer October 7, 1993 |
| Latest release |
Ridge Racer Draw & Drift October 20, 2016 |
Ridge Racer (Japanese: リッジレーサー Hepburn: Rijji Rēsā) is a series of arcade racing video games developed and published by Namco for both the arcade and various video game consoles. In each of the games, players take part in races set in and around the fictional Ridge City while utilizing the concepts of drift racing to quickly traverse corners. Its virtual mascot is Reiko Nagase. The first game was released in 1993 and has overall spanned four arcade titles, eleven console titles, and nine mobile and portable titles. It is highly acclaimed and is considered influential.
While there are differences among the various games, the basic gameplay in the Ridge Racer series has remained relatively consistent. Races take place on tracks usually laid out on city streets and other public roads (though closed circuit tracks also exist). Starting in last place, players have a limited number of laps in which they can overtake opponents and ultimately win the race. As many of the turns on the course were not intended to be taken at race speeds, players drift through the corners, attempting to maintain as much speed as possible. The latest console game of the series, 2012's Ridge Racer Unbounded, marked a notable departure from the traditional drifting style gameplay, moving to a more destructive style.
In the arcade games (and the home versions based on those games), the players also race against a timer, with time extended for each successfully-completed lap of the course. The race will end if the timer expires or the player completes the final lap of the race, whichever occurs first. In the console-exclusive versions, players must finish the race in a minimum assigned place in order to advance through the game.
Later games in the series expanded these basics by introducing cars with different drifting characteristics; some cars could be made to drift quite easily, but were more challenging to control, while other cars were harder to initiate drift yet easier to control. Another recent addition was "nitrous", which would give the player's car a short burst of additional speed and could be replenished by drifting through corners at high speeds.
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Wikipedia