Review
Played on: PS2 & PC (emulated)
Released: 2000
Ridge Racer was an important launch title for the first PlayStation, running 3D arcade games at home was a massive selling point back in the 90s. When PS2 launched, Namco once again delivered a racer at launch, but by then the consoles were catching up to arcade hardware and blurring the line between home and arcade graphics.
This launch title racer wouldn't reach the impact the series had during the PS1 era, realism was the new buzzword for racers and so it was somewhat overlooked in hindsight.
I’m of course talking about Ridge Racer V, the last release of the first era of Ridge Racers, which I spoke about in my RR6 review. This era was when the RR drifting mechanics were more advanced, requiring a correct attack angle at the apexes and proper power control through the corner.
Released: 2000
Ridge Racer was an important launch title for the first PlayStation, running 3D arcade games at home was a massive selling point back in the 90s. When PS2 launched, Namco once again delivered a racer at launch, but by then the consoles were catching up to arcade hardware and blurring the line between home and arcade graphics.
This launch title racer wouldn't reach the impact the series had during the PS1 era, realism was the new buzzword for racers and so it was somewhat overlooked in hindsight.
I’m of course talking about Ridge Racer V, the last release of the first era of Ridge Racers, which I spoke about in my RR6 review. This era was when the RR drifting mechanics were more advanced, requiring a correct attack angle at the apexes and proper power control through the corner.
When the second era of Ridge Racer titles appeared, beginning with Ridge Racers on the PSP, the drifting was simplified and cars were locked in a path through each corner. This difference is key, as it defines what made RR more unique in the older titles and simplified in the newer releases.
RRV then, last of its breed, launching in arcades at the very tail end of the 90’s, reaching the PS2 on launch in 2000. It’s the end of a long developed racing mechanic, reaching its height in advancement with RRV. Ideas from earlier RR titles are blended in and there’s a sense of a soft reboot of the very first Ridge Racer, albeit clearly being a sequel.
Back when the PS2 launched, following my huge love for Rage Racer and Ridge Racer Type 4, read about that here, I was initially sceptical towards RRV. At the time realism was king and Gran Turismo 3 was the massive racer everyone was waiting for. Although, visually, RRV went for a more muted and realistic look, which was the trend, it kind of drowned in the masses of other similar looking racers.
Back when the PS2 launched, following my huge love for Rage Racer and Ridge Racer Type 4, read about that here, I was initially sceptical towards RRV. At the time realism was king and Gran Turismo 3 was the massive racer everyone was waiting for. Although, visually, RRV went for a more muted and realistic look, which was the trend, it kind of drowned in the masses of other similar looking racers.
There was a noticeable visual change in menu artwork, less colourful graphics and a less unique racetrack design compared to R4. I tried going back to it a few years into the PS2 lifespan but felt it was underwhelming and already had aged. Even the mascot girl was swapped out, setting aside Reiko Nagase which had earned fame through R4s iconic intro and Rage Racers grid girl, to the less prominent Ai Fukami. Overall, a lot of changes that took away the resemblance of a clear cut sequel to R4.
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However, in recent years I’ve had a bad conscience for never playing RRV properly. Knowing well how it's much loved by hardcore RR fans. So, a couple of years back I sat down with my PS2 on a CRT and went through the easy championship mode, even with something as rare as the NeGcon controller. Sadly, I’m stuck with a PAL copy and console, complete with a slower framerate and large black borders, hardly ideal. Once again, I put RRV back on the shelf.
Time passed and recently I received news that the PS2 emulator PCSX2 was heavily updated and running RRV very well, albeit with some minor visual errors. I decided to try it out and complete the normal championship. I sat down with my gaming laptop PC, connected to a modern TV, and played all the normal mode championships.
I can finally say that I missed out on a great RR experience back in the day. Everything from the box artwork, manual, menu system and general car and circuit design is high quality. It oozes style, even with it's more muted and minimalism approach, something Namco excelled at back then. Maybe the years passed have made me appreciate it more, a look back to simpler times and straight to the point arcade racers.
Sure, RRV omits ideas from earlier releases. Like how Rage Racer had car tuning while R4 didn’t, RRV doesn’t have a grand story like R4's campaign. Relying on back-to-basics menus for each championship, with a less human touch to it all. However, it goes partially back to car tuning, although with less visual car detail like Rage Racer, with various engines and car upgrades to unlock for the car manufacture you decide to race with.
While the intro never reaches the height of R4, which is unfairly one of the best and most iconic CGI sequences on the PS1, it has it's own unique introduction. Featuring a city fly-by and the new mascot girl all rendered in real-time, while the radio show aspect of Ridge City explains the premise. In each race this radio personality gives the player bits of info or race updates, while you speed around the circuits.
Also accompanying your races are a varied selection of music. The electronic beats are typical Namco from this era and sound good, while the rock selection is questionable at best to my ears. Luckily, you can pause the game and swap music track any time.
Each championship offers different rules for the races within them. From elimination, to reverse circuits and so on. It’s a neat way of diversifying each championship and I enjoyed the return of their cool, Rage Racer influenced, name titles.
That said, the number of championships, accompanied by a small selection of circuits, is a step down from R4. Making it a short and quite repetitive playthrough, its mainly the difficulty selection prolonging the lifespan. This small number of circuits and cars was a stark contrast to Gran Turismo, or even R4, at the time it released.
RRV is the hardest Ridge Racer to master, considering it has the advanced drifting mechanics of the series. Then again, it’s very rewarding when you get the grip of it. Learning each circuit by heart, knowing when to pass other cars and how to take corners perfectly at various speeds is a tough but rewarding experience. The roads are wide, more so than earlier instalments, so passing cars is less troublesome than I recall in earlier RR releases.
At first glance the visuals are quite rough, especially when playing on an original PS2. RRV sadly never received the anti-aliasing solution Tekken Tag Tournament added in its western release. As such, it has tons of jaggies on edges which in turn flicker badly into the distance. These visual artefacts, seen in many other PS2 releases, hamper what underneath is a very competent launch title, visually. Ridge City never looked this good before it, running at 60fps with a lot of shiny surfaces on windows, car bodies and glass buildings. The cars satisfyingly reflect light sources and the colour scheme of the sky!
Added in the visual variety is the change of day for various races, while not dynamic, you can race most race tracks during daytime, evening and night. Evening has a lovely orange tinted sunset, while night offers some cool highway lighting as you speed past. Otherwise, the roadside and urban feel is well done, as usual by Namco, keeping that unique Ridge Racer city vibe.
RRV is the hardest Ridge Racer to master, considering it has the advanced drifting mechanics of the series. Then again, it’s very rewarding when you get the grip of it. Learning each circuit by heart, knowing when to pass other cars and how to take corners perfectly at various speeds is a tough but rewarding experience. The roads are wide, more so than earlier instalments, so passing cars is less troublesome than I recall in earlier RR releases.
At first glance the visuals are quite rough, especially when playing on an original PS2. RRV sadly never received the anti-aliasing solution Tekken Tag Tournament added in its western release. As such, it has tons of jaggies on edges which in turn flicker badly into the distance. These visual artefacts, seen in many other PS2 releases, hamper what underneath is a very competent launch title, visually. Ridge City never looked this good before it, running at 60fps with a lot of shiny surfaces on windows, car bodies and glass buildings. The cars satisfyingly reflect light sources and the colour scheme of the sky!
Added in the visual variety is the change of day for various races, while not dynamic, you can race most race tracks during daytime, evening and night. Evening has a lovely orange tinted sunset, while night offers some cool highway lighting as you speed past. Otherwise, the roadside and urban feel is well done, as usual by Namco, keeping that unique Ridge Racer city vibe.
My main gripe with the visuals, aside of the nasty jaggies, is the somewhat muted colour scheme and empty looking city. The focus has clearly been reaching 60fps with the best possible detail of a believable city, however it looks sterile and abandoned. It's lacking the smaller detail like Gran Turismo 3 had, putting more life into the roadsides.
Luckily, playing RRV retrospectively on an emulator allows the rough edges to be smoothed out and the resolution increase irons out the anti-aliasing issue considerably. I’ve always felt that games from this sixth generation of consoles scale up nicely to large, modern TVs at higher resolutions and RRV follows this trend perfectly. Hopefully, the small graphical glitches still present on car textures and light sources at night will be ironed out in emulator updates.
RRV is very playable on the PCSX2 emulator and since it utilised the badly implemented pressure sensitive PS2 control buttons, it’s a great title to map to proper, modern, button triggers like those on the Xbox One/ Series X/S controller. Allowing for gradual gas/brake input, not possible with the basic, tiny traversal of the PS2 buttons. Setting gas/brake to their respective triggers and setting the analogue buttons to low/medium, made RRV control absolutely fantastic!
Luckily, playing RRV retrospectively on an emulator allows the rough edges to be smoothed out and the resolution increase irons out the anti-aliasing issue considerably. I’ve always felt that games from this sixth generation of consoles scale up nicely to large, modern TVs at higher resolutions and RRV follows this trend perfectly. Hopefully, the small graphical glitches still present on car textures and light sources at night will be ironed out in emulator updates.
RRV is very playable on the PCSX2 emulator and since it utilised the badly implemented pressure sensitive PS2 control buttons, it’s a great title to map to proper, modern, button triggers like those on the Xbox One/ Series X/S controller. Allowing for gradual gas/brake input, not possible with the basic, tiny traversal of the PS2 buttons. Setting gas/brake to their respective triggers and setting the analogue buttons to low/medium, made RRV control absolutely fantastic!
If you're playing back on the PS2 you have the option to use the NeGcon controller, a great alternative if you want more precision on your turns and better analogue pressure buttons with more travel, although its tricky to master! Otherwise, stick with digital controls on a regular PS2 pad.
Having finally completed RRV on easy and normal has been satisfying, it’s a great Ridge Racer to relive the old drifting style of the franchise, albeit with more advanced mechanics and a visual style from the early 2000s. Now I just need to get to grips with hard mode!
Having finally completed RRV on easy and normal has been satisfying, it’s a great Ridge Racer to relive the old drifting style of the franchise, albeit with more advanced mechanics and a visual style from the early 2000s. Now I just need to get to grips with hard mode!
Alongside Rage Racer and Ridge Racer Type 4, it’s the best of the series and definitely should be played if you’re into these titles. It's not as forgiving as R4, which is the perfect RR for beginners, but it’s a great title to move up to when you’ve gained more experience. I still feel that Rage Racer is perhaps the hardest one though.
The last of the best Ridge Racer era ends with a solid and extremely playable entry. Hopefully we will see a remaster down the road of many of these titles!
The last of the best Ridge Racer era ends with a solid and extremely playable entry. Hopefully we will see a remaster down the road of many of these titles!
