Ridge Racer - are you a fan?

After posting about the Ridge Racer arcade cabinet, and then getting the idea for the poll for the favourite arcade version, I thought I would also explore the complete series.

So for the survey, which of the Ridge Racer games, arcade or console, do you like, and why?

When did you first play any of the series? did you take to it and enjoy it? or get frustrated and not being able to pull of the drifting around corners easily to begin with?

Which of the games in the series have you played? enjoyed? been disappointed with? or purchased?

Note: Ridge Racer Turbo (Jap)/Ridge Racer Hi-Spec Demo (EU)(PSX) was a free bonus game disc included with R4: Ridge Racer Type 4. It contains the original Ridge Racer game, featuring a reduced number of game modes, but running at 60fps and featuring gouraud shading.

I love Type 4 myself. I haven't played any versions beyond that but I think that one is superb. The track design, the handling, the music... everything is virtually perfect.

Rage Racer was the first version I owned. Based on the arcade game Rave Racer, it used more realistic graphics than the previous games, and a more muted grey colour palette. It was also the first to introduce buying new cars and customisation, long before Gran Turismo. The gameplay was also less pure arcade and a had large differences in driving feel between the vehicles. I played that version a lot, and it look a lot to master.

I then got hold of Ridge Racer and Ridge Racer Revolution, going backwards through the series. I still loved the pure arcade feel of the original Ridge Racer, and played it until I had mastered it, and managed to come first in all races and collect all cars. Definitely not as good as Rage Racer though, but probably harder to master and complete.

R4: Type 4 looked amazing, but I was disappointed that they removed the customisation and variety of cars available and instead changed to 4 teams to join and race for. Still a good game in the series. Good track design as Graham mentions, and a lot of cars to choose from. The one thing that lets this game down is the difficulty. Compared to the previous games in the series, R4 is very easy. I completed the whole game the day I got it! In a couple of hours. The shows the difficulty level is much lower, although I do know many found the previous games much too hard and never managed to win a race, so I suppose it was a balance to get more gamers feeling they could achieve more with less frustration. However, it just felt too easy for me to win races and progress. In the previous games, much like real racing drivers, you had to get to know the tracks and the cars, and in a race you knew the exact moments where you made a mistake that caused you to come second instead of first.

With Ridge Racer 5, I'd been waiting for this new version on the next gen systems at the time. And although the graphics were a huge step up in realism over the PSX and arcade versions, and did give a wow factor, I didn't take to it as much. The drifting didn't feel as good, or a required skill of the game. You could just as easily drive without drifting and still do well. Still a good game in the series, but I didn't play it as much.

The N64 and DS versions were quite bad. The N64 version was based on the first original game, but not as good as the PSX version. Lower resolution, suffering from the texture blur of the system and with a slower framerate. The controls also just didn't feel right using the analogue stick. And as for the DS version, such games don't translate to that system very well, much like the gameboy before it.

Ridge Racer PSP was on the other hand a completely different story. Much like the PSP version of Wipeout Pure, the PSP version of Ridge Racer is great. Nice graphics, easily matching those from RRV on the PS2, and with proper Ridge Racer drifting back. The controls also work very well on the PSP, which can't be said for some games on the platform. Also recaptures was the feel from the first games, with drifting being much more a requirement again and the sense of being in a race and needing to get every corner right to come first back again.

Ridge Racer 2 PSP built on this and expanded the same game further, and is just as good.

I've not played RR6 on the 360 or RR7 on the PS3 enough to comment too much on the gameplay, but they both look graphically very nice.

I've also going to be avoiding the iPhone version! ;)