RIDGE RACER!!!!!!!!!!! That iconic title that started off on the Sony Playstation, the title that had you power sliding around every corner, speeding past your opponents and that title actually gave you the impression that you were oh so Fast and Furious (Yep I said that). Fast forward to 2011! Where has our beloved Ridge Racer gone? Oh, wait I think I see it …. wait, that’s not Ridge Racer? Ridge Racer: Unbounded, what is that? Why am I using realistic cars? What happened to Ridge City? Why am I destroying stuff and why does this remind me of Flatout? What did they do to Reiko?????
I can answer that actually. You see, Ridge Racer: Unbounded is not being made by Namco but by BugBear, the same company that created the Flatout series. Yes, folks, this marks the first time that a Ridge Racer title is not only not made by Namco, but it also marks the first time that Ridge Racer seemingly doesn’t seem like Ridge Racer at all. Now if it seems that I’m being very critical of this it’s because I am. Not only did I grow up on the Ridge Racer series, I loved them. I was sorely depressed ever since the Playstation 2 was released as we only had a handful of Ridge Racer games since then. Let’ see we had 5 Ridge Racer games on the Playstation 1, 1 on the Playstation 2 (Unless you also count R: Racing Evolution), 1 on the Nintendo 64, 1 on the Xbox 360 and 1 on the Playstation 3. Lucky we did get a handful of releases on the Nintendo DS (terrible) and PSP, but since I really don’t play portables I skipped them (Though I really want to play Ridge Racer 1-2 PSP). Now we get this new entry which seems like the offspring of Flatout and Burnout, it doesn’t seem to have that magic touch that made me fall in love with Ridge Racer.
Now I’ll be the first to say that I’ll be happy to admit that I’m wrong if this turns out to be a good game, but a good game doesn’t mean it will be a good Ridge Racer game. It’s like how Final Fantasy: The Spirits Within felt like. That could have called it anything else and it would have been a good movie, but they chose to call it Final Fantasy and we all know that that movie was nothing like Final Fantasy. That’s exactly how I feel about Unbounded, but I’m hoping Namco and BugBear can prove me wrong. Please prove me wrong.
FYI, Ridge Racer: Unbounded will be shown at GamesCom 2011, so if you get to attend it and get some hands on, let us know what you think about it!