It seemed that with the releases of both Ridge Racer 3D and Ridge Racer Unbounded that Namco’s acclaimed sound team, Namco Bandai Studios Inc or NBSI has lost their touch. Not only was the soundtrack for Ridge Racer 3D a complete diaster, Ridge Racer:Unbounded’s only saving grace were the included version of several past Ridge Racer classics (Freak Out, Orbital Rock, Explorers, Beat Assassinator, Road Mauler) to help keep the upbeat pace. Every other song expect for “The Finger” and “Take a Ride” (Both created by Hiroshi Okubo) felt like they belonged in another game.
Now I’m a huge Ridge Racer fan and I’m an even bigger fan of the music that accompanied the racing series so you can imagine my disappointment in the past few games and their music (Yes I know I already made that apparent). However it seems that Namco was also thinking the same thing and thankfully went back to their roots and scored a hue win for the soundtrack that was released with Ridge Racer Vita. Now while the game may not be the best Ridge Racer to-date, it’s way better than that Garbage Ridge Racer 3D and DAMN is that soundtrack bliss. It’s basically taking it back to the sounds of Ridge Racer Type 4, yes it’s that good!
The soundtrack labeled Ridge Racer Plantary Sounds includes a 13 track orgy for your ears that includes tracks from Hiroshi Okubo, Ayako Saso, Rio Hamamoto, Taku Inoue, Nobuyoshi Sano, Kyoko Miyakura, Ryo Watanabe, Akitaka Tohyama so yes, this is definitely worth listening too.
[soundcloud url=”http://api.soundcloud.com/tracks/40225533″ iframe=”true” /]1 ENTRANCE／Hiroshi Okubo
2 PLANET (Select Screen Edit)／Taku Inoue
3 INTO THE LEAD／Hiroshi Okubo
4 DIGITAL HORIZON／Rio Hamamoto
5 FUTURE DRIVEN／Yuu Miyake
6 SLIDING BEAT／Ryo Watanabe
7 VIRTUOSO／sanodg
8 PURPLE SKY／AJURIKA
9 THE TIME IS NOW／SamplingMasters MEGA
10 RACER’S DELIGHT／Taku Inoue
11 TAKE YOU AWAY／SamplingMasters AYA
12 SUPER ACCELERATION／Kyoko Miyakura
13 PLANET／Taku Inoue
If you’re a Ridge Racer fan or if you just appreciate good video game music then you owe it to check out this soundtrack. Now if you’ll excuse me I’m going to go back to listening to “Into The Lead”. I love this track, rates up there next to “Galactic Life” from Ridge Racer 6.
Ridge Racer Planetary Sounds can be purchased at any online Video Game Music store or over at Sweeprecords – http://sweeprecord.com/?p=4858.
