I'm with you, I miss Japanese arcade racers. Although I've heard Forza Horizon does the arcade racer part pretty well? I might be getting that wrong...
Yeah nothing beats playing Pole Position or OutRun (or Daytona USA, etc) in an arcade, the way they were originally intended to be played.
I feel like "quirkiness" in games in general, particularly Western games, has slowly declined in favor of overly serious characters and plots. Thank goodness we have decades of games with at least strange elements in them to return to if need be.
I didn't have much fun with the Forza Horizon that I played (4? 5?), but it's hard to point my finger at what exactly I didn't like. I think I just picked up an entire vibe about it, that it felt very much like a... Current Year Seattle Corporate Product to me, but maybe that's all in my own head. You should absolutely give it a try at some point and see what you think. My son at least enjoyed watching me play it.
Well, I don’t think I even mean to call it soulless in the same way EA is soulless.
I remember being turned off when trying to create my avatar and I felt the game was trying to steer me towards looking like a barista with a man bun and skinny jeans and loafers with no socks.
Which is no judgement on a guy that chooses to look like that. And it’s not that the avatar has to look like me, or like my personal power fantasy. But it felt like the characters all got lost on the way to Coffee Shop Simulator, or possibly HR Sensitivity Training Simulator, instead of a collection of lunatics taking insane risks driving overpowered cars in Mexico.
That’s not the only thing, but it’s one of the more tangible things I can point to.
Fun review! I'll admit I never played a Ridge Racer after the first one, which I mainly played in the arcades and was blown away by its graphics at the time. To me, the arcade racer is a genre that was hit very hard by the decline of the arcade and the immersive cabinets that accompanied it. At home, we'd rather have either deep progression or zany multiplayer.
But even Pole Position is kind of awesome seated in an arcade cabinet. Boy did this thing stand out at my local Showbiz Pizza in the late 1980s -- when it was already old! But as a kid I hardly noticed as it was my first experience with a steering wheel and pedals.
OutRun has aged much better, but a lot is still lost compared to the arcade, where I first played it. In Yakuza 0, your character can play OutRun in the arcade, and it's a very strange feeling, the mix of jealousy and nostalgia as your character sits down to play OutRun in the proper way but then you end up playing a pale imitation of it, with a gamepad in front of a TV.
But what comes across in your review is a distinct Japanese arcade racer quirkiness that the Ridge Racer series apparently retained in the later titles and that's mostly lost in the racing games we have today. Even the Japanese ones like Mario Kart and Gran Turismo. The name "Ridge City" can't help but remind me of a certain Raccoon City.
I'm with you, I miss Japanese arcade racers. Although I've heard Forza Horizon does the arcade racer part pretty well? I might be getting that wrong...
Yeah nothing beats playing Pole Position or OutRun (or Daytona USA, etc) in an arcade, the way they were originally intended to be played.
I feel like "quirkiness" in games in general, particularly Western games, has slowly declined in favor of overly serious characters and plots. Thank goodness we have decades of games with at least strange elements in them to return to if need be.
Thanks for the comment!
I didn't have much fun with the Forza Horizon that I played (4? 5?), but it's hard to point my finger at what exactly I didn't like. I think I just picked up an entire vibe about it, that it felt very much like a... Current Year Seattle Corporate Product to me, but maybe that's all in my own head. You should absolutely give it a try at some point and see what you think. My son at least enjoyed watching me play it.
That's a shame. That's how I feel about modern EA products, they are completely soulless.
Well, I don’t think I even mean to call it soulless in the same way EA is soulless.
I remember being turned off when trying to create my avatar and I felt the game was trying to steer me towards looking like a barista with a man bun and skinny jeans and loafers with no socks.
Which is no judgement on a guy that chooses to look like that. And it’s not that the avatar has to look like me, or like my personal power fantasy. But it felt like the characters all got lost on the way to Coffee Shop Simulator, or possibly HR Sensitivity Training Simulator, instead of a collection of lunatics taking insane risks driving overpowered cars in Mexico.
That’s not the only thing, but it’s one of the more tangible things I can point to.
I miss the days when PlayStation consoles launched alongside a new Ridge Racer title…
Me too, buddy. Me too
I never owned a PS2 so I missed this one. I do have fond memories of both the original ridge racer and rage racer for the PS1.
The Ridge Racers for PS1 are still my favorite. Never played Rage Racer, though
Never played this version but I did miss the sound of Riiiidge Racer 4. Thanks for sharing the review.
Thanks for reading and commenting!
Fun review! I'll admit I never played a Ridge Racer after the first one, which I mainly played in the arcades and was blown away by its graphics at the time. To me, the arcade racer is a genre that was hit very hard by the decline of the arcade and the immersive cabinets that accompanied it. At home, we'd rather have either deep progression or zany multiplayer.
But even Pole Position is kind of awesome seated in an arcade cabinet. Boy did this thing stand out at my local Showbiz Pizza in the late 1980s -- when it was already old! But as a kid I hardly noticed as it was my first experience with a steering wheel and pedals.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pole_Position#/media/File:Pole_Position_in_Computerspielemuseum,_Berlin.jpg
OutRun has aged much better, but a lot is still lost compared to the arcade, where I first played it. In Yakuza 0, your character can play OutRun in the arcade, and it's a very strange feeling, the mix of jealousy and nostalgia as your character sits down to play OutRun in the proper way but then you end up playing a pale imitation of it, with a gamepad in front of a TV.
But what comes across in your review is a distinct Japanese arcade racer quirkiness that the Ridge Racer series apparently retained in the later titles and that's mostly lost in the racing games we have today. Even the Japanese ones like Mario Kart and Gran Turismo. The name "Ridge City" can't help but remind me of a certain Raccoon City.