The super car racer from the arcades makes a worthy home console appearance.

Introduction

The Ridge Racer game series has become known for its colorful arcade style speed racing, pumping techno tracks, physics defying drifts and finally – for being promoted by the virtual race queen Reiko Nagase.
Ridge Racer 64 mixes some of the best elements from previous Ridge Racer games released on the arcade and Playstation systems.

The Game

Ridge Racer 64 is an intense arcade racer that’s all about the thrill of chasing the perfect lap times while competing with eleven other racers on the same track. It maintains the very same attitude and style that made the arcade original so popular – this involves listening to a hyperbolic commentator and mind-blowing techno beats while skidding along a track, racing against a bunch of purposeful competitors. This game is proud of its arcade inheritance and rightly so.

Controls

The controls in Ridge Racer 64 are a bit special, and a mixed bag. The cars tend to oversteer a lot, which makes the whole driving experience feel a bit slippery. It will take a short while to grow accustomed to its super-fast super-traction cars, and also the fact that the various cars handle slightly differently.
Making the more advanced maneuvers like Acceleration Drifting will need some further practice. Rather than just racing normally, this game has a profound focus on drifting in and out of curves to maximize racing times. You’ll also need to become a master counter steering in very high speeds to stand a chance. With some practice however, you will be able to steer with precision using the analog stick.

Content

The single-player campaign in Ridge Racer 64 lies in the Grand Prix mode where you participate in a series of events and try to win the championship. The race events take place in three different locations and each location hosts three different race tracks. The total amount of races is around 20, but most tracks look similar since they all take place on these three environments. Included in these are also day, night and reversed variations of the tracks.

Now and then during the Grand Prix mode you’ll even get to race in a competition called the Car Attack which is a duel between you and an unnamed driver. In this duel you must win in a three lap race, and if you’re victorious you’ll win the car of your opponent. In other words you’ll unlock the car for future use in the game. You begin the game with just three cars available and there are 24 cars plus secret ones to unlock, so this certainly spices things up.

The other modes you can play are as follows; Quick Race, which basically just starts up a random race, nothing more nothing less. Time Attack lets you practice any of the featured Grand Prix tracks and record your best lap times. These races are either on three laps, or on a free run basis where you try to perfect your lap time.

During your races you’ll notice that there are invisible walls blocking you from touching anything that’s not on the intended raceway. Sometimes you can’t even drive close to the edge of road without hitting an invisible wall. This feels restricting as you can’t cut the slightest corner, even if it’s just an inch over a grass patch.
Sooner or later you’ll crash against the wall, but the game is quite forgiving as crashing won’t cost you that much time. It seems that your own brakes slow you down more efficient than crashing against a rail or even a mountain, which can seem quite odd.
The ugliest part of the game is undoubtedly the sharp curves where it seems that the camera strictly follows a predetermined track, and thus forcibly brings your car with it through the bend. It certainly feels odd and breaks immersion – luckily it doesn’t happen all that often.

As far as racing with eleven competitors on the same tight track goes it’s just as punishing as ever to ram other cars. When this happens it seems like the AI controlled cars aren’t slowed down from the impact at all – only you are affected by this. Extra salt in these wounds is the fact that the AI seems to know this and intentionally uses it against you. Obviously this becomes frustrating fast, but with some luck and planning most of it can be avoided.

Multiplayer

Multiplayer mode supports up to four players in either Battle mode, Stage mode or Team mode. Battle mode is a standard hood-to-hood race, but the Stage mode is more interesting. It is a special series of races similar to the Grand Prix mode that can be played together with friends. Team mode lets you assign up to three teams (racing stalls) in a race. It’s also noteworthy that all multiplayer modes can be raced with or against computer controlled AI racers, which is a feature not seen often enough. The multiplayer modes also lets you choose how the screen shall be split, which is thoughtful of the developers.

Graphics

The graphics in Ridge Racer 64 looks very good for a Nintendo 64 game. The frame rate is surprisingly good, and even though it suffers some in the four player split-screen mode, it still is very decent. The car models aren’t overly detailed but they certainly suffice – it’s also nice to be able to select the color of the car from a whole spectrum of colors. There are some very cool cars to be seen here and the Pac-Man and Xevious themed ones are of course good to see.
The scenery along the tracks looks great most of the time but some segments, like the mountain roads, look a bit plain and uninspiring. Furthermore there are some minor pop-up issues, meaning that parts of the track and scenery aren’t rendered in time and thus pops up when you clearly can see it, but this certainly won’t break the game.

Sound

The sound is also quite pleasing. The commentator will comment on the ongoing race with comments like “Nice cornering!” and “You’re certainly taking your time, what’s wrong? Engine trouble?” It’s quite simply done but a nice touch nonetheless. Before the race starts, you’re able to select a song from the soundtrack to play in the background. The songs all work well and add that distinct arcade racing feel to the game with these fast hysteric techno beats. Considering that the Nintendo 64 can’t use CD tracks and has limited space on the cartridge, the soundtrack certainly gets the job done.

Summary

Ridge Racer 64 isn’t the most epic racer around, simply because it is limited to the three environments. Some more variation would have been nice there. The Grand Prix mode isn’t very long either, and the racing itself can feel quite shallow in the long run. But it does deliver an exciting, over-the-top racing experience and if you’re into racing games it’s sure to keep you entertained for at least some time. The Nintendo 64 has lots of shoddy racing games but Ridge Racer 64 simply isn’t one of them.

Developed By: Nintendo Software Technology / Namco
Published By: Nintendo
Version Reviewed: Nintendo 64
Genre: Racing
Players: 1-4 (Split Screen)
Released: 2000-07-04