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Ridge Racer (リッジレーサー), commonly referred to as Ridge Racer Vita, is a racing video game released in 2011 on the PlayStation Vita handheld game system. The game was developed by Cellius and published by Namco Bandai Games. The game continues the Ridge Racer tradition of drift racing and supports single-player as well as local and Wi-Fi multi-player games.

However, the game was negatively received by many game critics, some having called it one of the worst games of all time. The game was criticized for an overwhelming lack of content and no single-player campaign mode, with most of the game's tracks and vehicles being locked behind a DLC paywall. The game was commonly referred to as a glorified demo, and not worthy of being considered a full release.

Cars and Tracks[]

The game consists of nine tracks, all from RR6, RR7 and RR3D. Three of the the tracks are included with the base version of the game, the other six are obtained through DLC. The tracks are also avaliable in reverse.

All versions of the game come with five cars:

  1. the Bisonte-based Assoluto Bisargento,
  2. the Raggio-based Soldat Rauna,
  3. Himmel EO
  4. Kamata Fiera
  5. Kamata SYNCi*

Eleven more vehicles were later made available through DLC. These include:

  1. Age Elenie*
  2. Assoluto Fatalita
  3. Assoluto Promessa
  4. Gnade Dignistar*
  5. Kamata RC410
  6. Lucky & Wild Evolver
  7. Lucky & Wild Wisdom
  8. SEGA Hornet*
  9. Soldat Crinale
  10. Soldat Meltfire
  11. Zihua Archangel*

A "*" indicates a machine which made it's debut in this title.

Players can also give their cars a new paint job, but unlike RR7, players can't change bumpers, spoilers and certain parts of their car, such as different sets of wheels.

Gameplay and Modes[]

The gameplay consists of the players racing against seven other computer or live opponents across three laps on their chosen track, while using nitro and slipstream, the player's main objective is to finish in a required place to unlock upgrades for their car. Players can also race against the clock in time trial, in which they can gain a place in the global rankings board.

However, unlike previous games in the series, there's no Career mode.

Reception[]

The game was panned by many critics, due to the bare-bones nature of the game and the lack of certain features, such as a campaign mode. GameSpot gave the game 3.0/10 and said that the game had a huge lack of content, (which consisted of just five cars and three tracks, the tracks were all from RR6 and RR7). This resulted in a poor experience which lacked any variety from previous installments. To conclude, the game was considered "a complete and utter ripoff" that "feels more like a cheap cash-in rather than a fully thought-out product". IGN also gave the game the same a 3/10 for similar reasons, they said that it had no storyline or progression-based modes or leagues and unbalanced online races that use a leveling system to determine a player's top speed, which gave an unfair disadvantage to newer players, Ridge Racer was described as "racing in a vacuum", barely more than a tech demo, wrapped up in a online-reliant social framework that's fundamentally flawed on several levels. In June of 2012, IGN also named the game as one of it's Top Ten Worst Video Games of 2012 so far.

Modern day consumer reception of Vita views it as a decent racing experience for people who already own a Vita, but not a title worthy of purchasing the console retroactively. It is also commonly encouraged to only be played with the assistance of piracy to obtain all of the since-delisted downloadable content to get the full experience the title had to offer.

The poor reception of Vita can easily be seen as part of Ridge Racer's penultimate decline and discontinuation, as this would be the last mainline entry in the series. While three more games, Ridge Racer Unbounded, Ridge Racer Slipstream, and Ridge Racer Draw & Drift would be released, these were all spin-offs and supplementary mobile titles. Outside of vehicles from the game occasionally being featured as collaboration event rewards in the Japanese-exclusive mobile game Drift Spirits, Namco has made next to no acknowledgement of Vita or the Ridge Racer franchise since.

Ridge Racer series
Arcade games Ridge Racer · 2 · Rave Racer · Pocket Racer · V: Arcade Battle
Console and handheld games Ridge Racer · Revolution · Rage Racer · Type 4 · 64 (DS) · V · Ridge Racer (PSP) (2) · 6 · 7 · 3D · Unbounded (Driftopia) · Ridge Racer (PlayStation Vita)
Mobile games Ridge Racer · Drift · Accelerated · Slipstream · Draw & Drift
Related games SimDrive · Ace Driver (Victory Lap · 3: Final Turn) · Dirt Dash · R: Racing Evolution · Critical Velocity · Pachi-Slot
Universe and people Ridge City · Ridge State · Shatter Bay · Real Racing Roots · UFRA · Reiko Nagase · Enki Gilbert · Shinji Yazaki · Sophie Cavalier · Robert Chrisman · Ai Fukami · Rena Hayami · Gina Cavalli · Stephan Garnier · Kara Shindo
Game mechanics Drifting · Grand Prix · Slipstream · Nitrous · Car Classes · Customization · Special Machine · Rocket Start
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