Ridge Racer V

Ridge Racer V[lower-alpha 2] is a 2000 racing game developed and published by Namco for the PlayStation 2, as a launch game for that platform. It is the fifth title of the Ridge Racer series succeeding Ridge Racer Type 4 and was followed by Ridge Racer 6 in 2005. The game received a home-to-arcade port named Ridge Racer V: Arcade Battle.[1]

Ridge Racer V
North American version cover art featuring race queen Ai Fukami, and the Rivelta Mercurio
Developer(s)Namco
Publisher(s)Namco[lower-alpha 1]
Composer(s)Kohta Takahashi
Yuu Miyake
Nobuyoshi Sano
Mijk van Dijk
SeriesRidge Racer
Platform(s)PlayStation 2
Arcade
ReleasePlayStation 2
  • JP: March 4, 2000
  • NA: October 26, 2000
  • EU: November 24, 2000
Arcade
  • JP: November 28, 2000
Genre(s)Racing
Mode(s)Single-player, multiplayer
Arcade systemNamco System 246

Gameplay
Screenshot of a race in progress.

In Ridge Racer V the player is a racing driver taking part in events across Ridge City in a variety of fictional cars. As with previous Ridge Racer games, the focus is on accessible and fun drift racing rather than simulating how a car behaves in the real world; as such the player is encouraged to powerslide around most corners by tapping the brake when entering the turn. There are a total of fourteen courses in Ridge City, and visual filters can be applied to change the appearance.[2]

Racing on RRV is divided into different race formats. The primary mode is Grand Prix, a series of structured championships completion of which rewards the player with new cars. Other modes include Time Attack, a long distance endurance race called the 99 Trial and free runs on any of the unlocked courses. Two players can also take part in a split-screen race against one another. A special race is unlocked after the player fulfills certain requirements: it features the arcade game characters Pac-Man in a roadster and Blinky, Pinky, Inky and Clyde on scooters. Winning this race unlocks special duel class cars for use in other game modes. Duel class cars can be won by defeating bosses in the game's Duel mode after fulfilling certain requirements. After all 4 bosses are defeated in Duel mode, Battle Royal is unlocked, allow the player to choose any duel class cars and challenge all 4 bosses in a boss rush race (including ones the player have selected).[3]

Ai Fukami (深水 藍) serves as the game's mascot girl, replacing Reiko Nagase.[2] The game features a fictitious radio station, Ridge City FM (frequency 76.5 MHz), providing music and commentary.

Development

Ridge Racer V was revealed and demoed by Namco at the Tokyo Game Show in September 1999, alongside Tekken Tag Tournament,[4] and announced a month later that both would be launch titles for the PlayStation 2.[5]

Unlike its predecessor, Ridge Racer V was made with a "back to basics" approach, featuring less tracks and no story mode as opposed to R4: Ridge Racer Type 4 but more akin to the original Ridge Racer.[2]

Ridge Racer V was the first home console game in the series to run at 60 frames per second.[6]

Music

Kohta Takahashi served as the sound director and lead composer of Ridge Racer V, who was previously involved as one of the composers of R4: Ridge Racer Type 4. To create an "exciting new experience", he brought in Japanese electronic music duo Boom Boom Satellites, Takeshi Ueda and German DJ Mijk van Dijk, along with Namco composers Nobuyoshi Sano, Yuu Miyake, and Yoshinori Kawamoto, to contribute music to the game. This resulted in the game having a diverse soundtrack, including genres such as trance, death metal and breakbeat.[7]

Takahashi connected with external artists via Toru Nagamine of Sony Music.[8] Van Dijk felt honored to work on the game, as was already a fan of the Ridge Racer series, as well as the first game's ability to swap the music by replacing the CD in the PlayStation, where he raced to his own music tracks. To ensure that his music fit with the game, he played R4: Ridge Racer Type 4 while composing the tracks in his studio.[9]

The official soundtrack of the game was released by Sony Music Entertainment Japan in March 2000.[10]

Tracklist of Ridge Racer V (those in italic don't appear on the soundtrack album):[11]

Track Artist
Fogbound (opening title) Boom Boom Satellites
HydroPrism Yuu Miyake
Burnout Mijk van Dijk
Euphoria Kohta Takahashi
Nightride Mijk van Dijk
Paris Nobuyoshi Sano
LOLO 1010 Yuu Miyake
Tsui Tsui Yuu Miyake
Power Slider Mijk van Dijk
Junx-Interlude Kohta Takahashi
RidgeCityFM Kohta Takahashi
EyeCatch Kohta Takahashi
Gammon Yuu Miyake
RareHero2000 Nobuyoshi Sano
Electroglide Mijk van Dijk
JunxEngine Kohta Takahashi
Samurai Rocket Kohta Takahashi
DareDevil Kohta Takahashi
GripMillenium Kohta Takahashi
Junx Kohta Takahashi (Mijk van Dijk remix)
MotorPacCity5 Yoshinori Kawamoto
DRFTDVL Takeshi Ueda
On The Painted Desert (closing title) Boom Boom Satellites

Arcade

Ridge Racer V: Arcade Battle,[12] the arcade port of Ridge Racer V, was announced as the first game to run on Namco's PlayStation 2-based Namco System 246 arcade platform in September 2000.[1] The arcade version has some features such as Duel, Free Run and Pac-Man GP removed. It was the last Ridge Racer game for arcades until Pachislot Ridge Racer, which was a pachislot game released seven years later (and the last traditional racing game for that market).

Reception and legacy

The PS2 version received "generally favorable reviews" according to the review aggregation website Metacritic.[13] David Zdyrko of IGN liked the return to the "basic feeling of control" as the earlier games of the series and named it "one of the most visually impressive" racing games to date, but noted the graphical aliasing and flickering problems.[29] Jeff Lundrigan of NextGen, however, said that his quote "bears repeating: 'Like its predecessors, Ridge Racer V will amaze you with flashy graphics and a great sense of speed. Unfortunately, there's not a lot of meat under the basic shell of the game.'"[30] Andrew Reiner from GameInformer said that Ridge Racer V would be no match to Gran Turismo 2000 (which would be released as Gran Turismo 3: A-Spec.[20] GamePro praised the realistic graphical appearance, music, and noted that fans of the series "will love it."[25] In Japan, Famitsu gave it a score of one nine, one ten, one eight, and one nine for a total of 36 out of 40.[19][32]

Also in Japan, Game Machine listed the arcade version in their February 1, 2001 issue as the second most-successful dedicated arcade game of the year.[33]

The PlayStation 2 version was a runner-up for "Racing Game of 2000" in both Editors' Choice and Readers' Choice at IGN's Best of 2000 Awards.[34] During the 4th Annual Interactive Achievement Awards, the Academy of Interactive Arts & Sciences nominated Ridge Racer V for the "Console Racing" award, which ultimately went to SSX.[35]

Ridge Racer V would remain the only main Ridge Racer game for the PlayStation 2; its successor Ridge Racer 6 was released in 2005.

References

Notes
  1. Published in North America by Namco Hometek and in Europe by Sony Computer Entertainment Europe.
  2. Japanese: リッジレーサーファイブ, Hepburn: Rijji Rēsā Faibu
  3. Three critics of Electronic Gaming Monthly gave the game each a score of 9.5/10, 9/10, and 8.5/10.
  4. In GameFan's viewpoint of the U.S. version, three critics gave it each a score of 78, 94, and 92.
  5. In GameFan's viewpoint of the Japanese import, two critics gave it each a score of 92, and the other gave it 78.

Footnotes
  1. I. G. N. Staff (2000-09-01). "Namco Announces System 246 Arcade Hardware". IGN. Retrieved 2023-05-08.
  2. Brakeman (2018-09-21). "Franchise Festival #30: Ridge Racer". The Avocado. Retrieved 2023-05-08.
  3. Versus Books (2000). Versus Ridge Racer Official Perfect Guide. USA: Empire 21 Publishing, Inc. ISBN 0-9703473-4-0.
  4. Perry, Douglass C. (1999-09-17). "TGS 1999: New Ridge Racer - First Impressions". IGN. Retrieved 2023-05-08.
  5. "SBG: NEWS - リッジV ＆ 鉄拳TT,PS2本体と同時発売". nlab.itmedia.co.jp. Retrieved 2023-05-08.
  6. "Ridge Racer: A Series Retrospective - Crash of the Titan". SUPERJUMP. 2022-04-21. Retrieved 2023-05-08.
  7. Greening, Chris (June 15, 2011). "Kohta Takahashi Interview: Cutting-Edge Namco Scores". WGMO.
  8. Kohta Takahashi [@kohta09] (July 14, 2022). "Hi, I'm Kohta, sound leader of Ridge Racer V. I requested a song from you through Mr. Nagamine of Sony Music and your song helped us a lot. I was really happy with the Remix of my song Junx. Thanks" (Tweet) – via Twitter.
  9. van Dijk, Mijk (July 16, 2022). "Today I wanna share two emotional blasts from the past with you". Facebook.
  10. "AICT-138 | Ridge Racer V Original Game Soundtrack - VGMdb". vgmdb.net. Retrieved 2023-05-08.
  11. "リッジレーサーV - みんなで決めるゲーム音楽ベスト100まとめwiki". リッジレーサーV - みんなで決めるゲーム音楽ベスト100まとめwiki (in Japanese). Retrieved 2023-05-08.
  12. "NAMCO BANDAI Games | RIDGE RACER V". bandainamco-am.co.jp. Retrieved 2023-05-08.
  13. "Ridge Racer V for PlayStation 2 Reviews". Metacritic. Red Ventures. Retrieved March 26, 2017.
  14. Berger, Gregory. "Ridge Racer V (PS2) - Review". AllGame. All Media Network. Archived from the original on November 16, 2014. Retrieved March 26, 2017.
  15. Ham, Tom (October 25, 2000). "Ridge Racer V". Gamecenter. CNET. Archived from the original on December 3, 2000. Retrieved January 2, 2022.
  16. Edge staff (May 2000). "Ridge Racer V (Japan)" (PDF). Edge. No. 84. Future Publishing. pp. 76–77. Retrieved January 2, 2022.
  17. Edge staff (December 2000). "Ridge Racer (US/EU)" (PDF). Edge. No. 91. Future Publishing. p. 120. Retrieved January 2, 2022.
  18. Sewart, Greg; Hager, Dean; MacDonald, Mark (November 2000). "Ridge Racer V" (PDF). Electronic Gaming Monthly. No. 136. Ziff Davis. p. 266. Retrieved January 2, 2022.
  19. "プレイステーション2 - リッジレーサーV". Famitsu (in Japanese). Vol. 915. Enterbrain. June 30, 2006. p. 55.
  20. Reiner, Andrew (November 2000). "Ridge Racer V". Game Informer. No. 91. FuncoLand. Archived from the original on September 18, 2008. Retrieved March 26, 2017.
  21. Van Stone, Matt "Kodomo" (June 2000). "Ridge Racer V (Import)". GameFan. Vol. 8, no. 6. Shinno Media. pp. 28–29. Retrieved January 2, 2022.
  22. Van Stone, Matt "Kodomo" (November 2000). "Ridge Racer V". GameFan. Vol. 8, no. 11. BPA International. p. 90. Retrieved January 2, 2022.
  23. Mylonas, Eric "ECM"; Weitzner, Jason "Fury"; Ngo, George "Eggo" (November 2000). "Ridge Racer V". GameFan. Vol. 8, no. 11. BPA International. p. 23. Retrieved January 2, 2022.
  24. Rodriguez, Tyrone "Cerberus"; Ngo, George "Eggo"; Mylonas, Eric "ECM" (June 2000). "Ridge Racer V (Import)". GameFan. Vol. 8, no. 6. Shinno Media. p. 13. Retrieved January 2, 2022.
  25. Human Tornado (October 23, 2000). "Ridge Racer V Review for PS2 on GamePro.com". GamePro. IDG Entertainment. Archived from the original on February 12, 2005. Retrieved March 26, 2017.
  26. Liu, Johnny (October 2000). "Ridge Racer V Review". GameRevolution. CraveOnline. Archived from the original on December 22, 2014. Retrieved January 2, 2022.
  27. Gerstmann, Jeff (March 10, 2000). "Ridge Racer V Review [JP Import]". GameSpot. Red Ventures. Retrieved March 26, 2017.
  28. Jamie (December 22, 2000). "Ridge Racer V". PlanetPS2. IGN Entertainment. Archived from the original on February 25, 2005. Retrieved March 26, 2017.
  29. Zdyrko, David (October 23, 2000). "Ridge Racer V". IGN. Ziff Davis. Retrieved March 26, 2017.
  30. Lundrigan, Jeff (November 2000). "Ridge Racer V". NextGen. No. 71. Imagine Media. p. 113. Retrieved January 2, 2022.
  31. "Ridge Racer V". Official U.S. PlayStation Magazine. No. 38. Ziff Davis. November 2000.
  32. Perry, Douglass C. (March 2, 2000). "Now Playing In Japan, Vol. 19". IGN. Ziff Davis. Retrieved March 26, 2017.
  33. "Game Machine's Best Hit Games 25 - 完成品夕イプのTVゲーム機 (Dedicated Videos)". Game Machine (in Japanese). No. 627. Amusement Press, Inc. February 1, 2001. p. 17.
  34. IGN staff (January 29, 2001). "Best of 2000 Awards (PS2: Racing Game of 2000)". IGN. Snowball.com. Archived from the original on February 8, 2001. Retrieved January 2, 2022.
  35. "Fourth Interactive Achievement Awards: Console Racing". Academy of Interactive Arts & Sciences. Archived from the original on April 17, 2001. Retrieved January 2, 2022.

Further reading
  • RIDGE RACER V 5 Official Guidebook (in Japanese). Enterbrain,Inc. 6 May 2000. p. 144. ISBN 9784757700208.
  • Ridge Racer V Namco Official Guide Book (in Japanese). Namco. 30 March 2000. 4907892080140.
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