Review Jusfei 2/5 · Aug 6, 2021
The most minimal amount of content in a console racing game... 4 TOTAL RACES.
This is just not a good console Ridge Racer title. The drifting physics is inconsistent and never predictable when you initiate one, and even if you enter one it's hard to control. I've even booted up the legendary R4: Ridge Racer Type 4 in comparison and that one is still easy to drift in. The handling improvements in the latter …
This is just not a good console Ridge Racer title. The drifting physics is inconsistent and never predictable when you initiate one, and even if you enter one it's hard to control. I've even booted up the legendary R4: Ridge Racer Type 4 in comparison and that one is still easy to drift in. The handling improvements in the latter are massive. On top of this, the bumper camera is too close to the rear, and the chase cam FOV is too small. This means you just end up colliding into walls much more often. Also there's no support for analog controls unless you have that weird PS1 twisty controller.
Then, there's the fact this game has the LEAST amount of content I've seen in a racing game. There is a grand total of FOUR races. This is fine with Ridge Racer 1 and 2 (Rave Racer) as they are arcade cabinet titles, but Rage Racer is a home console release! To make up for the minimal content, the game forces you to GRIND to be able to advance to a higher tier of cars. Completing the first Class 1 Grand Prix with 1st place in every race doesn't even give you enough credits to buy a Class 2 car, so that means you're replaying the same mostly 3 races over and over and over again. Very poor structure.
I'd be inclined to give this game a 1/5 (games I feel that are truly broken or fundamentally bad), but I still boosted the rating up because the theming (especially the CGI intro for its time) and the music are actually phenomenal despite the more "Edgy" approach. If you want to still play these game's tracks, they're also thrown in future titles like Ridge Racer (PSP) and Ridge Racer 3D (3DS)