Ridge Racer Unbounded is a sharp change for Namco’s series. The Japanese racer has seen a shift from its previous arcade roots to a more aggressive, western game.  It has been used over and over again, but the best way to describe this game is Split Second meets Burnout. Despite having one of the worst names out there, Ridge Racer Unbounded is one of the most fun racing games we have played in years, but is not without its flaws.

The game does have a story of sorts that is described in the opening video, but for once a racing game company has given narrative the middle finger, something which we applaud Namco for. Too many games (I’m look at you NFS: The Run) try to put a story there when it is not needed.  Thankfully sense has been seen here and the driving is the sole focus of this game.

What a joy driving is too. Cars handle like a classic arcade racer as they tail-out, drift for stupidly long periods and growl every time you touch accelerate. There is a bit of selection for you to choose from too, but for most single player races you’ll be playing with a selection of 20 cars or so, each one feeling different.

Ridge Racer Unbounded takes inspiration from other racing games. You build your boost bar by tailing others, getting air time and several other techniques. This boost can then be used to ram others off the road (called fragging) in order to gain places or break through scenery to create a short-cut. See where that Split Second meets Burnout comparison came from now?  The only problem I had with this is that you only seem to be able to take people out from behind. You can be steaming along, with your boost burning, slam a car in a t bone movement, only for them to drive away. Hit them at half the speed from behind and they will go flying.

The single player challenges you in a variety of ways.  You have all of your usual time trial, race and drift. Where Ridge Racer Unbounded is different from others is how it uses some of these. Instead of having a time trial on a normal stage, Namco use one of their wacky created stages with loops and jumps everywhere. It’s nice to see a game that looks at what works in the ‘classic’ modes of their genre and actually tries to change it. I for one usually hate time trials, but here they are actually a joy.

Namco’s game did upset me though. Sitting with my friend we opened the game only to realise that it is not split screen. I really hate this about modern games. I love sitting next to my friends and playing games. I prefer this a lot more to online play too. This is the kind of game that is begging for a split screen mode with its competitive nature. Still, the online mode was pretty solid, although it could take a while to get into games.

The styling of Ridge Racer Unbounded is likely to annoy quite a few people too. If you don’t like the colour orange then you might as well have not read this review. Everything is orange in this game. This would be okay, but they did not even pick a bright shade to use. I’m not a fan of it, but I learned to live with it and after playing for a few hours I became desensitised to it.

One thing that the game does get spot on is the custom creation tools. This lets you create your own insane tracks. You can really make some messed up tracks in this mode that loop, spiral and jump their way to the finishing line. You can even go as far as placing the individual cars that will be parked along the road.

Ridge Racer Unbounded is a fun arcade racer, one that we do not see often enough. The problem is that it does not quite hit the spot on what it is trying to do. The destruction and shortcuts feel underused, fragging can seem off and the racing is not unique enough to rate it above its contemporaries. If you are a racing junkie then I would advise picking this up, otherwise wait a few months and take Ridge Racer Unbounded for a spin.

 

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