Ridge Racer 3D

Overview

Ridge Racer 3D is the latest iteration of a long line of Ridge Racer games in the series. It is a high energy arcade racing game.

It was released on 26th February 2011 in Japan, 25th March in Europe, and 27th March 2011 in North America, making it one of the games to launch with the 3DS hardware in every major region.

Controls

In Ridge Racer, the Circle Pad or the D-Pad is used to control the car's direction. The A button is used to accelerate, and the left and right triggers are used to drift. The B button is used to brake.

Gameplay

Ridge Racer is a racing game that has a player racing against other characters to cross the finish line first in a number of different courses and vehicles. In the beginning of the race, the player starts out in last place and has to pass all other racers to win before the player crosses the finish line. Ridge Racer focuses heavily on drifting, so the only way to win is to drift through the tracks. Upgradable nitrous is also used during races, providing temporary speed boosts. In any game mode, credits are allotted for podium finishes (1st, 2nd, or 3rd). These credits can be used to buy new cars or upgrade the racer's nitrous bottles.

Game Modes

There are four game modes available in Ridge Racer 3D; each one is tied to the currency system, so no matter what game mode the player is racing in, credits can be earned to further the player's game experience. Here are the four game modes:

Grand Prix Mode

The main game mode of Ridge Racer 3D, Grand Prix mode features races and tournaments from every track in the game. Grand Prix mode starts with a few tutorial-like races that teach the player how to work the car, but the difficulty ramps up from there along with the speed of the cars. In higher difficulties, crashing into walls might become frequent for the player, but only results in the loss of some speed; no internal damage is in Ridge Racer 3D.

Quick Tour Mode

Quick Tour mode is a smaller extra version of Grand Prix mode. It has the player racing in a specific tournament for tracks. The object is to become first place. A number of Quick Tours are available to the player in Ridge Racer, but some may be limited to certain cars.

Time Attack Mode

The only game mode to use the StreetPass feature, Time Attack mode has the player trying to achieve the fastest time possible on any specific track. Each track will have leaderboards, initially filled with computers. Once the player has obtained a time in the leaderboards, credits will be rewarded to the player. If the player passes another with StreetPass enabled and a Ridge Racer history, the player will be able to race the other player's ghosts for stages in Time Attack mode. No collisions with other racers are present in Time Attack mode.

Single Race Mode

Contrary to Quick Tour mode, Single Race mode has players racing computers in one race, on one track. As always, the player will have a rolling start behind every other racer, and the player must catch up and pass the other racers in order to win and earn credits.

Courses

A mix of new and classic tracks will feature in the game. So far, "brand new canyons" and "snow-capped mountains" have been mentioned. A large number of screenshots are available which also provide a good idea of the breadth of environments the game's tracks encompass.

Changes from series

One notable addition to the Ridge Racer series is muscle cars.

Namco localization producer Ryo Totoyama has also mentioned that some gameplay mechanics have been simplified to allow the game to reach a wider audience. For example, the drifting mechanism of Ridge Racer 3D will be similar to that of the one-button drift system of the Mario Kart series. This new way of drifting will be utilized by means of the aptly-named "drift button", as Ridge Racer refers to it.

Another change is that physics have been altered to include less damage being induced from running into walls and cars and landing high jumps.

One of the most well-documented additions to the game is the new ability to stamp user profiles with a photo of the player. This photo is shown as the player's avatar during online player. While racing, the avatar floats on top of the user's car.

Wireless features

This game lacks wi-fi instant play, however four-player local play is available, but it does require every player to have their own copy of the game to play. The 3DS's Street Pass feature is also used with Ridge Racer 3DS. When passing another player using Street Pass, players exchange ghost data. The player can race the other player's ghost in a number of different tracks, depending on the progress each player has had.

Reception

Ridge Racer 3D, upon release, has had mainly positive reception among consumers and critics alike. IGN has given the game a score of 8/10, praising the game for using its tried-and-true Ridge Racer formula. Game Informer, on the other hand, has given the game a score of 73/100, praising and knocking the game for using the same formula over and over. Official Nintendo Magazine gave the game 87%, saying: "The lack of any online features is a crying shame, but for 3D racing it's fantastic." Metacritic has given the game an aggregate score of 74/100, with most reviews being "good".

Release

Ridge Racer 3D released alongside the release of the 3DS in all regions, in Japan, Europe, and North America, on February 26, March 25, and March 27, 2011, respectively.