The core of Ridge Racer V is, simply, racing against opponents in
an attempt to upgrade (albeit, only slightly) your car and attain
new vehicles. This is done through the Grand Prix and Time Attack
feature, of which you slowly go up a ranking ladder by completing a
race in a certain position. The special Duel Mode allows for the
racer to try and best an adversary’s time in a head to head race,
with the player able to secure the opponent’s car if he so beats
him. Sadly, after seeing a great leap with RR4 Namco decided to keep
the old form of a track spanning different routes and paths instead
of multiple courses themselves. Like past times, this isn’t a
problem from the get go – it’s when you’ve put a few hours
into the game when you realize that a simple re-routed turn or a
different bend as a placeholder for a supposed different racing
environment just doesn’t cut it. After unlocking new cars and
beating times, what’s left to do? Race on the partially same
track? C’mon, Namco, give us something extra to do by unlocking
new and better venues.
Thankfully, Namco did keep the time-tested control of Ridge Racer
for RRV. The fictional cars are, in essence, split into two basic
groups: speed vs. handling. It’s either who hugs the corner’s
tighter opposed to who accelerates and speeds by the competition
quick enough. Namco tried to sub-title the cars with Grip and Drift
labels, but what it all comes down to is the simple knowledge of the
cornering against the celerity. Controlling all the cars is easily
effective no matter what type of car you drive, though, so
equilibrium on the track is the ultimate product.
Namco’s aural presentation for RRV is surprisingly well done.
The music, while blatantly Japanese, is quite good. It’s a mix of
electric guitar rock and techno, which usually doesn’t work out
for most games but does valiantly in RRV’s case. (Oddly enough,
one of the songs sounds suspiciously like an early Styxx sample…)
As for the rest of the audio cues, engine revs, brake squeals and
the (annoying) pre-race announcer all compliment RRV’s finished
product to a well extent.
Ridge Racer V is not revolutionary. It doesn’t really surpass
any benchmarks set by other games, nor does it set new standards for
the rest of the genre. What it does accomplish, however, is exactly
what Namco intended it to be: a solid, fun racing game that
capitalizes on Ridge Racer’s success by bringing back the classic
gameplay. While held down by a few technical obstacles (and the fact
that not a whole lot has changed since RR4 doesn’t’ help out
much, either), RRV is still a great experience that’s just a few
laps short of greatness.
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