The longer I work in the game industry, the more types of employees I meet, and the less respect I have for the game industry.

Ridge Racer Unbound is like a companion piece to that assessment. I honestly feel like someone took what was Ridge Racer (A rather good racer) and then said. "What we need is for this game to be more like Burnout, but I don't want you to change anything about our physics engine" And off the designers and programmers went to try to do it, and ultimately we have Unbounded.

But this game is just damn odd. The oddest thing about it is the last burnout game was made in 2008, this game came 4 years later. It's possible this is trying to be like Need for Speed Most Wanted but even then, I don't think that's the goal.

The game is really split between three modes. First there's the Time attack mode, that's existed in every racing game ever made. The second is a drift challenge, where the goal is to drift, gain boost and race past enemies. And finally, the third, Domination mode, where you take down enemies (Called fragging.. ugh) and blow up buildings to get short cuts.

On the surface that last one sounds great. In reality.... well honestly the entire game is a bit of a mess, it'd be wrong to just call just that one mode a problem, when the game itself really stands out as the biggest issue.

The core issue I have with this game is I really don't know what it's trying to be. The game seems to revel in the destruction the player does. Breaking a wall gives you points, killing people gives you points, there's the whole boost/frag system that seems good, and a frag also auto drives your car a bit. But the real problem is momentum.

You see hitting a wall or driving through it, smashing into cars, and boosting is all great, but the game doesn't "cheat" physics much. If you're going slow at 60 mph and another car is at the top speed of 200 mph. You don't accelerate to 150 without a question, instead you slowly start to go faster, and faster and faster. The acceleration on the cars is shockingly bad. So mistakes are costly. Problem is mistakes happen all the time, and getting taken out does as well. In fact smashing into anything seems to slow you down and for a game build on drifting, the drifting isn't exactly fast.

This coupled with an attempt to be like Burnout where fighting enemies is encouraged really hurts the experience. That means you're encouraged to do all those things that Burnout made fun, rubbing, smashing, and just being a nuisance. But the problem is if you slow down (by rubbing against an enemy for instance) you're penalized because you're going slow. If you get hit into a wall you're taken out of the race, and if you try to get aggressive, you seem penalized.

This is the opposite of how Burnout does it, rubbing is rewarded, you might go smash into the wall, but you got boost to go fast, and you don't need a full bar. In Ridge Racer one mistake and you can go from first to last, in Burnout that happens and then you can go from last to first quickly. Ridge Racer isn't Burnout, so the real question is why does it try to be in this game, because it doesn't even try to explain itself other than a VERY short (two line) tutorial about drifting and boosting.

The fact is the game ultimately isn't fun. It's not just that it's not Burnout, but it's not really anything else. The game starts out annoying and hard, and ... well I didn't really feel the need to play more than 6 races because as I said they aren't really fun. The game doesn't welcome you with a tutorial or a couple easy races or anything, instead it's just annoyingly hard from the first race on, and with no difficulty options and no really interesting gameplay, I didn't know why I should have stuck around.

Now I heard complaints about story, or a reason to race, and guys, it's a racing game, it doesn't need a story. What it DID need is a reason to really exist, because it's not to drift like the rest of the games in the series, and it's not to frag each other. It doesn't have the style of other games, because even split second was pretty fun for what it was, and it doesn't even have the gameplay that Most wanted had. Ultimately Ridge Racer is a game with out a reason for existing.

And what's really sad is this is the last game in the Ridge Racer franchise, it's also the only one which didn't have a Japanese release, which is a bit telling in my opinion. If Ridge Racer had just made Burnout Paradise, or just Burnout semi efficiently, we'd be singing it's praises because Burnout stopped making Burnout games. Hell, we've seen the Crew, Driveclub, Trackmania and every Need for Speed. So racing games are still popular. The problem really is that Ridge Racer didn't stand out at all at a time when it probably would have been relatively easy to stand out. That's a real shame, but ultimately there's a reason this is the last Ridge Racer. It shouldn't have been, but it is the end of a great legacy.

A really, really underrated game. It reminds me more of Split/Second than a typical Ridge Racer game. It plays great on Steam Deck and is a hidden gem worth owning.

Single player only, even though it's tagged with multiplayer. The online authentication server was pulled down in 2015.

Ridge Racer Unbounded is completely unrelated to the original Ridge Racer arcade games. It managed to introduce a lot of new concepts, such as course construction set (with progressive unlock of building blocks), group racing, lots of cars, multiple modes, destructible scenes, and so on. However, with the shut down of the matchmaking servers in early 2015, buggy game (crash to desktop after several races), and odd handling (there is no tutorial on how drift works in this game) means the game, even at bargain basement prices, is not exactly a good investment.

As a new racer joining the scene in Shatter Bay, your task is to "take over" multiple neighborhoods by doing well or very well in the various races. Each neighborhood has about 7 races. Winning the races (or at least, get into top 3) will unlock higher races, while accumulating score will increase your rank and gain you access to better cars.

There are multiple race modes, but most races will be "domination race", where you race up to 11 other cars. Do the special moves like getting air, hit top speed, or drifting, will gain you boost. Once you fill the boost gauge, you can engage boost which allows you to smash through certain "targets", yielding shortcuts that gain you more boost (usually involve getting some big air) but since boost has limited duration, you have to time its use carefully. Smashing other cars will cause them to respawn, albeit several seconds behind.

So what's the problem? Very weird drifting mechanism. Some guides advocate holding down the handbrake button during the turn, others insist on releasing the handbrake as soon as drift had started. The problem is there is no "test track" for you to practice. It's always race, race, race.

The graphics are quite good, and as this is a Bugbear product (makers of Flatout series) the game has decent handling... except for the weird drifting. Sound is... okay, with a lot of decent soundtracks, again, just like Bugbear games like Flatout.

You were able to build your own race courses and as you conquer neighborhoods and raise your driver level you will unlock additional blocks to build the courses. However, with death of the matchmaking servers the courses are of little use now, as much of the fun is race others in MP games. In fact, the game is stuck for about a minute checking for nonexisting server when it starts up.

All in all, Ridge Racer Unbounded tried to do too much and lack of tutorial / test track made the game unenjoyable, and the shutdown of matchmaking server is the nail in the coffin. It's fast, it's furious, but it left an empty feeling.

Its not a ridge racer game. Its burnout meets trackmania without a clear focus. The game is based around beautiful destruction physics but in order to destroy other cars, you need to drift, chase, or destroy items. Destroying items is worthless since you get a fraction of the boost needed, so you tend to be drifting a lot.

However the ai just gains boost at a steady pace, meaning they will just boost whenever their meter is full. The boost itself is odd, its designed around strategic use to either power through a corner, destroy a city target to get more speed/shortcuts, or take out a racer but instead the game requires you to be constantly boosting in order to keep up. As well, there are no mechanics to allow players to catch up. None of the short cuts drastically change the map and the leader can use his boost to open it up anyways so there is no way for someone behind him to catch up unless he messes up.

Given the nature boost is gained, the late game is also to the favor of the leader as there are less targets available and players are more spread out.

Combat is also weird. There are no rewards for damaging cars, and you don't get boost if you frag someone in a special way ala burnout. Also unlike later burnout entries, there is only one type of car per race. As a result, cars with good acceleration and speed trump all else since they can drift fine and use boost to make up for any lose of speed.

The game does have one very interesting part and thats the special events. These include some trackmania esque maps where you have to get to the finish line while hitting targets.

But what sells the game to me is the sense of destruction. The objects you destroy remain on the track making the track feel more and more wartorn and whenever you destroy a car you see an amazing slow motion view of it bouncing. It never got old for me.

As for the default levels, they are pretty generic and some end up being confusing since they reuse prefabs in an unusual way. The events aren't always balanced, either, some will prove to be a pain since you just don't have the right car for it or others are so easy because you can use a car that the level wasn't balanced for.

The star is the player-made levels, of which there are tons, which use the ingame editor and allow for a nice variety of fun and bizarre levels. The game to me seems like a case where there was a pre-existing game that was adapted with the ridge racer brand and then rushed into development.

I say get the game if you like arcade destruction racing , the 10 dollar price tag is appropiate but with games like carmageddon and NCG, there are more focused alternatives.

* 2012: Game released
* 2018: Fun game
* 8 hours later: Too hard too proceed...
* 2023: My current driving skill still not procceed further :(

🟢 = Available +1
🔴 = Not available -1

🟢 Drifting Score Attack
🟢 Rage overtake cars
🟢 Master Challenge
🟢 Repeat many laps in a same track = Consume Time
🟢 Race from Point A to Point B = Save Time
🔴 Online Leaderboard
🔴 Damage Management
🔴 Game Setting


🏅 Community Rating: Mixed
🔎 Long Version Checklist ➜ Reveal
📢 Disclaimer about Short Hours & English Error ➜ Read Here

⚖️ iMeter {B+} Worth a play, if you enjoy rage racing in City Street. However, if you're looking for online competition & customization, don't play it

* Rage Overtake
* Fun Drift mode
* Track Editor
* A lot things is breakable

* No more online server
* No cloud save
* No support wheel controller

* No story➜ It's a racing game, not Netfilx video
* No support wheel controller ➜ Use a gamepad instead
* The original Ridge Racer is better ➜ Have to try that to find out

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I'll be reviewing Ridge Racer: Identity Crisis. I mean “Unbounded”. As it stands, this is the final installment of a once great racing franchise that released their last truly enjoyable game 20 years ago. Don't get me wrong, there were appealing elements to Ridge Racer after part 5, but that one was a well-rounded package, balancing arcade racing with a deep (at the time) career mode. I literally spent 15 minutes with this title and I'm already sick of it. I really wanted to like this one. I tried, but every time I thought I was warming up to it, that my complaints were simply because I hadn't gotten used to the game, something else set my teeth on edge.

This game was actually developed by Bugbear, who you may remember as being responsible for the Flatout series. More recently they gave us Wreckfest, an excellent title, but as of 2012 (when this was released) they're most recognizable titles were the Flatout games). The best possible way I can describe this title is to say that Bugbear tried to make Flatout into Burnout and then dressed it all up as Ridge Racer.

It seems as though there were two diametrically opposed factions involved in making this game, and they never were able to come to an agreement. On one side you have the Burnout crew, fighting passionately to make this a demolition racer with its emphasis on wrecking cars and destroying property. On the other was the Ridge Racer team, the ones who wanted this title to stick to its roots, focusing on racing prowess and drifting finesse. And neither side was willing to budge. As such this game feels like it's stuck in transition. There's too much Ridge Racer in it to keep it from being a good Burnout clone, and there's too much Burnout in it to make it a good Ridge Racer game.

Unbounded features a few new additions and changes to gameplay that are, frankly, alien to the RR franchise. I want to be generous and say that it's their attempt at a demolition racer, casting a broader net for comparisons, but they very clearly set their sites specifically on Burnout. Instead of the sanctioned circuits, cordoned off as race tracks, like in previous RR titles, this game opts for the “gritty street racer” fad that permeated every racing game at the time that wasn't an officially licensed title from an established organization. The city, Shatter Bay (I wonder how they came up with that name), is full of destructible objects to crash, bash, and smash your way through. There are buildings with walls you can smash through to create shortcuts. The boost meter finds its way back into the series, but with an added wrinkle this time around. In keeping with generously dipping into the Burnout bucket, boosting makes your car an indestructible battering ram. You can wreck (referred to as “frag”) your opponents and crash through certain walls to create shortcuts through various structures. This can only be done while you're boosting. Of course, winning or losing depends almost exclusively on the use of your boost. Great lap times? Perfectly executed drifts? Utilized every possible shortcut? It doesn't matter because one of the other racers saved their boost for the last 1500 meters and, compliments of the game's rubber-band AI to encourage beating and banging, they're right on your bumper and easily overtake you.

It honestly feels like they tried to force Ridge Racer into a Burnout box and it wasn't a good fit. Certain bits and pieces of the RR franchise that didn't fit neatly into the box were shorn from the game. Ridge Racer's drift-heavy physics are somewhat tamed here, supposedly to aid in wrecking. However, all it does is strip away one of the most satisfying elements of the series. A perfect drift through a corner or series of corners used to be richly rewarding and afforded you with a respectable lead (not to mention some eye candy to encourage you to watch the replay). Now it's more like a frustrating chore, something to do to refill your boost gauge. Putting so much emphasis on demolition racing it seems Namco/Bandai opted for rubber-band AI to keep collision fodder nearby at all times. This further emphasizes how little racing matters to this franchise, anymore. It's no longer about the best lap times or the smoothest lines. It's about utilizing boost, and it always seems like the AI rivals never actually rum out of boost.

Then, because of the Ridge Racer side, it never really becomes a good demolition racer. Rubbing fenders and trading paint with your opponents almost feels tacked on. It doesn't feel like it's actually supposed to be an integral part of the racing, but it's been forced to a position of importance within the title. You wreck them only while boosting, and even then it requires a direct hit. Meanwhile, they brush up against you and you're fragged. It honestly makes it feel more like a gimmick, developed to nothing more than a tech-demo to drum up early interest in some demo footage, yet forced to be an integral part of the gameplay.

I was honestly hoping that, if I couldn't enjoy this title as another entry in the Ride Racer series I could at least get some fun out of it as an arcade racer or perhaps a well-executed Burnout clone. Unfortunately it's such a hodgepodge of gameplay styles and concepts that it never does any one thing well enough to like it. Every time I started to enjoy one aspect of the game it got fragged as it crashed into another aspect of the game. This game's crisis of identity is impossible to ignore and makes the game impossible for me to enjoy.

The handling is fine. You all just suck at it.

I just picked this up on sale and I'm so glad I didn't listen to all the reviews that said this game was bad and gave it a low score. I am having an absolute blast playing it ! It's a lot of fun and quite challenging if you try to get all the stars for each track & all the achievements. There are over 60 races to complete and you can create your own tracks as well. You have to gain enough points to get the cars you need to win each level. The Multi-player is shut down so don't buy it for online play and only for that I will be giving this game 3/5 ratings.

This game has the Ridge Racer "vibe" with all the power-sliding/drifting you can handle while listening to techno style music. But, it adds in destructible environments with alternate routes you open up by smashing through walls and buildings on each course. It also has opponent take downs like we have seen in games like burnout.

All of this destruction adds to your power/turbo meter. You can keep the meter filled up by causing destruction to the other racers and the environment. Keeping your meter maxed as often as possible is essential to winning races because the AI is not easy to beat. They drive well, boost often and will even "frag" you when you are ahead of them. Even if you don't come in first you still get points so losing the race is not always a bad thing.

In addition to the main "domination" mode there are several other game modes to mix things up. There is a mode called "Shindo" where you just get boost for power-sliding and the environment is less destructible. There's also drift attack, time attack and a "frag" mode where you try to destroy as many opponents as possible. All are fun in there own way and you can apply these modes to the tracks you create as well.

My biggest complaint with Ridge Racer unbounded is that there needs to be more options to change the graphics and control settings for the game. They are extremely limited and it's obvious this is a console port. The game still looks good but more settings for the PC version would have been appreciated. Also, some races are very difficult and require multiple attempts. You will need to chain boosts together to win. So it can be a bit frustrating sometimes. Makes winning that much more rewarding though. Other than that it's a solid arcade racer.

Overall, the game is just plain fun and that's what counts to me. I don't understand why people don't like it. Maybe they are struggling to win the races. As I mentioned, some races are very difficult and will require multiple attempts to win. As with other racing games it takes some practice to get use to the handling of the cars. Also, there is a button for drifting and you should use it instead of the brakes to start your drift.

I don't care that the MP is dead. I don't play MP on many games anyway. But I wanted to try the tracks made by other players. I wanted to publish my own track. I wanted to dominate the world as you will be given the option on main menu screen which is there just as a blank button now giving you an error. Overall, I wanted to have extended fun of ridge racer and could have easily played the game for 100+ hours had it have multiplayer on but alas, after you are done with single player campaign, that would be it for the game. So if you are looking for a fun, challenging, over the top, arcade racing experience give this game a try. This game feels like Mortal Kombat with cars.

If you go into this game and pretend it's like Burnout or Flatout, then you MIGHT get some enjoyment out of this.
If you go into this game and think you're getting Ridge Racer, BOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOY you're gonna have a bad time.

None of the usual Arcade action, none of the ridiculous drift mechanics, not even a full OST by SamplingMasters and the usual gang.

It's nothing like Ridge Racer.

Drifting feels awkward and more of a chore to do, You're always got to gun it for shortcuts because any mistake will bring you down in the ranks. Besides one or two game modes, It's mainly rinse and repeat racing. If you get the bundle, you're probably going to end up using the Ridge Racer 1 car mainly as the other cars are underpowered and remain that way until you get a better car at the later tiers.

I get that Bugbear tried to do something new and give the series a fresh coat of paint, but if it ain't broke, leave that ♥♥♥♥ alone and stick to Flatout or Wreckfest (is that game still early access?).

The soundtrack is a mix of Old and New RR tracks + Licenced tracks from the likes of Noisia, Skrillex, and Glitch Mob. To be fair, the licenced tracks fit the mood of this game well, but I wouldn't think it'd fit regular RR. I'll take new tracks of SamplingMasters any day.

One more thing, GOOD LUCK GETTING THOSE MULTIPLAYER ACHIEVEMENTS BECAUSE THE SERVERS WERE TAKEN DOWN. ANY FUN YOU MIGHT OF HAD ONLINE IS OUT THE WINDOW. GG.

If you pick it up for the sale price of less than $4, then get it if you're interested.
If you see this game at any other time, do a 360 drift, then drive away.