Ridge Racer 3D is a good launch game. With a little more polish, it could've been a great launch game, but there's always the next system, I guess.


Fuglicious, but oddly pleasant.

A brief primer to the long-running series: Ridge Racer is a totally unrealistic racing franchise. Almost more arcade than racing. The series centers around a unique (and - it bears repeating - unrealistic) drift mechanic. In Ridge Racer, as in real life, braking is for losers. Any series of turns can be negotiated through drifting, since your car has an almost magnetic adhesion to the curves of the road. (Face backwards during a turn? Sure, why not!) The trick is to maximize your speed by only drifting when you have to. Ridge Racer 3DS is a bit more forgiving than the series norm, since collisions aren't penalized very heavily. It also prioritizes slipstreaming (driving behind other cars to take advantage of their airflow) and retains the drift-charged boost mechanic that was introduced a couple of entries ago. A simple, effective balance, although I would have liked for slipstreaming to charge the boost gauge, as well.

Let's get the rough stuff out of the way first. This game is... not attractive. Graphics whores, start looking for another John. (I hear that Ryu boy tips real nice.) Ridge Racer 3D has many of the flaws that were endemic to PS2 games - flickering, aliasing, etc. Only now they're in 3D, so they're even more distracting! The low resolution of the screen doesn't help matters. That's a hardware issue, but Namco probably should have worked around it by sprinkling fewer wire-thin lightpoles throughout the tracks. The framerate in this game is also uneven, especially in 3D mode. Especially ESPECIALLY when you're kicking up particles with multiple cars onscreen in 3D mode. I'm not sure that the 3D effect actually makes the game easier to play, but it feels novel and is handled fairly well. Namco takes advantage of the 3DS' distinguishing feature by flinging a variety of stuff at your screen: Confetti, sakura petals... Just those, I guess. But it's cool. And the gee-whiz appeal of the plane/helicopter flyovers that have always been a part of the series has been amped up to the 3rd power! Gimmicks notwithstanding, in first-person view, cranking the 3D slider all the way up provides a very impressive depth of field. Third-person is a little more limiting, probably due to the car itself being a very close focal point. I found anything more than the lowest 3D setting in third-person view to be quite distracting and somewhat brain-liquefying.


Every track in every racing game ever should have transparent tunnels through oceans.

Technical niggles aside, the overall art direction and neon color palette of the game are pleasant and inviting. Which, I suppose, means that the previous 7 games in the series were pleasant and inviting, since the content of Ridge Racer 3D is largely re-purposed from series entries past.

That's not a bad thing, mind you. Especially for a newcomer to the series (or a very forgetful person like me). It sure beats having ONE track (with alternate routes) in early Ridge games. Those alternate routes seem to be missing from this version, but we do have a healthy amount of tracks (plus Reverse versions) in their place. A fair trade-off, I suppose. The track design is solid and nicely varied, from short, simple, wide tracks to long, tight, twisty ones. And the Grand Prix progression is branching, so that if one particular cup is giving you trouble, you can usually opt for an alternate one.

Grand Prix, a huge, sprawling web of tracks, is the main mode of Ridge Racer 3D. Many of those tracks are repeated, but playing Ridge Racer to completion will certainly take you quite a bit of time. I think the key to enjoying the game is to consume it in bite-sized chunks. Then you will be able to better appreciate the gradual, almost RPG-esque progression of ever-faster cars and the ever-more-bastardly AI.

Although calling it "AI" might be incorrect. These are not simulated drivers. They are algorithms, plain and simple. Your passing technique is much more important than your overall time. You will be allowed to pass a certain amount of cars per lap (the rate of which depends on the length of the track). After you pass each car, it will pass you back. After a certain amount of back and forth, it will leave you alone and allow you to move on to the next step in the algorithm. Complete all of the steps in the algorithm before the end of the race and you win! This sounds like a bad thing, but oddly enough, it isn't. This weird, arcade-y mechanic is a big part of what keeps the single-player modes in Ridge Racer exciting. It's artificial, and occasionally maddening at the higher difficulties, but never as frustrating and arbitrary as, say, Mario Kart or as boring and perfunctory as, say, Gran Turismo.

As for the music... well, it exists. And there is a healthy amount of it. Most of it is inoffensive electronica, some if it is incredibly offensive electronica, and one track is badass thrash metal. I wish the whole soundtrack were thrash metal. Or that custom soundtracks were supported, I suppose, so we could just use our own thrash metal collections.

I also wish the in-game announcer (who can be silenced) a long, toasty stay in hell.


Yup, those tail lights are in 3D. And that is a fucking birdman.

A smattering of extra modes in Ridge Racer 3D provides even more ways to play through the same tracks. Namco have really taken re-purposing to an art form here. In addition to Grand Prix, the game boasts some decent time trial functionality (ghosts included), a mode that generates a cup based on the criteria you input, and a replay theater. StreetPass functionality sweetens the deal a little more. You can exchange ghosts, as well as build up a viral leaderboard through in-person encounters (a neat idea, but ultimately kind of a weird, inefficient workaround for online leaderboards). Multiplayer (which I didn't get a chance to try) supports up to four players and, sadly, is local and multi-cart only. A far cry from the amazingly robust single-cart multiplayer support in the otherwise shitty NST-developed Ridge Racer DS.


*insert caption here*

Ridge Racer 3D is a very solid, expansive launch game. Many small issues conspire to keep it from being a game for the ages, but when you're rocketing through a track and screaming around every corner in three dimensions, it's a hell of a lot of fun.

Oh, and the opening 3D cinema is sweeeet. :)


But the tracks have 6-7 second load times and the interface is clunky. :(