Retro Replay: Ridge Racer Revolution

In this weeks Retro Replay, we take a look at one of the earliest 3D racers on the PSOne. This weeks game has also created some unintentional alliteration in the title. Woops.

When I first got my PSOne, I had two games with it: Street Fighter Alpha 2 and Ridge Racer Revolution. And while SFA2 was a terrific game that occupied a lot of my time, Ridge Racer was the reason I purchased the console in the first place. Here I was, in my own home, playing a 3D racing game. It was incredible.

For better of worse, RRR wore its arcade racing roots on its sleeve. On the bad side, this led to a sever lack of depth. The game featured just four vehicles, 3 courses, and no real single player mode. Worst of all is that in reality there is just one course, which consists of a sprawling city, that is broken up into three tracks, each aimed at different skill levels. This arcade style of gameplay gave RRR little in the way of lasting appeal, aside from some good old fashioned competitive multiplayer.

But man, in 1996, did that game look impressive. Though it looks like a pixelated mess by todays standards, the complete three-dimensional city in RRR was incredible to explore. This was further enhanced by the varying terrain found in the city, which moved from a beach side villa to mountainous roads, before reaching the modern looking urban areas. This constant change in scenery helped provide some much needed variety. There were also a number of cool, at least at the time, features that made the game feel more realistic. This included constantly changing time effects, in which the sky shifted from dusk, to night, and back to day again all within the time of just one race.

Of course, the games arcade roots could also be found in the driving physics. In a word, RRR feels floaty. Cars bounce of walls with only minimal penalty, and jockeying for position boils down to a swarm of cars bouncing off each other. In fact, smacking other cars around is an important strategy, as it allows you to easily pass opponents who are foolish enough to get too close.

Like most games that are released early in a console generation, RRR hasn’t aged well. The visuals don’t hold up (to the point that they are actually a tad dizzying), the gameplay is very shallow, and the lack of variety really mars the experience. However, at the time, the game was impressive just for the fact that it was a 3D racer on a home console. Much like Gran Turismo 5 Prologue is today, RRR served as an early showpiece for the PlayStation showing just what the little grey console could handle. Of course it was soon surpassed by more realistic sims like the GT franchise, but RRR will always hold a special place in my gaming heart.

Next week we’re back aboard the JRPG train, this time looking at the dark child of the FF series, Final Fantasy VIII.