YMMV / Ridge Racer

• Best Known for the Fanservice: Game specific wise, R: Racing Evolution can be called as "Gran Turismo with boobies", thanks to the revealing shots of the main girls. Special mention to the shower scene in the story mode.
• Breather Level: The last non-reverse course you unlock in Rage Racer is a simple high-speed oval. Granted, the competition on this course by the time you get to it is no slouch, but it's a chance to, in comparison to the previous courses, simply relax and enjoy your vehicle's top speed. It's also around this time that you start to unlock the awesome high-performance Assoluto cars.
• Complacent Gaming Syndrome: In 7, Expect the top racers for the global time attack mode to either use the Jujak with the Druaga engine, Rolling Thunder Dynamic +3 tires and the Galaxian Normal Charge U nitrous, or the Himmel EO with Druaga engine, Astaroth Grip +3 tires with the General Resource Reverse Charge nitrous. For online play the car roster and tire setup is a lot more diverse. Though almost every car has the Druaga engine and only the Galaxian Normal Charge U nitrous is permitted for serious online play.
• Contested Sequel: Unbounded. One half of the Fandom believes that Bugbear's interpretation of Ridge Racer has basically killed the series as a whole, with Unbounded being decried by most of its critics as a mash-up of several other arcade racers (the destruction of Split/Second (2010), the combativeness of Burnout, an art style similar to Blur) without having any of the series' traditional aspects (save for the drifting, but even the weighty-ness of it is different from the older games) that made the series popular. On the other hand, the other half of the Fandom believe Unbounded as a breath of fresh air for the series (except for the recent portable releases, the last console game was Ridge Racer 7; a launch title for the PS3), with some really solid racing mechanics (least they ripped off the best arcade racers) and a good track creator, among other good things people have to say for Unbounded.
• Difficult, but Awesome: Oh, where to begin? This series thrives on giving cars memorably-difficult handling models that reward mastery.
  • The Himmel EO from V. This Porsche 911-alike has a very difficult powerslide-based handling model that is tough to master, but when it IS used correctly it outruns anything short of the boss cars with its insane acceleration and high top-end speed and power.
  • The Rivelta, later Soldat Crinale from V onwards, but especially in V. Before then, the Crinale's previous appearances as the "13th Racing" had it portrayed as a Master of All that rivaled the White Angel (AKA the Kamata Angelus) tit-for-tat. Starting in V, the Crinale's handling model was drastically altered such that the car has next to no lateral grip at all, making the handling akin to driving on ice; it gets to the point in later games that one can just steer hard into a corner to provoke the car into a drift. The extreme acceleration and speed aid the equation.
  • The Assoluto Squaldon/Dragone in Rage Racer. Far-and-away the fastest car in the game, topping out north of 230MPH, but its handling leaves a lot to be desired, being very heavy and unresponsive, inline with its other Assoluto bretheren. Drift tires don't make it any easier to cope with, thanks to Rage Racer sporting the most punishing drift mechanics of the series.
  • The Danver Spectra from V. One wouldn't expect much out of this giant pink hotrod, but it boasts a respectable top speed and blistering, completely-unrivaled acceleration. That's the "awesome" part; the "difficult" part is managing its wild, tail-happy drifting, wilder than even the Crinale's in the same game.
  • Any car with the "Oval"-class engine installed in V. The Oval engine drastically worsens the handling of the car whenever it's installed, in exchange for powerful speed and acceleration surpassed only by the likes of the Crinale, Spectra and Angelus. Once unlocked for the car, the Oval engine can be used in a timetrial event if so desired; if you can get to grips with the altered handling, you can set some hot times.
• Fandom Rivalry: The Ridge Racer fandom used to not have good relations with the fandom of Daytona USA and Shutokou Battle. However, thanks to an appearance of Daytona's iconic car, the Hornet, as Guest Fighter in Vita, the rivalry has toned down, and some even argue they are even Friendly Fandoms.
  • The Ridge Racer also had a fandom rivalry with Shutokou Battle prior to the Dreamcast versions of the latter, due to focus on illegal street racing through the closed roads.
  • R: Racing Evolution is like facing against Gran Turismo 3, Forza or Tokyo Xtreme Racer Drift.
  • Also, the biggest feud the Ridge Racer fandom had is with Project Gotham Racing.
• Faux Symbolism: The logo for one of the fictional sponsors in the game is an Ouroboros (that is, a dragon eating its own tail, which is a symbol of eternity).
  • The Kamata Angelus, the Angel car, and the Soldat Crinale, the Devil car, are rather blatant examples of this. Hell, their logos are in the shape of an angel and a demon, to boot.
• Game-Breaker: The Kamata Angelus in V. Ludicrous top end speed (almost 700 kph!!!), twitchy handling, a soothing, heavenly engine sound and zooming-past-you-in-no-time acceleration in one lovely-looking package. That makes the Battle Royal mode a breeze if you use it.
  • The Age Ultranova in 6 is this. It takes time to unleash the power of this Formula One car look-a-like, because it has the worst normal Nitrous charge in the game, but once you used Nitrous, a good drift can easily charge the entire Nitrous tank in one go with its devastatingly powerful Ultimate Charge. If you know how to handle it, this car will make the Nintendo Hard final races of the game complete anticlimatic races. Unfortunately, this car has been heavily nerfed in 7.
  • The Sinseong Jujak, the Assoluto Bisonte and the Himmel EO in 7. The Jujak has the best Ultimate charge in the game and synergizes the best with a Nitrous U setup. The EO might have the slowest Top Speed in the game, it also has the best Nitrous in the game and is the favored machine for Time Trial with a Reverse Charge setup. As for the Bisonte, it's essentially the best Flex Nitrous machine in the game.
  • The Soldat Crinale in the PS Vita release. With the right components and the right tune setup, it will blow everyone away in the dust.
    • Flex Nitrous + Ultra Ultimate Charge + Last Lap Nitrous upgrade combo. Here's how it works: Flex Nitrous is a single Nitrous tank which can be used at any time if charged; using the Ultra Ultimate Charge upgrade - which boosts the Ultimate Charge's power in spite of normal charge power - will let you charge MORE Nitrous you are supposed to, and thus you can kick in your Nitrous at any time. The Last Lap Nitrous upgrade makes things even better: once you start the final lap of the race, the car's nitrous tank will be charged with half of the entire tank (1 full tank and a half). Hello nigh-unlimited Nitrous!
  • The Manual Transmission Jump Start Trick in Rage Racer. Simply holding down the gas and shifting gears when the light says GO, while tapping the brakes, jumped your car to beyond its top speed instantly. If you're driving the Assoluto Squaldon, say hello to 0-230 miles per hour instantly.
• Good Bad Bugs: One of the most well-known "features" of the PS1 port of the first game is that once the loading minigame has ended, you can actually remove the disc, since the entirety of the game that doesn't consist of the audio tracks has been loaded into the console's RAM. From there, you can put in a CD of your choice for a custom soundtrack with proper cues. However, since the game has no way of knowing about the tracks on the disc (it still thinks the game disc is the one inserted), you can end up with some unfitting choices for menu and racing music depending on what you put in, unless you burn an audio CD specifically tailored for the game's contexts.
• Memetic Mutation: Kaz Hirai's impassioned plea to get gamers to care about the PlayStation Network rerelease of the PS1 port of Ridge Racer. Which, amusingly, hasn't happened yet.. But what DID happen is a rerelease of Type 4, much to the gushing of the entire Ridge Racer fanbase.
• Most Wonderful Sound: Conversely to the above, every time you manage to beat a section record still in the game's Time Attack, the announcer smoothly says "SWEET! YOU REALLY BLEW THROUGH THAT SECTION!".
• Never Live It Down: The game will forever be remembered more for the "RIIIIIIIIIIIIDGE RACERRRR!!" meme from E3 2006, even though it has almost nothing to do with the games themselves other than the original being used to showcase PSN rereleases of PS1 games.
• Nightmare Fuel: The Soldat Crinale (Rivelta Crinale in Ridge Racer V), especially in the first few games, because when racing against it, its position is not showed in the racetrack map, and since it's a very fast, evil-looking car, it can cause sudden heart attacks. And its nickname (Devil) doesn't help either. Fortunately, in some games such as the PlayStation Portable titles, it's shown in the racetrack map, but still requires putting a good fight against the said beast.
• Older Than They Think: Unbounded wasn't the first time a Ridge Racer game was made by a western company. That goes back to the Nintendo 64 days with Ridge Racer 64.^note The game was developed by Nintendo's NST division, located in Redmond, Washington
• Polished Port:
  • While having some of its own unique content and mechanics, for many fans Ridge Racer 64 is ultimately like a really refined port of the first two PS1 entries and then some, even allowing the player to use the prior game's drift and control systems if the player opts. Despite being made by an internal Nintendo team in America rather than Namco themselves, the whole game looks, plays and sounds like a missing link between the arcade style of the early series and Type 4. Ridge Racer DS would then port the game wholesale besides the control selection system, and still ultimately keep the same experience intact while showcasing the DS hardware when used properly.
  • The "Ridge Racer Turbo Mode" bonus disc included with Type 4 features the first game at 60 frames per second and high resolution visuals. While it's limited having only one other racer on the track, It's really hard to go back to the original 1995 PS1 version after playing this.
• Scrappy Mechanic: To unlock all vehicles in Type 4, you have to deliberately finish lower than 1st in Grand Prix mode, multiple times.
• Sequel Difficulty Drop: Throughout the lifetime of the series, the drift mechanic and the collision physics have become more and more forgiving. In the mid-90's games, colliding with anything will cause your car to bounce off with a sharp loss in speed, often bumping into other cars or walls if there isn't enough space, and drifting often slows you to a crawl afterwards. Later games make it trivial to drift with only a negligible loss in speed, and are far more forgiving on smacking into objects, although continuous wall-smashing is still very punishing. This is especially evident in 3D.
• Slow-Paced Beginning: Rage Racer forces you to repeat races over and over early on just so you can afford better cars and upgrades, but by the time you're in Class 3 or 4, the races start to really pick up and you'll have a good car or two in your garage by then. Class 4 also introduces the Extreme Oval where you can really go flat-out, especially once you unlock the Assoluto cars.
• Suspiciously Similar Song: The song "Pulse Phaze" sounds a lot like "Katamari On The Funk" with any reference to Katamari taken out. The lyrics become "Let's get together! Lalalalalalala".
• That One Level:
  • EX Revolution Road is probably the best example of this trope. Not only it is almost 7 km long, it has many sharp blind corners, a few hairpins, fast and sudden chicanes and at the end, a jump right before a left hander, which can determine win or loss.
  • Phantomile in Type 4 is the shortest course in the game at 1.8 kilometers, but it's still only a 3-lap course, so you don't have much time to get to first place, which is mandatory in GP Mode to advance. If you've been placing poorly and getting all the bad upgrade cars, it's an uphill battle to avoid losing all four of your lives. To contrast, the final course Shooting Hoops is slightly longer, but has 6 laps and thus plenty of time to gain first place.
  • From the same game, Heaven and Hell. The issue with Phantomile is purely lack of time, while the course isn't that difficult. The early parts of H&H are shared with Wonderhill from early in the championship, only this time, you will probably be doing those bits in a much faster car. Not helped by the fact that the bits of the course it doesn't share with WH are chock full of right angle turns and tightening hairpins. Taken up to eleven when you factor in you have to race the Devil Cars here in Extra Trial if you want the Dig Racing Team (hardest difficulty) versions of the Terrazi Utopia and Age Solo Ecureil. In GP Mode it's not too bad even when driving for RTS, but with DRT it can be a realm grind because you have to win. The save point is after this race, but screw it up and you'll have to go through Phantomile and Brightest Nite again to have another go.
    • Shooting Hoops can be this with DRT if you have the best cars; winning can be purely a matter of luck. Not making any mistakes helps, but even that isn't a guarantee of victory. Using inferior machines actually makes thing easier because the AI is less aggressive.
  • Revolution's Extra Advanced track can be pretty hectic on Time Trial, mainly due to the very narrow section towards the end, and considering the White Angel (the Kamata Angelus pre name change) WILL be up your gearbox the entire time, if you screw it up, you may as well just accept defeat and start again. And again. And again....
  • Bayside Line is this in Ridge Racer V. It's basically a longer version of Green Field but using Outer Pass's configuration. The track is known for having lots of tough corners, with one being a very long right turn. One slip up can mean defeat unless you're driving the Himmel EO.
• Visual Effects of Awesome: For their time, several major entries in the series typically pioneered visual techniques and technical showcasing or progression on their hardware. The best examples would have to be Type 4, held as the best-looking racing game on the original PS1, V demonstrating the PS2 hardware straight out of the gate with its 60 frames per second and legendary real-time intro, and 7 being one of the few PS3 games to output at 1080p while doing it at 60 frames per second, all while sporting visual upgrades over 6 for the Xbox 360.

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