R4: Ridge Racer Type 4

About R4: Ridge Racer Type 4

R4: Ridge Racer Type 4 (1998) is Namco's fourth home Ridge Racer, a stylish PlayStation arcade racer with team stories, 321 cars and a mellower club soundtrack, often called the best in the series.

R4: Ridge Racer Type 4 in Depth

Racing centres on powersliding, in two styles depending on the manufacturer: Drift cars break into a smooth slide with a tap of the brake while turning, and Grip cars need the player to alternate brake and throttle. In the Grand Prix, Real Racing Roots '99, the player joins one of four teams of differing difficulty, R.C. Micro Mouse Mappy of France, Pac Racing Club of Japan, Racing Team Solvalou of Italy or the Dig Racing Team of the US, and picks one of four manufacturers, Age Solo, Lizard, Assoluto or Terrazi, which sets the car style and slide type. Each team has its own story, with a manager who talks to the player through the season.

Each race requires a qualifying position, rising through the season, and placing higher earns better new cars or upgrades. Racing every combination of team, manufacturer and finishing position yields 320 vehicles, and collecting them all unlocks a 321st modelled on Pac-Man. There is also Time Attack, the home series' first two-player split screen, an undocumented four-player link-cable mode, a decal editor and Extra Trials against powerful prototypes.

Making R4: Ridge Racer Type 4

Development began in May 1997. It was the first PlayStation Ridge Racer to use Gouraud shading, and the staff said much "waste" was cut to allow it and high polygon counts; like Gran Turismo, the team used Sony's Performance Analyser development kit. Okubo led a soundtrack that moved from the rave sound of earlier games to funk, breakbeat, acid jazz, UK garage and neo soul, which he called "more mature, more fashionable", meant to suit the game's human drama.

Namco released it in Japan on 3 December 1998, with other regions following in 1999. Reviews were generally favourable; Famitsu gave it 35 out of 40, and some critics found its drifting too light compared with earlier games. It was Japan's 18th best-selling game of 1998 after less than a month on sale, and sold 759,527 copies there and 297,564 in the US. Time Extension ranked it the best Ridge Racer in 2023. Ridge Racer V followed in 2000.