Rage Racer

About Rage Racer

Rage Racer (1996) is Namco's third PlayStation Ridge Racer, a darker, more realistic entry that introduced buying and upgrading cars, a class-based Grand Prix and the series mascot Reiko Nagase.

Rage Racer in Depth

Taking its visual cues from the arcade's Rave Racer, Rage Racer has a more realistic, darker colour scheme than the earlier games. For the first time in the series, the player earns credits by winning races and spends them buying and upgrading cars. Four manufacturers each favour a different attribute, such as handling, acceleration or speed, and each offers a standard car and a secret car locked until the top class is reached, along with an unlockable truck. Standard cars can be upgraded in several increasingly costly stages.

Racing is divided into five classes. The player has three attempts to finish in the top three of each class's events before moving on to the next. Completing the five Normal GP events unlocks the Extra GP, in which the same classes are raced on reversed courses, and awards the player 999,999,999 credits, more than enough to buy every car and upgrade them fully.

Making Rage Racer

Namco released Rage Racer in Japan on 3 December 1996, with other regions following in 1997. Its music by Tetsukazu Nakanishi and Hiroshi Okubo marked the start of Namco's new main sound team after earlier members left to work on games such as Street Fighter EX. Reviews were positive but mild. Critics approved of its more photo-realistic visuals, though some found them drab, and many felt it improved too little on its predecessors: Next Generation called it the best of the series but said it still lacked depth without more tracks, IGN said "we've just seen it all before", and GameSpot's Jeff Gerstmann criticised its unrealistic crashes while calling it "an outstanding sequel". EGM's Kraig Kujawa and Dean Hager thought it a dramatic improvement on the original Ridge Racer. It sold well, and R4: Ridge Racer Type 4 followed in 1998.