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Saturday, April 9, 2011

Ridge Racer 3D Review

Yes, it's finally here! My Ridge Racer 3D Review! Anyways, here goes...

This is the first Ridge Racer game I've ever played. Yes, that's right, even though I've owned a PS1 and PS2, I've never played a single Ridge Racer game... Sad, isn't it? Anyways, the reason for that was because I hadn't exactly heard nice things about it... But that was probably because I read the Ridge Racer DS review and thought the entire series was bad. Whoopsie. But, upon picking up my 3Ds on March 28th, and seeing as how the launch titles weren't even close to good and I sucked at Street Fighter, I decided I would pick up a game that had received some good scores on a few websites, and so I went with Ridge Racer 3D. I couldn't wait to plop the cart into my 3DS and just have some good times with it, because hey, even if the game sucks, this is a new Nintendo console we're talking about here. Anyways, on to the actual review...

Ridge Racer 3D, despite the name, is far from a new game. Sure, there's probably some new content in here, but from what I hear, only 20% of that stuff is new, so unless you've never played a Ridge Racer game before, I don't really see a point in picking this up, even though the courses that are included are expertly designed and a blast to play on. But, despite this recycled content, Ridge Racer is actually quite a meaty game. The first game mode I played was Grand Prix mode, and after about 2 hours and 9 events later, I noticed I was only 9% or 10% of the way through the game. I was surprised, and I'll put some perspective on this so you know why. There are three Grand Prix modes; Basic, Advanced, and Expert, the latter two having to be unlocked. Each Grand Prix contains approximately 18-20 events. Each event has 4 races that must be won in it. The first two races, you must get in 3rd place or higher, the third, 2nd or higher, and the last, 1st. If you can't meet up with these requirements, then you must retry that race. Each race lasts about 2-6 minutes, depending on which car you use and how bad/good you are, as well as course length. So, let's just say that each course I raced on lasted 5 minutes, so not counting the time it took to shovel through the menus (there are a lot in here, thank God they aren't that convoluted!), that would be (9 events, four races which are five minutes each) 4x5=20, 20x9=180. 180 minutes I spent on this game just racing and I was only 10% complete it! So, suffice to say, getting to the end in this game is a slow grind, and one that isn't particularly helped by the fact that many of the courses are recycled for multiple events and your first races are unbelievably slow due to lack of good cars. Oh, yeah, and it's just WAY too easy in the beginning! Sure, difficulty does ramp up, but that only happens when you're 40% of the way through the game! That's many, many hours of play time! Eesh... Luckily, when things do pick up the pace, the game is as fun as ever, really making you feel powerful and in control of your car when you pull off those massive drifts and powerslide past opponents.

The graphics in this game are just inexcusable. Sure, some effects can be quite nice, such as the reflective water in the large cityscapes or the sparks flying off the cars (which seem to whiz right past your face, a very nice touch), but overall, the car models are unimpressive, the visual effects aren't all that flashy, and even though cars have dynamic reflections, reflecting everything around them, the refresh rate on those things are downright terrible, and the pixels are so chunky it's hard to tell just what exactly the car is reflecting! I think the resolution on the reflections must've been about 100x60 pixels... In fact, I wouldn't be surprised if the developers actually took the engine off of the PSP Ridge Racer game, and then plastered it onto the 3Ds version, making it loom possibly even worse in the process because of the necessary porting job! Overall, even though the 3D helps you plan your next turn and helps immerse you much more, this isn't the kind of game that you buy to show off your shiny new 3DS handheld... Get Street Fighter if you wanna do that.

The music in this game is pretty nice, and there are some standout tracks in here as well. I often found myself choosing my favourite track for a particularly challenging race, and the techno beats help keep your blood pumping. The sound effects are quite nice too, and as you would expect, your car makes a wide variety of noises as it's skidding around corners.

Overall, Ridge Racer 3D is a decent game that does a nice job of entertaining you while you gawk over your brand new 3DS, and while it may not look the best or have the best to offer you, it's still a helluva fun game when the action picks up about halfway through and its a good way of breaking in your new system.

I give Ridge Racer 3D 78/100 3D glasses.

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