R4: Ridge Racer Type 4

"Best Arcade-Style Racing Game to date"

I've always been an arcade racer and so, the Ridge Racer series has always been my favorite racing series. I like to think of Type 4 as combining the improved best of its three predecessors.

Type 4 has the original version's great racing feel and excellent soundtrack, Revolution's sped-up pace along with the sharp rear-view mirror, in addition to even-improved engine sound, and Rage Racer's huge variety of 361 cars.

RR's four fabricated car companies (Age, Assoluto, Lizard, Terrazi) return and present cars better than ever. In addition, you can select your racing team, which repersents the difficulty of the game, from four (Dig Racing Team, Racing Team Solvalou, Pac Racing Club, Micro Mouse Mappy).

Eight tracks are featured in R4, which make for a lot of fun. Players have often complained about Ridge Racer using the same basic design for two different tracks and only offering a small section of difference. Here, six of the tracks (in pairs) are based on three designs, but the similarities are usually just held to the section around the finish line.

Finally, the so-called 'eye-candy' really takes the cake. Lights (such as lamp-lights, and headlights) are featured, and the incredible detail on all the courses is amazing. The cars themselves are beautiful, most being developed from or combinations of real-life cars. As always, you'll find Ferrari, Porsche, Lambourghini, and others among the basic designs as well as just-introduced models such as the Mercedes CLK-GTR.

I have only three complaints:

1) At some points (such as on Course Wonderhill) the view is in the shade and really hard to see.

2) The soundtrack is digitized on the CD, so you can't hear it normally. Of course that saves load time among other things, but still, I really enjoyed copying the songs digitally right off the CD.

3) R4 never claimed 361 but many previes for the Japanese version did. It's not Namco's fault but it does turn out that there are only 21 distinct cars for each car manufacturer, and different spects for different racing teams.

All in all though, this is currently my favorite game of all time. All the positivies combine this to make a game that is simply fun to play. I can pick the game up and play time trial for hours.....

Reviewer's Score: 10/10, Originally Posted: 11/01/99, Updated 07/05/02