Capcom director Masamichi Yamazaki has dropped the first nugget of info on the mysterious Ridge Racer Unbounded since its debut trailer suggested a significant change of direction for the series.
The trailer showed series starlet Reiko crashing into other cars in an open city environment, but the all-CGI flick offered little real insight into how this will transpire into the actual game. We thought it looked like a move towards Burnout Paradise, which might not be too far off the mark.
"Ridge Racer has traditionally been a game, which appeals to the mass market due to its simple arcade-like feeling," he said. "With Ridge Racer Unbounded, it's more similar to Need for Speed or Burnout instead of the traditional Ridge Racer."
Further reinforcing Namco's intention to change up the series, Yamazaki added: "Ridge Racer should be able to try different directions. Even compared to other racing series they have different themes and styles. I believe Ridge Racer can also do this and give players a game with a new direction."
Are you excited or worried?
Comments
10 comments so far...
photoboy on 7 Apr '11 said:
If I want to play Burnout or NFS why would I buy Ridge Racer when I can buy Burnout or NFS? Namco need to wake up and remember what made Ridge Racer great, because it certainly wasn't copying annual EA sequels.
Very_Silver_Ownz on 7 Apr '11 said:
Why don't you just call it Burnout or NFS then instead of Ridge Racer then Namco ? If it isn't Ridge Racer don't call it Ridge Racer.
Cogglesz on 8 Apr '11 said:
Ridge racer 2 and Rage racer where my favorite ps1 games back when i had one, the game play suited the ps1 great, i just feel now a days that Ridge racer is pretty outdated in terms of how it feels, RR7 was alright but it was boring after about a day, Namco should really drop the Ridge racer name, especially if its inspired by later games.
Eclipse Dj on 8 Apr '11 said:
Ridge Racer was great, probably my most fondly remembered 90's arcade game but the new games in the series leave me cold. Ridge Racer has always been about power-sliding and drifting into the corners and the first arcade game got the handling spot on.
I can't say I've enjoyed a Ridge Racer title since the N64 version, when I got my 360 I borrowed the new RR from my cousin and it was just ridiculous. Braking to slide into a corner made the car turn literally side on, now I'm all for some OTT arcade fun but seeing your car moving sideways around 50% of the track was lame and I just don't 'get it'.
They've tried revamping other series Sega Rally, OutRun but they never seem to be hugely successful, maybe they should just do an 'OutRun XBLA style revamp' for all the RR that remember what made the series great in the first place.
TheLastDodo on 8 Apr '11 said:
@Silver: Cos they don't own the rights to call it Burnout or NFS duh.
@photoboy: Feel free to correct me but wasn't the last Burnout game released in 2008? Hardly annual is it?
They'll only be saying its similar to X and Y because those are the biggest arcade racers around now, just as every shooter is compared to CoD. I hate to see every shooter compared to CoD but its understandable, people use CoD as a comparison as its the biggest selling shooter this gen, chances are you've played one at a friends house, owned one or just a tried a demo, so they use as CoD as the measuring stick, doesn't mean the shooter in question is like CoD at all.
There will be lots of new gamers this gen who have never played a RR game like myself, so if they said RRU plays like classic RR, then that goes right over my head & I'm not interested, likening it to Burnout and NFS has got my attention. All this is doing is getting the games name out there to a new generation of gamers.
Too many over sensitive gamers these days.
rbt2 on 8 Apr '11 said:
3DS version's great. Best one since RR's PS1 days imo.
roland82 on 8 Apr '11 said:
Im a bit confused why a Capcom director is talking about a Namco game. To be honest though, even though I loved all the PS1 Ridge Racers after that I think they have been balls. It was amazing in its day but that day was a long time ago.
murph_77 on 8 Apr '11 said:
I would not like to know how much money I pumped into the RR arcade game in the 90's. I also played the PS1 version to death. As rightly said with the other comments, if I wanted NFS or Burnout I would buy those games. Another series bites the dust!!
TheLastDodo on 9 Apr '11 said:
Why write it off before you've seen any gameplay footage?
liveswired on 10 Apr '11 said:
Once again another amateur Japanese company miss the whole point about what makes their game great. Namco treat Ridge Racer the same way Dudson treated Bomberman - its stupid.