Ridge Racer: Unbounded

Once hailed as the all-time “Queen of speed” (with King “Need for Speed” indomitably heading the metaphorical racing monarchy), the Ridge Racer franchise has arguably been on something of a hiatus for the past few years. Yet for all the waiting, the tears, the tantrums – I’m pleased to announce that new developer Bugbear Entertainment have returned our beloved arcade racer to us in its liveliest, most ambitious and most vociferous form to date.

The game is set in the fictitious racing playground of Shatter Bay, a well-realised replica of various American cities, including the big apple New York, San Francisco and Chicago. With such a soft plot, in which you and a gang of street racers battle it out for domination of the city, it’s evident that plenty of effort has gone in to making players feel motivated to progress through the experience – with various playable districts being available to unlock; districts which offer new options that allow for destructive driving. The map/level designs are generally well-crafted, perfectly accommodating the various modes of standard racing, domination, Shindo and drifting.

Drifting, the trademark of the Ridge Racer series, is still a vital ingredient in order to ensure you’re a successful racer – rewarding players with a “rage” boost that successfully kicks your vehicle into overdrive. This is definitely one of the more polished areas of the game, which is strange when compared to the overall attention to detail and poor handling of certain vehicles (and vehicle physics for that matter). Yet this reliance on drifting is strangely handled; a lack of an in-game tutorial highlighting this game-changing aspect means that gamers will have to discover it for themselves. This subsequently leads to a great deal of time being spent becoming frustrated – wondering why every slight error is mercilessly punished by the tormenting AI enemies. Once the trick is “knacked”, however, players will have hours of fun gliding around corners, picking up charge to let rip on fellow racers.

Graphically, the game retains the high standard of visual modishness that’s been prevalent throughout the series. There’s a wonderful sense of pace that translates well from the joypad to the big screen, and the fully destructible environments that whoosh past in an instant successfully help to sustain that pace for large portions of the game. The frame rate very rarely lags, which is particularly impressive for a game in which multiple cars, multiple takedowns (or “frags” as they’re now known) and multiple environmental events occur at any one given time – especially when accommodating 2-8 players online in an entertaining multiplayer mode.

Perhaps the most enticing prospect for existing fans is the ability to design and share tracks online with fellow gamers. I guess this creative freedom merits the game its title “Unbounded”, and I’m pleased to say the course-creator tool is wonderfully executed. Whilst it lacks the depth of something like ModNation Racers, for new-comers (without a tutorial) it’s a rewarding and unrestrictive system that allows you to cook up some fun courses, complete with bridges, ramps and pesky corners. While I may have to agree with Official Xbox when they say they wish such a “brilliant editor resided in a better racing game” – Ridge Racer: Unbounded’s creative effort is rewarded with a gem of a game mechanic that’s well worth checking out for fans of entertaining racing maps.

And that’s probably the fairest way to summarize Unbounded; a traffic jam of brainless, automotive fun easily on par with some of the past-decade’s finest, such as Blur and Burnout 3. Yet for the serious gamer there’s an implacable feeling that for a game all about cars, the car handling isn’t as polished as it could be – especially when pitted against frustratingly tough opposition. Newcomers to the series may feel estranged for the first few games, but once they’re educated on the methods of success (in this case, drifting) then hours of enjoyment are sure to be had with this one – and like all racing games, the longevity here is paramount. This is certainly a cross-country ride, not just a drive-by.