Game #1120: Ridge Racer 3D

  It's Riiiiiiiidge Racerrrrrrrrrrrrr, now in 3D!

 Before the Vita's pathetic Ridge Racer outing, we had Ridge Racer 3D on the Nintendo 3DS. It's an interesting beast, as just like the PSP entries before it, it's sort of a compilation game, albeit less comprehensive and more interesting.

 The game offers a very interesting amount of one player content. There are a lot of Grand Prixes to partake in, there are 15 tracks,  a few ranging from the very original game others to even Ridge Racer 7 as well as three gorgeous original tracks. You can unlock Reverse, Mirrored and Reverse Mirrored versions of every track. You can have One-Make races, single races and even have the game craft an original Grand Prix based on how much time you want to play. Winning races grants you money that you can spend on one-time advantages on Grand Prixes or buying new cars.

 Something I really liked was that this game, unlike the PSP games, use the modern Nitro/Slipstream system. So you can store up to three Nitros and use x1 Nitro, x2 Nitro or even x3 Nitro, as well as change the Nitro system of your car. Maybe use a system that is constantly recharging your nitro at the cost of less stocks, use one that has longer nitros but less stocks, etc. Then there's slipstreaming, by driving behind other drivers, except that....

 It doesn't work very well, considering this game has one of the dumbest pseudo-rubber band AI I've ever suffered in a racing game. First of all, enemy racers will spend their time at the spot they are supposed to be, this means that the driver in front will always be in front, the one in third place will always be in third place. Sometimes you may come across two AI racers competing, but eventually the AI that is supposed to be first WILL keep the first place. The racing itself is like this, it seems like the game will randomly decide that you have struggled enough against the driver you are trying to pass, and you can tell it's like this because you may be driving in a straight line, using Turbo, and the guy behind you will just pass you, without even using turbo. Just because. And then, out of the blue, even though the driver in front of you is using a turbo, even though you aren't even slipstreaming, even though you barely recovered from a botched drifting... you'll easily pass them as if nothing. The game isn't hard, at least not the four initial category Grand Prixes, but having to perform this dumb tug-o'-wars against other drivers until the game decides that you should get ahead was annoying and predictable. Admittedly, I'm no racing game expert so I haven't played everything and anything the genre has to offer, but I've never seen an AI that behaved like this before. And I didn't like it.

 The game looks relatively good considering it's a very early 3DS release, and I must admit, the 3D in this game is AMAZING. On the other hand, it has sever framerate issues at times, nothing like turboing when there are other racers on-screen and watching the framerate plummet. It doesn't make it unplayable, but it's a bit disappointing nonetheless. I also found the game to be very repetitive. Not only do you have to play the Grand Prixes in order(finish category 4 to unlock category 3 and its cars, then with cat 3 to unlock cat 2 and so on), but... you are unlocking very few truly new cars, as most cars are just 'tunned up' versions of the same car that looks identical to the one in the other categories, only faster.

 Thankfully, despite my grievances with the AI, I really like modern Ridge Racer, and this game is no exception. As someone that isn't very good at the genre, I like the simplicity it offers. It's very easy to learn and play, and it's just as easy to get into races. That said, I can't help but find it a bit subpar keeping in mind when it was released and what had come before it.

 7.0