Review #822: One Piece - Pirate Warriors 4

 A Pirate I was meant to be, trim the sails and roam the seas!

 While I only got into Pirate Warriors with 3, I could instantly tell that it was good stuff. One Piece and its creative character design and powers made for fantastic movesets in a Musou game, and the lack of a proper jump wasn't as bad as I feared when I first heard about it when the first game came out. One Piece: Pirate Warriors 4 is here, and boy, they have changed things up, there's a jump button for one, as well as other mechanics that make it fairly experimental as far as Musou goes.

 As per usual with the Musou games, there are three modes: Dramatic Mode, which is the game's story mode, Free Mode, which lets you play Dramatic Mode with any character and without cutscenes and Treasure Log, which is a collection of about 99 mini-missions under silly circumstances while random mini-scenarios occur, such as having to fight any of two combatants or having to rescue a villager from a random character. The story mode is a mixed bag. It features 3 pre-timeskip scenarios: Alabasta, Ennies Lobby and a mix-mash of the Sabaody Archipelago arc and the Marineford arc, as well as 3 post-time skip scenarios: A mix of the first post-time skip chapter when the Straw Hat Pirates reunited with the Dressrosa arc, the new Whole Cake arc and a new, made up version of the Wano arc. As any connoisseur would know, One Piece is fairly long and a LOT of stuff happens between these arcs, so the game tries to condense as much as possible the in-betweens through cut-scenes. New comers will probably have a hard time keeping up, core characters such as Chopper and Brook get some pretty shallow introductions and barely any scenes afterward. On the other hand, the cutscenes are really good and do a great job of adapting some key scenes from the series. There are a lot of them too, so while every scenario is divided into 6 12 minute stages, there are so many scenes to watch that it'll bump up your play time, which isn't a bad thing when it's so entertaining to watch, at least to someone that knows One Piece.

 Basic gameplay remains the same: You vs thousands of brain-dead enemies and stronger generals. Y is a basic attack string that can be peppered with X button presses to produce more powerful attacks. The first change is an emphasis on air combos, B is now a jump button that can be pressed mid-combo to launch enemies up into the sky, and A is the power charge, a dash that deals low damage and can be used to cancel your attacks...or jumps. So you can push an enemy into the air and tie combos along, by power-dashing, your limit being a Stamina gauge, which refills over time. The other change was to the Super/Musou attacks, as they have no dedicated button... or slot. Each character starts off with four special moves, at least one of them being a Musou attack, which are used by holding down the R button and pressing any face button. Each character has MORE than four of these abilities, but you can only equip four at a time, and gain more by leveling them up. Not every character has the same surpluss of abilities, Luffy being the one with the most, from form changes(Gear 2nd, Boundman, etc) to Super moves. These R-button abilities refill as you deal and receive damage. It's an interesting idea, and works quite decently. You could equip four Musou/Super attacks if you want, at the cost of taking longer to refill, or you could use some quicker but weaker super moves, heck, you don't really need to equip a Burst(Such as a form change) at all!

 The leveling up system is completely different, you no longer gain traditional experience points, but rather spend earned money and coins, the latter mostly from defeated enemies, on growth Maps, to obtain stat gains, extended attack strings, new moves and even passive skills you can equip. There's one shared growth map and two exclusive maps per character. The three-tiered enemy life gauges I hated from PW3 is gone, but bosses now have armor gauges that you must deplete in order to deal more considerable damage, but these gauges regenerate every time you destroy them. The game claims that the new giant enemies can only be harmed when they are attacked, but I could deal damage just fine even when they weren't doing anything, which is a good thing, since otherwise they'd be a bit of a bore. To be honest, I'm not fond of this new armor gauge, but I prefer it over the three-tier life gauge. A new aesthetic change is that you can damage the environment around you, sometimes you can even destroy entire buildings. It's not a game changer, but it's a nice detail.

 There are 13 new characters, made up from Kaido, Big Mom, some of the Pirate Super Novas and all of Sanji's siblings, his father isn't playable, for whatever reason, though. Sounds pretty neat right? Well, in something I haven't seen since the classic PS2 era, they actually removed characters. Garp actually got turned into an NPC, which is completely ridiculous since he used to have an entire moveset. Enel, my favorite villain, got removed because who knows why, Moria and Perona are gone too. And the Strawhats? Only Luffy, Zoro, Sanji and Usopp get their pre-timeskip forms, which, once again, is ridiculous since the other pre-timeskip characters they had movesets in Pirate Warriors 3 and they even have their models/skins in this game. And while it's true that this game is using a new graphic engine, old characters animate pretty much exactly like they did in the previous game, so what gives? Yes, characters have expanded movesets thanks to the R-palette, but keep in mind that, sometimes, these moves used to be X-combo enders in the previous game. There's no excuse other than laziness, and don't worry, they'll nickel and dime you with 9 DLC characters anyways.

 Speaking of no excuse, the targeting system still sucks. It's been a long while since Musou games haven't had a decent targeting system, but in this game it was particularly egregious. The lock-on camera loves to get stuck around, and sometimes, even get stuck in angles you can't see the enemy you are targeting. Their solution was to make it so that if you press the Power Dash button while standing still it'll automatically take you to the targeted enemy. But it's not a decent a solution. If they are gonna cut corners so bad they'll better fix the most basic of mechanics. And the loading times are pretty darn long too.

 As many corners as they cut, the sad reality is that this is still one of the most fun series of Musou games. Honestly, the crazy powers and the ways these characters move are a perfect fit for the genre. The new changes they made to the mechanics feel like a step in the right direction, and the aerial combat was way more fun than it deserved to be. I love the Musou game, but they are very shallow affairs and they never change too much, even with the new additions this game still follows the same blueprint very closely, so removing characters doesn't sit very well with me. The new aerial combat also really brought to light how much they need to work on the targeting system. When it's all said and done, Pirate Warriors 4 is still a choice game when you feel like playing Musou, when you just want to turn off your brain and feel like a one-man army. But it can be better.
 8.5 out of 10

Review #821: Sonic Mania Plus

 This settles it once and for all 2D > 3D.

 Sonic Mania Plus is the truest example of a modern classic, it feels exactly like the old, classic Genesis Sonic games and looks like them too. The most intriguing thing about this game is that it wasn't developed by Sonic Team, but rather by a team of fans that earned their chops by producing hacks for the original games, then developing official ports of said original games and culminating with Sonic Mania, a completely original new game endorsed by Sega themselves. This is the Sonic game for scorned fans, for people that longed for a return to Sonic's golden years.


 The game is more meaty than what you'd expect. The main game is made up of 12 zones with 2 stages each, as well as a secret final stage if you manage to nab all 8 Chaos Emerald by finding the hidden 3-D rings that take you to a bonus runner stage in which you must catch a flying UFO. These 12 zones are a mix of remade old stages from Sonic 1-3 as well as beautiful and creative new zones. The whole game should take you about 3 hours to complete. If that wasn't enough, the game can be played as Sonic, Tails, Sonic & Tails, Knuckles, Ray or Mighty, each character having a little something that makes him different from the others. Sonic can perform a new Drop Dash, being able to come out of a jump into a spin dash, Tails can fly, Knuckles can air-dive and climb walls, Ray can glide and Mighty is the "I win" character, get a ground pound and invulnerability as long as he is turned into a ball(Spin dashing or jumping). There are not a whole lot of character exclusive areas, but each stage has a ton of alternate paths and routes, and considering each character has slightly different abilities... I'd call it a win. Finally, there's an Encore mode, which changes stages a bit, but only a bit, however, it adds a new ending and drops the life system entirely, now instead of lives you rescue every playable character and you play as a pair, being able to switch between both at any time. If you die, you'll play as the next rescued character on your roster until you've got none left. It's a nice twist on the formula, so even if stages weren't changed too much, you get an entirely new way to play the game, one that has you, potentially, playing as all characters. Lastly, there's a set of multiplayer mini-games.

 Gameplay is classic Sonic at its best. Full disclosure, while I've played every Sonic game... I've always been more of a Mario fan, and the only classic Sonic I've ever beaten is 1. Regardless, if you like Sonic's brand of running and jumping you'll love this game. A few stages have very light puzzle-like segments, but nothing too taxing, just find the correct bumper to jump on or figure out how to reach enough speed to clear a wall. Every stage ends with a boss, and they are pretty simple too figure out too, well, most of them. I had a bit of trouble with a few bosses, but no hurdle was too high. All in all, I think the game offers an adequate challenge. The game runs on the classic lives system, as long as you have lives left, if you die, you'll pick up from the last checkpoint you touched, run out of lives and it's back to the start of the level.

 As you should know, Sonic runs on rings. As long as you've got at least one ring, if you tough an enemy or an enemy hits you, you'll survive the hit but lose all your rings, although you are given a short window of time to try collect a few of them back before they disappear. Get hit without a ring and you die. If you manage to retain at least 50 rings when you get to a checkpoint, you can jump into it to trigger a classic blue-orb catching mini-game, and it's in your best interest to try to win these, because you'll get medals that will unlock little bonuses, like Sonic's Sonic CD abilities, the Debug Mode and the 'and Knuckles' mode that let's you play as Sonic & Knuckles.

 The game is absolutely beautiful. Every new sprite and every new animation made for this game are nothing short of amazing, featuring some very smooth animation. It's incredible how they managed to make such tiny sprites look so GOOD. The music too is brilliant, it's very jazzy and it certainly adds to the experience. As I played through the game it transported me back into the 90's, which is incredible since I skipped the SNES and GENESIS during said era, going straight from NES to N64. That said, as good as the game looks, a few stages were so detailed that it was hard to distinguish if parts of the environment could harm me or not, like the moving flowers on the flying Desert stage, as well as a set of crates on, I think, Studiopolis Zone, which I wasn't sure if they were part of the background or not. None of these few confusing spots actually resulted in me dying or getting hit, so it's not a big issue, but I think they could have done a better job with color-depth and detail to make it more obvious, which is kind of a necessity when your game is based on speed, I think.

 Now then, taking into account that I love Mario and am somewhat indifferent to Sonic.... I felt like a few stages dragged on for too long. Hell, I feel like the entire game might be a bit too long, although this one might be on me since I decided to finish the game in one sitting, and once I started to feel a bit bored I still soldiered on. Still, other retro games of similar length, like Ninja Warriors or the faux-retro Shovel Knight and Blazing Chrome didn't tire me so soon. On the other hand, people that actually enjoy Sonic get a game that plays just exactly how they like it that also lasts a fair amount. Not to mention, a ton of added replay value thanks to multiple playable characters and the multiple routes per stage.

 So... here's the thing with Sonic Mania Plus, it's a game that so closely mimics the older games that old fans of the hedgehog will absolutely adore it, but it also means that it won't make Sonic any new fans. I can appreciate the game for what it is, an amazing throwback to the classic series, but since I've never been too much of a fan of this speedier, looser take on the platform genre... it didn't completely win me over. I liked my time with the game, but I'm not sure if I'll be coming back any time soon. Still, what really matters is that fans of the Blue Hedgehog will get exactly what they want and then some.
 7.5 out of 10

Review #820: R4 - Ridge Racer Type 4

 Going out with a bang

  Well, they finally did it. They finally released the fabled 'complete product' and then some with R4: Ridge Racer Type 4. Analog support? You got it. Split-screen? It's here. Content? Hell yeah! This game felt almost as good to play as Ridge Racer 7 did, and that's saying something.

 So, modes: Grand Prix, Time Trial and the unlockable Extra Trial. Car customization is completely gone, save for the car's color, and honestly, I can't say I miss it. Time Trial is exactly what it sounds like and Extra Trials are collections of trials under certain conditions, such as only Assoluto cars. But Grand Prix is entirely different. First you pick a Team, which determines the story line(Dialogue bits in between races) you'll go through as well as a few of the vehicles' stats, and then you pick the manufacturer. This means a total of 4 teams and 4 manufacturers for a total of 16 different car branches. As you play through Grand Prix, and depending on your positions, you'll unlock different cars with different stats. It's a woozy. Grand Prix's structure is also different, now you go through 8 different tracks, because now we have 8 different tracks(Although to be fair most tracks share elements with at least another track, but then again, like 80% of each track is unique). On the first two races you must finish on 3rd or better. On the second two you need to be 2nd or better and the final four require you ending up on first. Your standings on the first four tracks determine which cars you'll unlock as you advance through the mode and can latter use in other modes.

 Most new tracks are a bit softer than what came before, and the graphics too feel softer, although way more detailed than Rage Racer, so the game as a whole feels a lot more chill. I play racing games with Automatic Transmission because I'm really bad at them, but this game did something I wasn't too fond of... AT also has Drift Assistance. I mean, once again, it made the game even more chill, but I would've wished I could turn off drift assistance, since a lot of my wins didn't feel earned. I'm all in for accessibility options, but they should be that, options. Regardless, the game's feel strikes a nice balance between Ridge and Rage racers, and I wound up loving how this game plays a lot. I also really enjoyed how the new Grand Prix plays out, it's a very interesting idea that feels endlessly rewarding since every Team/Manufacturer combo yields new cars. And if you're really good, you can even unlock Pacman!

 So, by now I've made it clear that this Ridge Racer has it all. But what if I told you that it has something else to offer? This game comes with a bonus disc. It has Namco Museum slides(Lame!!) as well as ads for Guncon Games, like Time-Crisis, and Ace Combat 3. It also comes with a playable demo of Klonoa 1, which is glorious, and contains the first two levels, as well as a demo of Tekken 3 in which you can play as Xiaoyu and Eddy, I played it a few times and I managed to fight Lei and Paul on their own stages so it might have a few fighters. I got Eddy twice as an opponent before I got bored. Pretty neat extra, right? There's more. It has a small sample of the original Ridge Racer, you can play the original Easy version of the track in Time Trial mode... and it also has a Turbo Ridge Racer, which is a new version of Ridge Racer made from the ground up, with new graphics a 60 FPS. You can play both versions of the track in either Time Attack(Try to make the best time with no AI opponents) or Time Trial(You vs a CPU). How AMAZING is that?

 It took Namco a while, but they finally delivered a game that feels more than complete, as it's overflowing with content, content that doesn't feel grindy at all. Gameplay hasn't evolved much since the first game, but it didn't really need to since they hit the nail on the head on their first go, yet driving feels the most polished it has been, I think they learned what didn't work about Rage Racer and tried to make it more similar to the original games. That said, my biggest gripe is how AT comes with a forced Drift Assist, not cool!
 8.0 out of 10

Review #819: Gold and Glory - The Road to El Dorado

 No gold and no glory, only pain and misery.

 I used to love this movie, yo! I loved Gold and Glory: The Road to El Dorado so much that I went to the cinema twice. Twice!! While it was a bit of a sleeper hit it did well enough to justify two games: a graphic adventure on PS1 and PC and a platformer on the GBC. I used to own this game on PC and I played the Gameboy version at a friend's house and I remembered both games as decent. Well, this PS1 version is a disaster, so I hope to god that the PC version is free of all its technical issues.

 The game does a pretty mediocre job at retelling the story of the game. It consists of about 8 stages, 2 stages getting out of Spain, 1 stage on Cortez's boat, 2 stages getting to El Dorado, 2 stages escaping the stone Jaguar and final stage inside a water tower. Needless to say, it takes a lot of liberties with how the plot advances, and in this case the plot is framed as Miguel and Tulio retelling their adventures. This is also an excuse to gloss over parts of the movie, like how the entire part with Miguel and Tulio mingling with the natives being glossed over with a few throwaway lines: "They treated us like god. But then the bad guy summoned a giant stone jaguar". Just like that. Considering this is a point-and-click game they really could've made some puzzles out of Miguel and Tulio convincing everyone they are gods. Really, I think the genre fit the license quite decently, and I liked the puzzles that the game has, but I think even more could've been done with the plot. There's no reason as to why the Jaguar escape needs to be so long and divided into two sections, a stage on El Dorado among the natives could've worked really well and build up the narrative even better. The game is fully voiced acted, not by the cast of the movie, which is really neat, and it uses a few mostly-voiceless clips from the movie every now and then.

 Alright, so this is a point-and-click adventure game, which means that you are supposed to move around an environment, searching for items you can use on NPCs or on objects to produce different results and sometimes other items. So, how did they translate a genre that you play with a mouse onto a PS1 game, on an era before Grim Fandango and it's mouseless interface released? Well, they failed miserably. You can move around in a tank-like fashion with the directional pad or with a more 360-degree movement with the analog stick, in theory. In reality both options work like crap. In the end I resorted to a mix of both digital and analog movement in order to try to get through the game, but man, it was hard. Sometimes the analog stick would get stuck moving in one direction even though I had already moved the analog elsewhere (And my sticks work just fine!), while other times the digital pad wouldn't work like it should. It's hard to explain, but trust me, getting ANYWHERE in this game is an exercise in frustration. This also makes the few 'stealth' segments, in which you must crawl, fairly unfun. And it's not just that, sometimes even interacting with object on the ground is hard, because even though it looks as if it's highlighted your character will refuse to interact with it. So just try to fidget around until Miguel and Tulio figure it out.

 And look, while I enjoyed most of the puzzles, others where so boring. For example, on the ship level, you have six keys and you must select the two right keys. I had to restart this level so I was unfortunate enough to discover that the right keys are random. You have to ask a monkey to give you one or two keys, if you ask for three you'll wake up a guard who'll take your keys. Once you have your keys you have to trigger a slow animation in which Tulio goes over handrails to the other side of the wall, now you can try the keys. If any of them doesn't work, you have to go through the handrails again, return the keys that didn't work and take new keys. And every time you ask or return a key you have to sit through the unskippable animations. I swear, I liked most of the puzzles, but every now and then you'll get a poorly designed stinker.

 I mentioned how I had to restart a level, well, let me tell ya, there's a reason why any time you pause the game you can "restart mission", and that's because it's a glitchy mess. The performance on the PS1 is nothing short of tragic, it feels as if the entire game runs at 10 fps all the time. When the game first started and I took my first steps as Tulio I couldn't believe how bad it was. And then there are the glitches. On said Ship level, I tried to use biscuits on a rat. Turns out you have to put the biscuits inside a trap, but trying to use the biscuits on the rat soft-locked the game. I don't know why that happened, because I tried it again after restarting the mission and it didn't get soft-locked. Then, during one of the poor "platforming" sections in which you have to jump on stones over water, Miguel jumped ON the water. So I tried running on water to the end, since I was gonna exploit this glitch, but nothing happened, so I somehow jumped onto a platform but... since I triggered a stone as Miguel, Tulio wouldn't push the stone into the water which meant that any attempt at jumping triggered a conversation with Tulio. I had to restart the mission. There's no excuse as to why such a simple game should run this poorly.

 Believe it or not, I was actually looking forward to playing this game again, because when I was younger I remember having fun with it on PC. But at least this PS1 version is almost unplayable, it runs like hot garbage and controls even worse. The glitches are just the cherry on top.
 1.5 out of 10

Review #818: Rage Racer

 Get mad.

 There are three things I've been complaining about since I played the first Ridge Racer: No analog stick, No multiplayer and no content. We've still got no analog support, no multiplayer but at least we've got content now! Rage Racer is the third console iteration of the Ridge Racer, gaming was still quite young as it seems Namco didn't discover the importance of brand recognition yet!

 The set-up has changed a lot. Upon entering the main menu you can either play in Grand Prix or Time Trial mode, eventually unlocking the Extra GP, which are the Grand Prix but in mirror mode. As soon as the Grand Prix loads up you'll notice something... you've only got one car you can race with. There's now a very simple customization element to the game, not only must you now purchase other cars from the shop but you can also change their colors(Finally!), their transmission(A few cars only have Manual Transmission, which sucks!!), how their Drift works(You must change the balance between Grip and Drift) and the logo your car brandishes on its hood. I like the new customization feature, but I hate how now you must purchase cars, so it's neither a step forward nor a step backward, more like a sidestep.

 The game has a grand total of four tracks, the first three tracks share the initial and final sections, but the rest of the tracks are completely different, so I'd say 85% of every track is unique, which is about time. The fourth track is an Oval that shares very few assets with the other tracks. So far, so good... Except the game can be a bit of a grind. Let's start with progression, as now the Grand Prix is divided into classes, 5 classes in all. Each "class" refers to the strength of the vehicles. Your starting car is a Class 1, so after you finish 3rd or higher on every track you'll unlock Class 2. While I was pretty close to winning a few class 2 races with my class 1 vehicle I was clearly outmatched. Why did I try that? Because winning Class 1 didn't reward me with enough money to purchase a class 2 car or upgrade my car into a class 2. The same happened after I unlocked class 3, but this time around my car just didn't cut it. The only solution? Replaying lower class Grand Prixes in order to make money in order to stand a chance against my new opponents. In other words, you are expected to play the same four tracks over and over and over and over and over and over and over again. This isn't my idea of fun, and this isn't what I wanted when I complained about Ridge Racer lacking content.

 The game also feels different. I don't think I ever managed to get the hang of how drifting really worked in the game, sometimes I'd get perfect drifts, other times I'd slide all over and other times I couldn't even initiate the drift. The camera is uncomfortably close to the back of the car which took me a bit of getting used to. The soundtrack is still pretty good, although a tiny bit harsher sounding to go along the theme of "rage". The graphics have been completely overhauled, so much so that I also had an adjustment period with it, since at first everything looked so busy and grey, but there's no denying that it looks better than the previous games. 

 It kinda sucks, but I think I didn't like this one as much as the previous ones. It's a better product, that's for sure, there are only 4 tracks but they are very different from one another and look quite pretty to boot. I think car customization was a sidestep in the right direction, but making the game such a grindfest was not. While I had fun with the game I just think the previous games played better. But, hey! At least now we've got content!
 3.5 out of 10

Review #817: Batman Beyond - Return of the Joker

 Batman sure had it rough, huh?

 The Arkham series was not just a fantastic game series, but also games that managed to get the Batman license right. But we're not here to talk about the good, we're here to talk about Ubisoft's Batman Beyond: Return of the Joker, a horrible beat'em up that's inspired on the movie of the same name. But how bad can the game be? They misspell Nunchaku and the back cover's filled with lies. 10 gadgets? Where? There's the Staff, the... "Nun Chaku", the discus, the shield and the glider. That's 5. 5 batsuits? Standard, Offensive, Defensive and Nimble. That's 4. 16 stages? Oh no, no no no no no no. There are only 4 levels. 5 if you count the incredibly short Drake Lab stage.

 The game lasts little over an hour, and that's counting retries. You start off with 2 lives, and if you lose them you have to start back from the start of whichever stage you died in. There's no save feature, despite what the back of the game would have you believe(Another lie!), but at least the game is short enough. While it is a beat'em up, the final 3 stages have a lot of awful platforming that kills you instantly if you fall, which made an already bad game even worse. Between stages you get some very bad looking stills and some wonky text trying to convey the story of the film, but it's quite bad.

 Terry can punch, kick, block(he takes damage anyways) and jump. Before you get excited at the prospect of batsuits, know that they don't change Terry's appearance at all. You change suits by pressing select, pick your suit of choice and then pressing circle, which will make the game ask you "EXIT?" and you must actually pick YES in order to change into another suit. The standard suit's only feature is that it has access to the Discus, which can get some use, sometimes, the Staff, which has a single an area-clearing attack and the nunchaku that can be charged for a stronger single-hit attack. The offensive suit lowers some stats while increasing your attack damage, now you can perform proper punch and kick combos, instead of gadgets you get a spin-kick. The defensive suit lowers some stats but raises your defense, you get an impenetrable shield that nullifies any damage coming your way. The nimble suit enhances your speed at the cost of other stats and allows for either a double jump or a glide, as well as letting you roll and dodge around. Your suit of choice during those awful platforming sections.

 Gameplay is pretty dumb. Enemies only get into hitstun from your attacks sometimes which means you'll probably trade hits most of the time. But... there's one solutions. This is how you beat the game: Select the Defensive suit and then alternate between block and kick. It even works on bosses. Did I mention that this game is REALLY bad? Combat is overall pretty bland and lifeless, even when not using the defensive suit. At least the graphics manage to capture Bruce Timm's style pretty well.

 The game isn't broken or glitchy, but man is it lifeless! The music is bland, the combat is drab and there's very few, if any, moments of fun to be had with the game. At least it shouldn't rob you of more than an hour of your lifetime, but then again, there are plenty of other worthwhile things you could waste an hour on.
 2.0 out of 10

Review #816: Ridge Racer 7

 And now, let's take a dip into the future of Ridge Racer.

 It's no secret that I harbor no love for the Racing genre. I have a soft spot for Outrun and will never say no to a round of Mario Kart, but driving ain't my thing. I'm horrible at Ridge Racer, and that didn't change with Ridge Racer 7. But that doesn't matter, because this game is amazing. I liked the game a lot after I tried out my hand at a few Arcade races, but after playing the original games I couldn't help but admire how far the series came.

  The modes in this game are fairly predictable. There's a Grand Prix mode, which is actually a single player campaign in which you race for money and Fame points. The more grand prixes you win, the more Manufacturer Trials you open up, clearing manufacturer trials allows you to purchase cars and customization parts for your cars, and you'll also open up UFRA challenges, which are races that might involve a bit more than just landing first. Sometimes, anyways. There's an online mode, which, y'know, is dead, there's a Global Time Trial mode, that can thankfully be played offline, there's Arcade, in which you can race with preset cars in single or multi track formats. Word of advice, there are no difficulty settings and the AI is relentless, so... get good. It can be played in two player mode. Then there's also UFRA Challenge which allows you to download event races.... which is also dead since the servers are long gone. The last pertaining tab on the main menu is "Machine Connector" which is actually the place in which you can customize your cars. The game offers about 40 cars, which I think is a bit of a lie since some cars are just faster versions of previous cars, as well as 22 tracks that can be mirrored. More than one track? Oh, how far we've come!

 Cars look fantastic, and the fact that you can customize even up to their paint job is pretty dope. The environments are a bit simpler, but they are very pretty so they make up for their lower poly count thanks to the artistry. The game runs pretty well for the most part, but there were a few uncommon bouts of slowdown when many cars were on the screen at the same time, nothing to worry about. The soundtrack, save for a few stinkers(Which I searched up on YT and they have some fans anyways!), is brilliant.

 So, the focus on drifting is still here, and the basics have changed so little that you can even play with the digital pad in case you hate yourself or want to dabble in nostalgia. It's gotten a bit more nuanced, however, since cars can now have any of three types of Drifting: Standard, which is how the played before, Dynamic, which is a bit better at steering through the drift and Mild which reduces drifting for more stability. I really liked Mild cars and stuck with them. There's a new addition, which may have made its debut in a previous game but its pretty new to me, Nitros. Drifting fills your three-tiered nitro gauge, however, how much it fills depends on the sharpness and length of the curve, so you can't just drift willy nilly because it will only cost you speed. You can customize the Nitro gauge too, so you could have a four tiered Nitro gauge, or a two-tier gauge with longer bars as well as a few other types. This matters and will affect how you play, because you can't use a Nitro until it's completely full, and with some gauges you can even store multiple nitros in order to use a Double or even a Triple nitro boost. There are even more nuances to this mechanic, for instance, you can't fill the gauge while using nitro, but if you drift on a curve JUST as your nitro wears off you'll get an extra juicy refill. I really liked this Nitro mechanic, and I feel like it adds a lot to the formula without getting in the way of what Ridge Racer is all about. Using the slipstream, meaning driving behind another car in order to gain a boost of speed by having it break the wind in front of you is also a thing now.

 The Arcade Mode is pretty relentless, and the Grand Prix can be a bit tough. I had to restart some races multiple times before I finally finished on the first places which would grant me more points. It is a tough game, at least for people that don't play racing games often, and there's very little you can do to tailor the difficulty to your abilities besides turning Automatic Transmission on. While it can be scary, it's also a load of fun, so I didn't really mind having to retry some courses oh so many times.

 Well, I can safely say that Ridge Racer 7 is among my favorite Racing games. I haven't played many of them, true, but I've played a fair amount, and I can easily put this one next to Outrun 2, if that even counts as a Racer. I've read that Unbouded changed the gameplay a lot, so it's gonna be interesting seeing where Namco took the series after this one.
 8.5 out of 10