After fulfilling the role as a PS1 launch title, the Ridge Racer franchise went down two different routes. Arcade goers were treated to Ridge Racer 2 and Rave Racer in 1994 and 1995, respectively, while PS1 owners gained the meatier Ridge Racer Revolution, Rage Racer, and finally 1998’s Ridge Racer: Type 4. It’s easy to see why Namco took this two-pronged approach. Not only did their System 22 arcade board outperform the PS1, but the arcade games were based on quick-burst entertainment. Pop in a quid and play. By the late ‘90s, console gamers expected more than a couple of tracks and a single vehicle to thrash around them.
While race tracks in the arcade games did sometimes find their way into home releases, the arcade and console games remained separate. In fact, 1998 marked the end of the arcade lineage, becoming console-only after this point. This brings us to Hamster’s latest Arcade Archives re-release, which sees 1995’s Rave Racer come home for the first time. It’s amazing to think that Bandai Namco couldn’t see the worth in re-releasing it digitally until now, as it holds up remarkably well.
It also came as a surprise to learn that only two years separate Ridge Racer and Rave Racer. The visuals here are far more accomplished, boasting more natural-looking textures and vehicles with softer, less LEGO-like curves. Tracks are wider, and now there are four to master, including two versions of the original’s classic course – adding a pleasing sense of familiarity – along with a mountainside track with tight bends and corners it’s possible to fall from, and the new city track. Or to reiterate, there are two brand new courses and two renditions of Ridge Racer’s track, one of which merely extends it with an extra checkpoint. It wouldn’t have felt like a Ridge Racer game without a jaunt through the original’s coastline city, so I can’t be too damning.
Namco greatly improved the handling model, too, no longer feeling as if the car is attached to a swivel. If that wasn’t enough, the AI is smarter than before, which makes Rave Racer feel more challenging overall. It isn’t uncommon to pass checkpoints with just a second or two on the clock, while coming in 1st place is a tricky task on almost every difficulty. There’s still no car selection screen though, placing racers into a sleek blue number as default. At least it’s possible to change views. Or rather, swap from an interior to an exterior perspective.
Rave Racer gets its name from its soundtrack, offering two CDs worth of music. I fully expected cheesy ‘90s rave tunes to rival Ridge Racer’s Rotterdam Nation, but there’s nothing here quite as pounding when it comes to BPM. A couple of tracks even sound surprisingly mellow, yet suit the racing action perfectly.
It takes a while to get acquainted with the changes Namco made, especially the new drifting model and the aggressiveness of the AI. The mountain track will put seasoned players through their paces, representing a noticeable leap in difficulty over the city-based beginner track. Also of note is how a manual gear shift will give a modest advantage, providing something else to master in addition to drifting around bends tighter than before. Bends so tight that the vehicle is prone to clipping through them, in fact.
This re-release includes the English and Japanese ROMs of both the standard and deluxe versions, along with split-screen to mimic the multi-cabinet link-up mode. As this is an Arcade Archives endeavour, there are a few different modes to dip in and out of. In Hi Score Mode, the game continues until it’s over, with scores then added to an online leaderboard. Caravan Mode presents a five-minute score challenge, while Time Attack Mode involves beating the whole shebang as quickly as possible. Selecting a difficulty in these modes will automatically lock you into the respective course. If you’re struggling to reach the finishing line, the standard mode has toggleable difficulties, adding around ten seconds to the clock from the starting grid. Screen filters are another feature, should you wish to mimic the look of a fuzzy CRT.
Rave Racer defies a lot of expectations, especially within its visuals, which were significantly improved over Ridge Racer even though it ran on the same hardware. Together with its surprisingly contemporary rival AI and more refined drifting, it also has a very different feel, making it a truer sequel than even Ridge Racer 2. Some of its personality was arguably lost along the way, partly due to its more muted colour scheme and less enthusiastic commentator, but it’s still unabashedly Ridge Racer – and now it has even more to offer while painstakingly perfecting lap times.
Hamster’s Arcade Archives 2 Rave Racer is out now on PS5, Xbox Series and Switch 2. An Arcade Archives version, minus the Time Attack Mode, is available for PS4 and Switch.