is an arcade

racing In sport, racing is a competition of speed, in which competitors try to complete a given task in the shortest amount of time. Typically this involves traversing some distance, but it can be any other task involving speed to reach a specific goa ...

game that was released by

Namco was a Japanese multinational corporation, multinational video game and entertainment company, headquartered in Ōta, Tokyo. It held several international branches, including Namco America in Santa Clara, California, Namco Europe in London, Na ...

in 1995. It runs on Namco System 22 hardware, and could be played by two people per cabinet for up to eight players total when up to four of them were linked together. It is the third arcade title in the ''

Ridge Racer is a racing video game series developed and published for arcade systems and home game consoles by Bandai Namco Entertainment, formerly Namco. The first game, '' Ridge Racer'' (1993), was originally released in arcades for the Namco System 22 ...

'' series and the follow-up to ''

'' and ''

Ridge Racer 2 is an arcade racing game that was released by Namco in 1994 for their System 22 hardware. Despite its name, ''Ridge Racer 2'' is more of an updated version of ''Ridge Racer'' (which had been released in the previous year), than an actual sequ ...

''. Compared to ''Ridge Racer 2'', ''Rave Racer'' adds two new tracks as well as the ability to play the original two, various handling changes, force feedback steering, and improved car and racetrack graphics. Like ''Ridge Racer 2'', ''Rave Racer'' featured a new soundtrack. The new tracks contain various side roads, but some of them take more time than others to complete a full lap of the track.

Gameplay

''Rave Racer'' is a

racing video game Racing games are a video game genre in which the player participates in a racing competition. They may be based on anything from real-world racing leagues to fantastical settings. They are distributed along a spectrum between more realistic rac ...

. Players control a racecar in an attempt to complete a series of races in first place while avoiding opponents. Each race is made of four laps that must be completed under a time limit; finishing a lap adds a few extra seconds to the timer.

Development and release

Microsoft Windows Windows is a group of several proprietary graphical operating system families developed and marketed by Microsoft. Each family caters to a certain sector of the computing industry. For example, Windows NT for consumers, Windows Server for serv ...

version was originally under development for

NEC is a Japanese multinational information technology and electronics corporation, headquartered in Minato, Tokyo. The company was known as the Nippon Electric Company, Limited, before rebranding in 1983 as NEC. It provides IT and network soluti ...

PowerVR PowerVR is a division of Imagination Technologies (formerly VideoLogic) that develops hardware and software for 2D and 3D rendering, and for video encoding, decoding, associated image processing and DirectX, OpenGL ES, OpenVG, and OpenCL accelera ...

graphics processor A graphics processing unit (GPU) is a specialized electronic circuit designed to manipulate and alter memory to accelerate the creation of images in a frame buffer intended for output to a display device. GPUs are used in embedded systems, mobi ...

, and was demonstrated in early 1996. However the game was cancelled, thus no games in the ''Ridge Racer'' series were released for PCs until '' Unbounded'' in 2012. A

PlayStation is a video gaming brand that consists of five home video game consoles, two handhelds, a media center, and a smartphone, as well as an online service and multiple magazines. The brand is produced by Sony Interactive Entertainment, a divisi ...

version was announced later in 1996, but it too was cancelled. A standalone game,

Rage Racer is the third title in the '' Ridge Racer'' series of racing games on the PlayStation. Developed and published by Namco, it was released in Japan on December 3, 1996, with releases in the U.S. and Europe following in 1997. It was the first game in ...

was instead produced for the console.

Reception

In Japan, ''Game Machine'' listed ''Rave Racer'' as the most popular dedicated arcade game of September 1995. It went on to be the highest-grossing dedicated arcade game of 1996 in Japan. A critic for '' Next Generation'' remarked that while the game makes few changes from its predecessors, those changes are important enough to make it a dramatic improvement. He found the more accurate and responsive control particularly pleasing, saying it allows players to pull off more impressive maneuvers and race without having to compensate for the controls. He also praised the fast-paced music and graphical touches. Concluding that "despite only four courses, one of which is a rehash, this racer kicks", he gave it four out of five stars. In 1996, ''Next Generation'' listed the game at number 94 in their "Top 100 Games of All Time", citing a force-feedback steering wheel, loud speakers, a huge monitor, and a link to up to seven other units.

Notes

References

External links

* {{Ridge Racer series 1995 video games Arcade video games Arcade-only video games Cancelled PlayStation (console) games Cancelled Windows games Namco arcade games Namco System 22 games Racing video games Ridge Racer Video games developed in Japan Video games scored by Shinji Hosoe