Ridge Racer 7

Ridge Racer 7
Developer	Namco
Publisher	Bandai Namco
Release date	: November 11, 2006 : November 16, 2006 : March 23, 2007
Genre	Arcade racing
Game modes	Grand Prix Online Battle Time Attack Arcade UFRA Special Event
Age rating
Platform	PS3
Media	Blu-ray Disc

Ridge Racer 7 is the seventh console main-series installment in the Ridge Racer series, released for the PlayStation 3.

Gameplay

Mechanics

Ridge Racer 7, like preceding games in the franchise, focuses on high-speed drift racing across a multitude of closed circuits in various locations. Most of its driving mechanics are identical to that of its predecessors Ridge Racer 6 and Ridge Racers 2, with Standard, Mild, and Dynamic-type drifting returning in the game.

Nitrous oxide, a mechanic first introduced in Ridge Racers, returns in Ridge Racer 7, which temporarily increases engine power and pushes the car past its maximum speed threshold, which is ideal for overtaking. Ridge Racer 6's Ultimate Charge mechanic, where nitrous refills significantly faster due to the residual speed increase after using nitrous, also returns in this game.

Like in previous games, nitrous is filled by drifting around corners. However, the amount of nitrous obtained is now dependent not only on the speed of the car, but also the tightness of the curve being drifted on. As such, the amount of nitrous obtained from drifting along a straight road is now much less compared to that from drifting around a hairpin corner.

Reintroduced in this game is slipstreaming, a mechanic first introduced in Ridge Racer V and then called "drafting". This allows players to gain speed from the reduced air resistance caused by aligning themselves behind other cars. Unlike in Ridge Racer V, slipstreaming now has both a visual indicator on the heads-up display (HUD) and an auditory indicator through the narrator.

Story

Introduced in the game is Ridge State, the location in which these courses are located; as well as the Universal Federation of Ridge Racing Association (UFRA), the governing body over the racing events in Ridge State.

The premise of Ridge Racer 7 is set in the "Ridge State Grand Prix" in the year 2006, according to the series' timeline, following the conclusion of the Ridge Universe racing league. The story even extends to a year later, in 2007, during the Extreme Battles, shortly after all 14 Ridge State Grands Prix are held.

Like many of the earlier games in the Ridge Racer franchise, Ridge Racer 7 features a grand prix mode as its main game mode. The Ridge State Grand Prix is a set of 14 multi-race events across different locations and machine categories that allow players to discover the 22 unique courses included in the game.

Additionally, the game introduces single-race events in the form of UFRA Single Events, Manufacturer's Trials, and Extreme Battles. When completed, these allow players to unlock various prizes, such as new events and even machine upgrades that can be used to modify machines both in visuals and performance.

Game modes

Single player

• Ridge State Grand Prix: The basic Grand Prix mode, sanctioned by the UFRA.
• Manufacturer's Trials: UFRA-sanctioned events where player can unlock new machines and machine parts.
• UFRA Single Event: UFRA-sanctioned non-tournament events.
• Extreme Battle: Non-sanctioned races with added difficulty and slightly different regulations. Unlocked after completing the RSGP, these races are illegal and pose no restrictions at all. Special machines are unlocked in these events.
• Arcade: A quick race mode around one course of the player's choosing. Cars from a player's garage cannot be used in this game mode; only unmodifiable (both in performance and design) base models can be used. Cars in categories 3 and 1 feature preset customization.

Multiplayer

• Standard Race: A Standard race mode over the internet with up to 14 players.
• Global Time Attack: A time trial mode where players race around a course as fast they can to get the fastest lap times. Although technically a single player game mode, lap records are uploaded to the PlayStation Network and can be compared with those from other players.
• Pair Time Attack: Similar to Global Time Attack, but instead combines the times of two racers working in tandem to achieve fast lap times.
• Team Battle: Players are split into different teams. A point system is used to decide which team wins after a race.
• Pair Battle: Players are split into teams of two to race, and the winning team is that with the smallest total race time.
• UFRA Special Event: A set of 25 extra events, downloaded for free from the PlayStation Store, which boast a much higher difficulty than any event in the Ridge State Grand Prix mode. The choice of cars is often preset or massively narrowed down.
• Multi Race: A split-screen offline racing mode for two players.

Courses

Ridge Racer 7 features a total of 22 unique courses. Fifteen of these courses return from Ridge Racer 6:

• Harborline 765
• Midtown Parkway
• Island Circle
• Airport Lap
• Southbay Docks
• Aviator Loop
• Downtown Rave City
• Rave City Riverfront
• Crossbay Tunnel
• Lakeshore Drive
• Laketop Parkway
• Highland Cliffs
• Seacrest District
• Surfside Resort
• Sunset Heights

In addition, six new courses were introduced:

• Industrial Drive
• Old Central
• Bayside Freeway
• Lost Ruins
• Mist Falls
• Shadow Caves

Finally, Seaside Route 765 returns to Ridge Racer 7 as the final race of RSGP 14, which has been redesigned since its previous incarnation from Ridge Racers 2.

Mirror Mode also returns in Ridge Racer 7, which allows players to drive on courses flipped vertically. Combining this with the reverse directions of each course gives a total of 88 unique course configurations.

Vehicles

The large vehicular arsenal featured in Ridge Racer 7 contains a lot of machines that return from earlier games. All machines in Ridge Racer 6 return in this game, as well as a few new additions. There are a total of 27 unique vehicles from ten manufacturers, such as:

• Kamata (Japan)
• Âge (France)
• Terrazi (Japan)
• Gnade (Germany)
• Danver (United States)
• Sinseong Motors (South Korea)
• Assoluto (Italy)
• Soldat (France/Italy)
• Himmel (Germany)
• Namco (Special only)

As in previous games, cars are divided into different groups based on their specs and performance. Unlike previous games, however, where these groups are divided into classes, with class numbers increasing as specs improve, Ridge Racer 7 calls these groups categories, with category numbers decreasing as specs improve. The lowest-spec cars belong to Category 4 while the highest-spec cars to Category 1. Special Classes, which were introduced in Ridge Racers, are also removed, with cars belonging to this class being moved into Category 1.

Ridge Racer 7 also deviates from the PSP games and Ridge Racer 6 with regards to how cars are presented. Where in these earlier games car performance is heavily tied to their designs and classes, Ridge Racer 7 offers cars in more categories and gives the player much more customization options, both in appearance and performance.

For the first time in Ridge Racer history, players are given much more freedom to decorate their cars visually in Ridge Racer 7. While older games as far back as Rage Racer have only allowed cars' colors and/or decals to be modified, Ridge Racer 7 now also allows players to change headlight color, window color, wheel color, and even machine number. The game also introduces exterior parts that allow players to further personalize their cars to their liking. These parts include front, side, rear, hood, wing, and wheel designs.

Different livery variations are no longer counted as individual cars; they can also be selected through customization.

The game also offers performance upgrades, which, when equipped, modify the cars' behavior when being driven. The game offers three performance upgrades: engine tune-ups, tires & suspension, and nitrous.

To further ease in customization, Ridge Racer 7 gives players the option to apply any changes made on a car to its counterparts in other categories, which may help players ensure consistency among their machines.

Also introduced in Ridge Racer 7 are Complete variants of cars, which are cars pre-fitted with select performance parts and designs, the former being unmodifiable and the latter only allowing limited modifications. These variants are unlocked by completing certain events, and not all cars have Complete variants.

Below is a table showing all available cars in the game. "*" indicates a car newly introduced in the game, while "C" indicates that the car also has a Complete variant available in that class.

Music

Ridge Racer 7 features the largest music collection among all the games in the Ridge Racer franchise, featuring 40 songs. Notable in the game's music selection is the fact that half of these songs were made by composers outside of the Namco sound team; these songs were cleared for use in the game by the King Street Music Sounds label.

Ridge Racer 7 does away with the arbitrary "disc" system featured in previous games, instead opting to place all tracks in one disc labeled the "Global Music Sampler". The game also does not assign BGM tracks to specific courses, as had been done in some of the earlier Ridge Racer games.

No.	Title	Composer
01	Freak Out	Akitaka Tohyama
02	Turn Me On	Akitaka Tohyama
03	Orbital Rock	Hiroshi Okubo
04	Transparency	Hiroshi Okubo
05	Beat Assassinator	Rio Hamamoto
06	Skidmarks	Rio Hamamoto
07	Saturation	Ryuichi Takada
08	Down to Earth	Ryuichi Takada
09	Shut Up Baby	SamplingMasters AYA
10	Nitro Witch	SamplingMasters AYA
11	Combustion	SamplingMasters MEGA
12	Listen Up!	SamplingMasters MEGA
13	Onyx	sanodg
14	Hard Drive	sanodg
15	Awakening	Tetsukazu Nakanishi
16	Electro Madness	U
17	Kaleidoscope	ESTi
18	Supercruiser	ESTi
19	Galaxy	Agora Rhythm
20	Don't Deny Love	Boyd Jarvis
21	In Your Eyes	Café Negro
22	Big City Blues	Dirty Harry
23	Dub-Minded	Echologist
24	Slow Movements in the Night	From P-60
25	Unknown Roads	From P-60
26	Bad House Music	Hiroshi W
27	Lost City	Hiroshi W
28	Scapegoat	Hiroshi W
29	Falling Up Ward	Joshua Collins
30	Nothing Lost	Joshua Collins
31	The Beginning	Mike Ski
32	Wired	One Wired Tribe
33	Dancer	ROMAN.S
34	Music @ Space	ROMAN.S
35	Return of Obsession	ROMAN.S
36	Cross Saw Funk	Tomo Inoue
37	Before You Reach for Love (feat. Kiva)	Urban Soul
38	My Urban Soul	Urban Soul
39	M.T.T.B.	Hiroshi Okubo
40	Eat the World	NBGI

Two extra songs are available in the game apart from the 38 listed above. A remix of Ridge Racer Type 4's Movin' in Circles appears as M.T.T.B. and is composed by the same artist, Hiroshi Okubo. This song plays during the final race of RSGP 14 in Seaside Route 765 and cannot be changed by the player. After successfully completing the race, the song becomes available to the player in any race.

A Pac-Man inspired song, Eat the World by Ryo Watanabe (a.k.a. NBGI), plays during the Pac-Man duel and can be changed by the player.

DLC tracks

An additional 20 music tracks can be downloaded as DLCs from the PlayStation Store, which are placed in a second music disc named the "NET Disc". These tracks are split into four packs of five and come from previous titles in the franchise.

No.	Title	Composer	Original Game
DLC Pack #1
01	Ridge Racer	SamplingMasters MEGA	Ridge Racer
02	Grip	sanodg	Ridge Racer 2 / Ridge Racer Revolution
03	Euphoria	SamplingMasters AYA	Rave Racer
04	Movin' in Circles	Hiroshi Okubo	Ridge Racer Type 4
05	Eat 'em Up!	Hiroshi Okubo	Ridge Racer Type 4
DLC Pack #2
01	Disco Ball	Hiroshi Okubo	Ridge Racers / Ridge Racers 2
02	Explorers	Hiroshi Okubo	Ridge Racer 6
03	Valley of the Mind	SamplingMasters MEGA	Ridge Racer 6
04	Nitro Mantra	SamplingMasters AYA	Ridge Racer 6
05	I Want You	SamplingMasters AYA	Ridge Racer 6
DLC Pack #3
01	Road Mauler	Rio Hamamoto	Ridge Racer 6
02	Floodlight	sanodg	Ridge Racer 6
03	Drift Psychosis	Hiroshi Okubo	Ridge Racer 6
04	Trail of Light	J99	Ridge Racer 6
05	Ultra Cruise	Tetsukazu Nakanishi	Ridge Racer 6
DLC Pack #4
01	Highway Fusion	SamplingMasters MEGA	Ridge Racer 6
02	Acid Eutron #001	Acid Eutron	Ridge Racer 6
03	Radiance	sanodg	Ridge Racer 6
04	Photon Field	Koji Nakagawa	Ridge Racer 6
05	Run PAC-MAN Run!	Akitaka Tohyama	Ridge Racer 6

Downloadable content

The downloadable content (DLC) for Ridge Racer 7 consists of 25 UFRA Special Events, 20 bonus music tracks (sold separately or in 4 bundles of five tracks), 14 bonus sticker sets to apply on the roof of the car, and a "3D" expansion pack.

All DLC except for the music were released for free on the PlayStation Store. These have since been delisted in some regions, but in regions where the DLC is still available, the only way to obtain them is to search the exact name of the DLC in the PlayStation Store on the PS3, as the old webstore was decommissioned in 2020.

All DLC is region-free and will work on any copy of the game, with the exception of the Pac-Man Sticker Set (Sticker Set 13), which will work exclusively with the Japanese version of the game.

Trivia

• One very infamous glitch with the game was when the game is saved after winning RSGP 13 and 14, which could cause players to become unable to compete in the Dragon Saber, Assoluto, and Druaga Manufacturer's Trials. This has since been patched.
• By looking closely at the map of Ridge State when selecting RSGP events, one will notice small square areas showing the placement of related courses relative to each other. This includes Seaside Route 765, even though none of its related courses (e.g., Ridge City Highway or any other courses from Ridge Racer V) are actually included in the game. However, the map does include a portion of the map of Ridge City, which implies that Ridge City is actually part of Ridge State, and is its capital.