Ridge Racer V

Ridge Racer V
Japanese	リッジレーサーV
Developer	Namco
Publisher	Namco
Release date	4 March 2000 25 October 2000 24 November 2000
Genre	Racing
Game modes	Single-player Multiplayer
Age rating
Platform	PlayStation 2
Media	CD ROM
Game Timeline
Previous Game	Ridge Racer 64
Next Game	Ridge Racer (PSP) (Mainline) R: Racing Evolution (Chronology)

Ridge Racer V (リッジレーサーV) is the fifth console main-series installment in the Ridge Racer series, released in 2000 as a launch title for the PlayStation 2.

Ridge Racer V (PS2 Intro)

Gameplay

Like its predecessors, Ridge Racer V features high-speed drift racing across different courses in different types of race events. All races are held in Ridge City and hosted by local radio station Ridge City FM, which broadcasts the events live to the city's residents.

Introduced in Ridge Racer V is the drafting mechanic, which allows players to gain speed by aligning themselves behind opponent cars. This mechanic would then return in Ridge Racer 7 as slipstreaming, featuring visual and auditory cues not present in Ridge Racer V.

Game Modes

• Grand Prix: The main career-based grand prix mode.
• Duel: A set of race events against special machines. Although not technically a duel, the Battle Royale is also included here.
• Time Attack: A time trial mode where players race around a course as fast as they can to achieve the fastest lap times.
• Free Run: A free play mode that allows players to race as long as they want without opponents around a course of their choice.
• 99 Trial: An endurance mode featuring a 99-lap race around Sunny Beach.
• Pac-Man: Unlocked after driving 3,000 kilometers/1,500 miles in the game, this is a special one-race grand prix event around Park Town against Pac-Man and the four Pac-Man ghosts.

Grand Prix

Returning from previous titles is the Grand Prix mode, which serves as the main form of progression in the game. Unique to Ridge Racer V is a three-tier difficulty system, which is chosen at the beginning of the game and cannot be changed.

The game offers three types of Grands Prix:

• Standard Grand Prix, a single grand prix event featuring manufacturer stock models.
• Extra Grand Prix, four grand prix events featuring machines specially upgraded for racing.
• Maximum Grand Prix, a special grand prix event only available in Hard difficulty.

Grand Prix names are different across the three difficulties; listed below are their names in the Easy, Medium, and Hard difficulties, respectively.

Standard Grand Prix

01 Basis GP / Frontal GP / Fountain GP Standard Class
A four-race event on four of the five new courses introduced in the game. Each race features a 14-car grid of manufacturer stock models.
No.	Course	Time of day	BGM	Qualifying position
1	Park Town	Day	Fogbound	4th
2	Outer Pass	Evening	Paris	3rd
3	Above the City	Day	DareDevil	2nd
4	Bayside Line	Evening	DRFTDVL	1st
Unlocks: Machine driven in GP, including engine Drafting (Extra Class machines only)

Extra Grand Prix

01 Heroic GP / Bravery GP / Spartan GP Extra Class
A four-race event. Each race features a 14-car grid of Extra Class machines, machines which have been fitted with various performance upgrades specifically for racing.
No.	Course	Time of day	BGM	Qualifying position
1	Outer Pass	Day	Samurai Rocket	4th
2	Above the City	Night	Euphoria	3rd
3	Bayside Line	Evening	Burnout	2nd
4	Sunny Beach	Day	RareHero2000	1st
Unlocks: Extra Class variant of the machine driven in GP, including engine Sunny Beach Two new paint schemes Three new wheel colors
02 Blast GP / Gale GP / Tornado GP Extra Class
A four-race event in a sudden-death race. An arcade timer now counts down during races and gets refilled when crossing section boundaries. Should the timer deplete before a section boundary is reached, the player is eliminated.
No.	Course	Time of day	BGM	Qualifying position
1	Bayside Line	Evening	TsuiTsui	4th
2	Sunny Beach	Evening	Paris	3rd
3	Park Town	Night	Junx	2nd
4	Green Field	Day	DRFTDVL	1st
Unlocks: Green Field
03 Knight GP / Baron GP / Duke GP Extra Class
A four-race event along reverse courses.
No.	Course	Time of day	BGM	Qualifying position
1	Above the City	Day	DareDevil	4th
2	Sunny Beach	Day	Fogbound	3rd
3	Green Field	Evening	TsuiTsui	2nd
4	Park Town	Evening	Euphoria	1st
Unlocks: Reverse courses
04 Throne GP / Monarch GP / Tyrant GP Extra Class
A one-race event circling the Airport Oval course in ten laps. Machines in this event are fitted with special oval engines designed for ultra-high-speed racing around Airport Oval.
No.	Course	Time of day	BGM	Qualifying position
1	Airport Oval	Evening	DRFTDVL	1st
Unlocks: Oval engine for the machine driven in GP Airport Oval and its reverse variant Tricolor paint scheme

Once all four Extra Grands Prix have been completed, the courses raced when they are replayed will be randomly selected, save for the fourth Grand Prix, which will always be held at Airport Oval.

Maximum Grand Prix

This Grand Prix is only available in Hard difficulty, and is unlocked by completing all four Extra Grands Prix.

01 Ultimate GP Maximum Class
A four-race event, each raced in five laps instead of three.
No.	Course	Time of day	BGM	Qualifying position
1	Sunny Beach	Evening	Burnout	1st
2	Green Field	Day	RareHero2000	1st
3	Outer Pass	Evening	Samurai Rocket	1st
4	Above the City	Night	Fogbound	1st

Duel

After beating a rival's records in Time Attack mode, the player can challenge that rival to a Duel race.

Rival	Course	Time of day	BGM	Rival machine
Pluto	Above the City	Day	DRFTDVL	Danver Spectra
Devil	Green Field	Day	DareDevil	Rivelta Crinale
Spirit	Bayside Line	Evening	Samurai Rocket	Soldat Rumeur
Angel	Sunny Beach	Night	Paris	Kamata Angelus

Unlocks:

• Respective car for each rival

Battle Royale

Unlocked by winning all four races in Duel. The player races against all four rivals using any Duel machine.

Rival	Course	Time of day	BGM
All	Outer Pass	Evening	TsuiTsui

99 Trial

Unlocked by driving a total of 999 kilometers in the game. The player races in a 14-car race over 99 laps.

No.	Course	Time of day	BGM
1	Sunny Beach	Day	DareDevil

Unlocks:

• Car number change option

Pac-Man GP

Unlocked by driving a total of 3,000 kilometers/1,500 miles in the game. The player races against four ghosts using a Pac-Man machine.

Rival	Course	Time of day	BGM
Ghosts	Park Town	Day	MotorPacCity5

Unlocks:

• Blinky, Inky, Pinky and Clyde

Courses

Ridge Racer V returns to Ridge City, the place in which the two original courses from 1993's Ridge Racer are situated. It was redesigned to feature a more fleshed-out cityscape, and all-new areas were introduced to expand the city.

The two courses from Ridge Racer are given new names in Ridge Racer V:

• Sunny Beach
• Green Field

Five new courses were introduced to further immerse players in the newly redesigned Ridge City, four of which come in two pairs that mimic the short/long pairings of Sunny Beach and Green Field:

• Park Town
• Above the City
• Outer Pass
• Bayside Line
• Airport Oval

Unique to Ridge Racer V is the ability to choose the time of day races are held outside of Grand Prix mode. Courses can be raced in the day, evening, or night; some courses, however, may only be raced during select times of day.

Times of Day

Courses	Day	Evening	Night
Sunny Beach	✓	✓	✓
Green Field	✓	✓
Park Town	✓	✓	✓
Outer Pass	✓	✓
Above the City	✓		✓
Bayside Line		✓	✓
Airport Oval		✓

Vehicles

Ridge Racer V features six main cars the player can choose from during Grands Prix. By completing GP events, players unlock these machines for use outside of Grand Prix mode.

Featured in the game are five main car manufacturers, all of whom make their debut in the game.

• Kamata (Japan)
• Danver (United States)
• Rivelta (Italy)
• Himmel (Germany)
• Soldat (France / Italy)

As in Ridge Racer Type 4, these machines are split into two groups: drift cars and grip cars. However, unlike in Ridge Racer Type 4, where grip cars do not drift at all and require the player to actively use the brake to tighten turns; grip cars in Ridge Racer V are still able to powerslide to some extent by letting go of the gas.

• Kamata Fiaro (drift)
• Danver Toreador (drift)
• Rivelta Solare (drift)
• Kamata Fortune (grip)
• Rivelta Mercurio (grip)
• Himmel E.O. (grip)

Four cars are offered as special machines, each unlocked by beating them in Duel mode. These duels are unlocked by beating their respective records (marked with a red superscripted letter "R" on the course select screen) in Time Trial mode for both the Standard Class and the Extra Class.

• Danver Spectra
• Soldat Crinale
• Soldat Rumeur
• Kamata Angelus

Another five special machines are unlocked by completing the Pac-Man duel, which becomes available after reaching a 3,000 kilometers / 1,500 miles drive milestone in the game.

• Namco Pac-Man
• Namco Blinky
• Namco Pinky
• Namco Inky
• Namco Clyde

Engines

Exclusive to Ridge Racer V only, players can view the models of the engines. Car manufacturers produce the stock engines for the Standard, Duel and some Extra class machines. Two engine manufacturers, Jeger and Vect, produces engines for the Extra and Oval class cars. While Vect produces engines exclusively for Rivelta, Jeger produces engines for the other manufacturers. The engines are seperated into 4 categories in the game, Standard, Extra, Oval and Special.

Standard Engines

Engine	Car
Kamata KA-30FR	Kamata Fiaro
Danver 6D-GE	Danver Toreador
Rivelta R4CT	Rivelta Solare
Kamata KA-18FT	Kamata Fortune
Rivelta R16C	Rivelta Mercurio
Himmel HM36DRST	Himmel E.O.

Extra Engines

Engine	Car
Kamata KA-30FRF	Kamata Fiaro
Jeger J40TT	Danver Toreador
Vect VCT33	Rivelta Solare
Jeger J20F	Kamata Fortune
Vect VCT18	Rivelta Mercurio
Himmel HM36TEO	Himmel E.O.

Oval Engines

Engine	Car
Jeger J52FT	Kamata Fiaro
Jeger J62TT	Danver Toreador
Vect VCT36	Rivelta Solare
Kamata KA-43TFT	Kamata Fortune
Vect VCT24	Rivelta Mercurio
Jeger J58TEO	Himmel E.O.

Special Engines

Engine	Car
Danver 16D-GZTE	Danver Spectra
Rivelta R765DV	Rivelta Crinale
Soldat GC118SLM	Soldat Rumeur
Kamata KA-CLMX	Kamata Angelus
PWD1980	Pac-Man
PM-CHR1	Blinky
PM-CHR2	Inky
PM-CHR3	Pinky
PM-CHR4	Clyde

Music

Ridge Racer V features 10 BGM tracks that are playable in-game. Included among these tracks are contributions from Japanese band The Mad Capsule Markets' Takeshi Ueda, Japanese duo Boom Boom Satellites, and German DJ Mijk van Dijk, marking the second time musicians outside of the Namco Sound Team contributed music to a Ridge Racer game after Ridge Racer 64.

No.	Title	Composer	Course
1	Fogbound	Boom Boom Satellites	Sunny Beach (Night) Bayside Line (Night)
2	DRFTDVL	Takeshi Ueda	Airport Oval
3	DareDevil	Kohta Takahashi	Sunny Beach (Evening) Above the City (Day)
4	Euphoria	Kohta Takahashi	Park Town (Night) Above the City (Night)
5	Samurai Rocket	Kohta Takahashi	Sunny Beach (Day) Green Field (Evening)
6	RareHero2000	sanodg	Green Field (Day) Outer Pass (Day)
7	Paris	sanodg	Park Town (Evening) Bayside Line (Evening)
8	TsuiTsui	U	Outer Pass (Evening)
9	Burnout	Mijk van Dijk	Park Town (Day)
10	Junx (remixed by Mijk van Dijk)	Kohta Takahashi, Mijk van Dijk	—

An additional 4 tracks are available, each unlocked in different ways:

No.	Title	Composer	Requirement
11	Power Slider	Mijk van Dijk	drive 250 km
12	Night Ride	Mijk van Dijk	drive 500 km
13	Electroglide	Mijk van Dijk	drive 750 km
14	MotorPacCity5	Kisaburo	win the Pac-Man duel

The game also features On the Painted Desert (Vocal Mix feat. Dice) by Boom Boom Satellites as the background music for the game's ending sequence, which is not playable during races and not included in the game's official soundtrack.

Ridge Racer V Original Game Soundtrack

An album featuring the music from the game was released in 2000 which includes 13 of the 14 in-game BGM tracks. It also includes the music played in various other parts of the game, such as the title screen and car unlock cutscenes.

Notable in the tracklist are RareHero2000, the fourth song in the Rare Hero series (after Rare Hero in Ridge Racer, Rare Hero 2 in Ridge Racer 2 and Ridge Racer Revolution, and Rare Hero 3 (Pacific Mix) in Rave Racer); and GripMillennium, a remixed version of Grip from Ridge Racer 2 and Ridge Racer Revolution.

No.	Title	Composer
1	HydroPrism	U
2	Burnout	Mijk van Dijk
3	Euphoria	Kohta Takahashi
4	Nightride	Mijk van Dijk
5	Paris	sanodg
6	LOLO 1010	U
7	TsuiTsui	U
8	Power Slider	Mijk van Dijk
9	Junx-Interlude	Kohta Takahashi
10	RidgeCityFM	Kohta Takahashi
11	EyeCatch	Kohta Takahashi
12	Gammon	U
13	RareHero2000	sanodg
14	Electroglide	Mijk van Dijk
15	JunxEngine	Kohta Takahashi
16	SAMURAI ROCKET	Kohta Takahashi
17	DareDevil	Kohta Takahashi
18	GripMillennium	sanodg
19	Junx (remixed by Mijk van Dijk)	Kohta Takahashi, Mijk van Dijk
20	MotorPacCity5	Kisaburo

Ridge Racer V: Arcade Battle

Ridge Racer V: Arcade Battle is the arcade port of Ridge Racer V which first appeared in 2001 for the Namco System 246. It is the last Ridge Racer game to be released as an arcade title.

Trivia

• The game marks the first and only appearance of Ai Fukami, the Ridge Racer franchise's second race girl after Reiko Nagase.
• The game also marks the first and only appearance of car manufacturer Rivelta, which would go on to be acquired by Soldat.
• The memory card icon in the PlayStation 2's home screen will change as players progress through the game. It starts as a model of a car, then changes to a chibi-style Ai Fukami once the game is completed.
• The default names holding some of the top times in the records screen in Time Attack mode are from other Namco games, such as Rena, Fiona, and Dision from Ace Combat 3: Electrosphere.
• Pressing L1 or R1 during the opening sequence cycles through a variety of effects such as a grayscale filter, a yellowish filter, and a blurring filter.