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Ridge Racer 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)

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.

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:

  • the Standard Grand Prix, a grand prix event featuring manufacturer stock models,
  • the Extra Grand Prix, four grand prix events featuring machines specially upgraded for racing.
  • and the Maximum Grand Prix, a 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 Qualifying position
1 Park Town Day 4th
2 Outer Pass Evening 3rd
3 Above the City Day 2nd
4 Bayside Line Evening 1st

Unlocks:

  • Drafting (Extra Class cars 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 Qualifying position
1 Outer Pass Day 4th
2 Above the City Night 3rd
3 Bayside Line Evening 2nd
4 Sunny Beach Day 1st

Unlocks:

  • Extra Class variant of machine driven in GP
  • 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 Qualifying position
1 Bayside Line Evening 4th
2 Sunny Beach Evening 3rd
3 Park Town Night 2nd
4 Green Field Day 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 Qualifying position
1 Above the City Day 4th
2 Sunny Beach Day 3rd
3 Green Field Evening 2nd
4 Park Town Evening 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 Qualifying position
1 Airport Oval Evening 1st

Unlocks:

  • Oval engine for machine driven in GP
  • Airport Oval & Airport Oval R
  • Tricolor paint scheme

Upon completion of the Extra Grand Prix, each of its grand prix events except for the fourth grand prix can be replayed at any time but with a random selection of courses.

Maximum Grand Prix[]

This Grand Prix is only available in Hard difficulty.

01 Ultimate GP Extra Class

A four-race event, each raced in five laps instead of three.

No. Course Time of day Qualifying position
1 Sunny Beach Evening 1st
2 Green Field Day 1st
3 Outer Pass Evening 1st
4 Above the City Night 1st

Game modes[]

  • Grand Prix: The main career-based grand prix mode.
  • Time Attack: A time trial mode where players race around a course as fast as they can to achieve the fastest lap times.
  • Duel: A set of race events against special machines. Although not technically a duel, the Battle Royale is also included here.
  • 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.

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:

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:

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.

Vehicles[]

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

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

As in Ridge Racer Type 4, these cars 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.

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 R on the course select screen) in Time Trial mode using both Standard and Extra Class cars.

Another five special machines are unlocked by completing the Pac-Man duel, which is unlocked after driving 3,000 kilometers / 1,500 miles in the game.

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
1 Fogbound Boom Boom Satellites
2 DRFTDVL Takeshi Ueda
3 DareDevil Kohta Takahashi
4 Euphoria Kohta Takahashi
5 Samurai Rocket Kohta Takahashi
6 RareHero2000 sanodg
7 Paris sanodg
8 TsuiTsui U
9 Burnout Mijk van Dijk
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[1].

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[2] U
2 Burnout[3] 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 become 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.

References[]

  1. โ†‘ Ridge Racer V Original Game Soundtrack | AICT-138 - VGMdb
  2. โ†‘ In the album's US release, this song is replaced by FOGBOUND by Boom Boom Satellites. (Ridge Racer V Original Game Soundtrack | EPC-500501-2 - VGMdb)
  3. โ†‘ In the album's US release, this song is replaced by HydroPrism by U. (Ridge Racer V Original Game Soundtrack | EPC-500501-2 - VGMdb)
Ridge Racer series
Arcade games Ridge Racer ยท 2 ยท Rave Racer ยท Pocket Racer ยท V: Arcade Battle
Console and handheld games Ridge Racer ยท Revolution ยท Rage Racer ยท Type 4 ยท 64 (DS) ยท V ยท Ridge Racer (PSP) (2) ยท 6 ยท 7 ยท 3D ยท Unbounded (Driftopia) ยท Ridge Racer (PlayStation Vita)
Mobile games Ridge Racer ยท Drift ยท Accelerated ยท Slipstream ยท Draw & Drift
Related games SimDrive ยท Ace Driver (Victory Lap ยท 3: Final Turn) ยท Dirt Dash ยท R: Racing Evolution ยท Critical Velocity ยท Pachi-Slot
Universe and people Ridge City ยท Ridge State ยท Shatter Bay ยท Real Racing Roots ยท UFRA ยท Reiko Nagase ยท Enki Gilbert ยท Shinji Yazaki ยท Sophie Cavalier ยท Robert Chrisman ยท Ai Fukami ยท Rena Hayami ยท Gina Cavalli ยท Stephan Garnier ยท Kara Shindo
Game mechanics Drifting ยท Grand Prix ยท Slipstream ยท Nitrous ยท Car Classes ยท Customization ยท Special Machine ยท Rocket Start
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