Ridge Racer Unbounded

Ridge Racer Unbounded is a marked departure within the series – instead of an internal Namco team, it was developed by the Finnish studio Bugbear, known for the FlatOut series, and it shows in the finished game at first glance. Instead of the traditional pure, damage-free drifting, Unbounded offers destructive arcade racing where you can smash through fences, billboards, and buildings, shortcutting the track through brute force rather than a precise racing line, as fans of the series were used to from earlier entries, whether Ridge Racer V, 6, or the portable Ridge Racers.

The game is built around the Frag system, which awards points for wrecking opponents and the environment and temporarily boosts your car, so an aggressive driving style is rewarded here just as drifting is in other entries in the series. A track editor is available, letting players build and share their own circuits including destructible elements, along with a campaign following the Unbounded Racers gang fighting for control of the fictional city of Shatter Bay. Visually and tonally, it's a much darker, grittier take on the series than the previous neon arcade tracks – closer to urban gangs and illegal racing than to the professional championships of earlier entries. This very difference was received with mixed feelings by part of the fanbase, since it moves away from the brand's classic identity in favor of a style closer to games like Burnout or FlatOut, on which Bugbear had previously made its name. The soundtrack also abandons the electronic music typical of earlier entries in favor of harder, more aggressive tracks that better match the destructive tone of the whole game.

Why play: Ridge Racer Unbounded is for players who want a destructive, more aggressive take on arcade racing and don't mind that its approach departs significantly from the traditional pure drifting the series is otherwise known for.