Ridge Racer Unbounded arrived in 2012 and did something no game in the series had done before: it let you smash the track apart.
Trailer, via XboxViewTV.
What Bugbear Built
Bugbear Entertainment developed Ridge Racer Unbounded, and Namco Bandai Games published it. It came out for Microsoft Windows, PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360. It is the eighth installment of the Ridge Racer franchise, following Ridge Racer 7.
Two firsts matter. It is the first mainline Ridge Racer not developed by Namco, and the first not released in Japan. It is also the first game in the series overall to come out on Windows.
Unbounded is the most recent entry in the series to land on home consoles. Its successors focused only on handheld devices.
The game takes Ridge Racer in a whole new direction by adding a dose of destruction to the familiar arcade gameplay. That decision is the whole story of this game.
Shatter Bay and The Unbounded
The game is set in a fictional city called Shatter Bay. Racers gather there to compete in no-rules, all-out street races, competing for money and superiority.
The racing is fast-paced. You blast through the streets dodging traffic and tearing through any obstacles in your way.
A mysterious team led by a Japanese Hashiriya master, called The Unbounded, plays a major role in the racing activity throughout Shatter Bay.
That is the frame. A city, a hierarchy, and an outside crew that changes the balance. It is thin, but it does the job a racing game needs it to do.
A Different Kind of Ridge Racer
Ridge Racer Unbounded marks a departure from the traditional Ridge Racer drifting style. It moves to a more combat-oriented and destructive style, similar to the Burnout series and Split/Second, and it implements customizations.
The game keeps many staple mechanics of the racing genre. Drifting, drafting and catching air are all here. But it eschews much of the gameplay of Ridge Racer in favour of carving out its own identity.
That trade is the core of the game. You are not chasing a clean racing line. You are looking for something to break.
Concrete Beams and Power Meters
In Ridge Racer Unbounded, you race down courses filled with destructible objects and environments. Low walls, concrete support beams, statues and kiosks all sit in your path.
These track features can be driven through, enabling players to do collateral damage. The course is not scenery. It is ammunition.
During races, players fill a power meter by completing certain manoeuvres. When the metre fills, targets become highlighted on the course.
Players can trigger the power metre to activate a speed boost. They can use that boost to crash through the targets or take out opponent racers.
It is a clean loop. Drive well, earn the meter, spend it on destruction. The game never asks you to choose between speed and violence, because the two feed each other.
Race Types
Players can choose from several race types, and each one pulls the game in a different direction.
Domination has the player trying to take out opponent racers and do a lot of collateral damage. Frag Attack asks the player to take out as many opponents as possible.
Shindo Racing removes most of the combat and destructive elements. Time Trials sends the player through a stunt course. Drift Attack has the player drifting to gain time extensions.
The game can be played alone or with others via online multiplayer.
| Race type | Objective |
|---|---|
| Domination | Take out opponents and do collateral damage |
| Frag Attack | Take out as many opponents as possible |
| Shindo Racing | Racing with most combat and destruction removed |
| Time Trials | Race through a stunt course |
| Drift Attack | Drift to gain time extensions |
Points, Levels and a Level Editor
Aside from trying to win races, Ridge Racer Unbounded incentivizes point collection. Players receive points for finishing a race in the top three, taking out opponents, doing collateral damage, triggering events and earning awards.
Points unlock new races, bestow XP and let players rank up.
The game also offers a level editor. Players can build custom cities with several courses and share them with others online. They can set custom challenges for their custom courses and share and compare scores with others.
That editor is the most interesting thing in the package. A destruction racer with a built-in city maker has a longer tail than one without it.
What the Score Says
Ridge Racer Unbounded received average reviews. The published critical score sits at 7.6/10 across a ten-outlet critic aggregate.
That number is fair, and it is fair for a specific reason. Unbounded is a competent game that made a bet, and the bet is the only thing worth arguing about.
The destruction works. The power meter, the highlighted targets, the concrete beams and kiosks — these are not decoration. They give every straightaway a second purpose. The race types are a genuine spread, and Shindo Racing is the smartest of them, because it proves the game can still race when you strip the combat out.
The level editor is the part that deserved more attention than it got. Custom cities, custom challenges, shared scores. That is a real tool, and it arrived in a game most people had already filed under not really Ridge Racer.
The Cost of the Bet
Here is the cost. Unbounded is the first mainline Ridge Racer not developed by Namco and the first not released in Japan. It is the first in the series on Windows. It is also the last one to reach home consoles, with everything after it confined to handhelds.
That is a hard record for a game that was, by the numbers, average. The series did not continue in this direction. It did not continue on these platforms at all.
So the question is whether the trade was worth it. Ridge Racer Unbounded gave up the drifting identity that defined the franchise and picked up a combat model borrowed from Burnout and Split/Second. What it got back was a game with its own identity, a power meter that turns every object into a target, and a level editor that let players build the city themselves.
What it lost was the thing the name promised.
Where Unbounded Lands
Ridge Racer Unbounded is a better game than its average reception suggests, and a worse Ridge Racer than its title requires. Those two facts do not cancel out. They are the whole review.
If you want the drifting, the game will frustrate you. It removed most of it on purpose. If you want a destruction racer with a clean risk-reward loop, five distinct race types and a level editor, this is a solid one, and it holds up better than a 2012 average score implies.
The 7.6/10 is the right number. It is not a classic, and it is not a failure. It is a series taking a swing at reinvention, landing most of it, and then quietly ending its run on home consoles.
KEY FACTS
- Release year: 2012
- Developer: Bugbear Entertainment
- Publisher: Namco Bandai Games
- Platforms: Microsoft Windows, PlayStation 3, Xbox 360
- Series position: Eighth Ridge Racer installment, following Ridge Racer 7
- Genres: Racing, Arcade
- Modes: Single player, Multiplayer
- Perspective: First person, Third person
- Setting: Shatter Bay
- Published critical score: 7.6/10 (ten-outlet critic aggregate)
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