Rage Racer landed on the original PlayStation with a problem its predecessors never had to solve. It is the third Ridge Racer game on PlayStation and the fifth installment overall, developed and published by Namco. It shipped in Japan on December 3, 1996, with releases elsewhere following in 1997. This time the series came with a career.
Credits, Not Lap Times
The credits system is the spine of Rage Racer, and it is the first in the series. Win races, earn credits, spend them on cars or upgrades. Four manufacturers fill the showroom, each favoring a different attribute — handling, acceleration or speed. Every standard car can be upgraded in stages, and the cost increases greatly from one grade to the next.
Racing splits into five numbered classes, Class 1 through Class 5. You get three attempts to place in the top three of each class’s events before the game moves you along. Win all three races in a class with the correct grade of car — a Grade 1 car in Class 1, say — and the gold trophy for that class is yours. Otherwise you simply advance.
The Extra GP Turns the Tracks Around
Finish all five Normal GP events and the Extra GP unlocks. It runs the same classes on reversed courses. Namco also hands over 999,999,999 e.g. at that point, more than enough to buy every car and push each one to Grade 5. Finish Class 5 in the Extra GP and Class 6 opens, along with three secret cars.
Class 6 runs on the forward tracks despite living in the Extra GP, and it fields only four opponents instead of the eleven you face everywhere else. Fewer cars, tighter pack, no reversed layouts to relearn.
Reiko Nagase and the CGI Intro
Visually, Rage Racer pulls its cues from Rave Racer, the arcade successor to Ridge Racer. The result is a more realistic, darker color scheme than earlier PlayStation entries. It was also the first game in the series with a CGI animated introduction, and the first to introduce a mascot: Reiko Nagase. Both firsts point at where Namco wanted the series to go.
The truck is the oddity worth noting. Rage Racer is the first game in the series that lets you race one, and it only comes with a manual transmission.
What Reviewers Praised and Panned
The game reviewed well. Graphics and gameplay drew praise. The crash mechanics took criticism, as did a relatively drab visual style and a shortage of tracks. Those complaints are on the record, and they are the honest limit of the package. The career structure is doing a lot of work to cover for a small track list.
Its impact was limited. Rage Racer was not as groundbreaking as its predecessors, and that is the fairest charge against it. It sold well regardless, and Namco followed it with R4: Ridge Racer Type 4 in 1998.
The Case for the Class Ladder
Here is what matters. The credits system and the class ladder are the real invention here. The reversed Extra GP courses and the 999,999,999 e.g. payout are a bonus for finishing the Normal GP, not the design itself. The four manufacturers and their separate strengths give the garage actual texture. The truck is a curiosity with a manual gearbox and not much else.
What matters less is the CGI intro or Reiko Nagase. Those are presentation, and the criticism about drab visuals and too few tracks is the other side of the same package. Rage Racer is a strong racing game with a thin track list and a career mode that carries it. It is not the series at its peak, and it does not need to be.
The Numbers
- Developer and publisher: Namco
- Platform: PlayStation
- Japan release: December 3, 1996
- Other regions: 1997
- Series position: Fifth Ridge Racer game, third on PlayStation
- Classes: Class 1 through Class 5, plus Class 6 in Extra GP
- Normal GP payout: 999,999,999 e.g.
- Opponents in Class 6: Four, versus eleven elsewhere
- Manufacturers: Four
- Followed by: R4: Ridge Racer Type 4 in 1998
- Score: 8 of 10
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