Somebody once leaked the code for the original Ridge Racer onto the internet. Not the code in the sense of a pirate version of Namco’s seminal arcade racing game: rather, the source code, the written instructions of logic and maths that fired its primary-coloured cars around the track.
Overnight, the code became famous amongst game developers. It revealed that the handling model for the vehicles was written in just a handful of instructions. Today, Polyphony Digital and Turn10 toil for months recreating the intricacies of real-world racing car physics and handling, but Ridge Racer allowed us to soar around hairpins, drifting majestically, with an economy of logic that stunned contemporary game makers.
That economical DNA has served the Ridge Racer series well: a leaning towards simple thrills that has allowed Namco to launch a new version alongside the release of many new pieces of video game hardware since. So it is that a Ridge Racer accompanies the arrival of the PlayStation Vita. But while that riotous yet precise handling remains, the surrounding game structure is anything but orthodox, simple or, tragically, good.
