Trivia / Ridge Racer

• Approval of God: Kohta Takahashi praised a cover of "Move Me" by GaMetal. He was also very happy about JPEGMafia sampling the song for the beat for "BALD!".
• Creator Backlash:
  • A little. While Kazutoki Kono is happy with Type 4's design and the fanbase's enduring love for the game, he has stated he finds the scenario (which he wrote) embarassing.
  • After recent releases such as the cancelled Drifttopia and the mobile Slipstream, there are no news regarding Ridge Racer franchise, since Namco pretended that Unbounded, the Franchise Killer, never appeared in the series. NBGI themselves wanted to get away from the franchise as possible. It seems that it was no longer the case, as Bandai Namco will hold a Ridge Racer event this year as well as released songs from the series on the Spotify.
• Defictionalization: A real-life replica of Soldat Raggio was built using the chassis of the first generation of Honda NSX. The real life car appeared as a special machine in "Ridge Racers 2" though.
• Franchise Killer: On the console and PC side, Unbounded, for being radically different and not made by the same developer.
  • On the portable side, "Ridge Racer" for PS Vita, for being basically not only a Tech-Demo Game (on the bright side, the graphics and sounds are console-quality), but also basically a paid demo where there are only three tracks (with DLC, totals to nine) and five cars. All of the contents are taken from Ridge Racer 6 and 7, making it a stripped-down version.
  • There's also Ridge Racer Slipstream (see Remade for the Export below), Bandai Namco's final attempt to save the franchise, which while it's better in content than the PS Vita Ridge Racer, was an Allegedly Free Game and extremely grindy without Bribing Your Way to Victory. With its disappearance in 2017 (for basically no reason, since there are no licensing issues) and no new announcement of Ridge Racer games outside of Drift Spirits updates, it's safe to say the franchise is in the grave for good.
• Denial of Digital Distribution: Drift Spirits was pulled out from the non-Japan stores and their servers shut down in 2016. As such, it became a Japan-only title from then.
• No Export for You: Ridge Racer 2 on PSP was released in Japan, Europe, and Australia, but not North America until a console port for PlayStation Plus members appeared in the classic catalog in December 2022. Inversely, Ridge Racer Unbounded was released in North America, Europe, and Australia, but not Japan. The latter could also apply to Ridge Racer 64, with 64 being the first Ridge Racer title not to see a Japanese release. In contrast, the Critical Velocity, Pachislot Ridge Racer and Accelerated are exclusively sold in Japan.
• Orphaned Reference: For some reason, the international versions of R4 kept the PocketStation functionality and even explained how to use it in the manual. All the more bizarre considering said peripheral was never released outside of Japan.
• Remade for the Export: Played with in regards of Slipstream, which is also a Spiritual Successor to Accelerated which didn't get an international release. The graphics and system were looked like if it was a major-overhauled version of the original which had crappy controls, and added multiple language support for international releases, making Accelerated look like an Obvious Beta. However, Slipstream was developed in America instead of Japan where Accelerated was developed. Nonetheless, it can be still viewed as this.
• Sampled Up: BALD! by rapper JPEGMafia samples Move Me from Type 4, bringing with it a small resurgence of attention for the game's soundtrack. Composer Kohta Takahashi commented on the video voicing his approval:
  I am Kohta Takahashi, the composer of Ridge Racer Type4 - Move Me, which you used for sampling. I'm glad you used my track. I think this track is a great event that transcends time, borders and race. Thank you. 👍