Help me not suck at Ridge Racer!

[louisg]

So, I'm a huge fan of arcade driving games. I consider myself decent at Daytona and Sega Rally, Burnout 2, and Rush. I can execute the drifts flawlessly in those. But I can't get the hang of Ridge Racer for the life of me. Right now, I'm playing the N64 version (and have tried 5 and 1 with the same results), and I've tried both modes of handling (64 and Revolution).

I take it that you're encouraged to drift in RR, but every time I do it, the car comes unpredictably snaps out of the drift at this sharp angle and goes into the wall. Like, it won't gently come out of the drift-- one frame it's drifting, the next frame it's going perfectly straight. Either that happens, or I just cannot manage to stop drifting until I'm going about 30mph (drift one way, then instead of straightening out, it drifts the other way).

My questions are these: What is the best approach for going into and coming out of a drift? Does my car necessarily have to slow down while drifting? In gameplay terms, what exactly is it which causes your car to start and stop drifting (since I assume the game is not physics-based from the feel-- it really feels like a series of if-then conditions )?

[BIL]

RR64 was my first Ridge game, and the only one I've really spent time on - managed to 100% it as far as I know (all trophies, full garage). I had to read the manual to figure out what was going on; it's actually really well-explained in there, iirc.

To drift you need to reach a good speed, let off the gas as you steer into a corner, then apply it again. You'll lose traction, and start drifting. Steer around the corner until you've negotiated it fully, then straighten the car out as you exit the turn by counter-steering. Regaining wheel alignment is what triggers the "snap" back into traction - do it right and you'll fly out of the corner, fail to straighten out and you eat wall. Careful not to over-steer when correcting yourself, this will cause the fishtailing effect you mention.

The harder you steer into the turn, the more extreme the resulting drift will be, and the more work it'll take to realign yourself - judge according to the particular corner. You can also trigger a less dramatic drift by letting off the gas, turning, then tapping the brake just before reapplying gas. It's useful when you just need a small adjustment rather than a full-on drift.

[neorichieb1971]

always use the dpad to control.

Use the car with the green and red as it can go round all the corners at top speed without sliding.

To slide just tap the brake and accellerate again.

[Skykid]

Same, always used the d-pad and the internal view. I'd start on PSX RR's to get a feel for its drifting mechanics. For me it's just a case of a quick tap of the brake while holding a direction and then tapping the d-pad to keep it steady or choose the depth of the angle. Straightening up is pretty straightforward.

[ryu]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eaBUeINW_3s

[BIL]

Also for RR64, I'd use Ridge Racer Revolution drifting and Ridge Racer Classic collision settings once you're getting the hang of things. Much crisper-feeling and more responsive than the default RR64 drift/collision settings, which are a bit mushy to me after lots of Rage Racer and R4.

[louisg]

Thanks for all the feedback! I'll have to try some of this when I get home

[Smraedis]

I wasn't good at the drifting myself, I'd usually crash into the wall at least one lap a race...
Nice to know how it should be done though

[Ganelon]

If you want to master Ridge Racer games, don't ever use the brake button. Only drift using the accelerator. That applies to every single game in the series. Also, start drifting well in advance for faster cars and sharper turns. And it's not easy but countersteer as soon as you can; RR physics make drifting the best way around corners but it'll still slow you down on the straightaways (no snaking nonsense here).

If you want to practice, start off on R4 or a later installment and make sure to use AT. The earlier games (as well as Ridge Racer 64/DS) are more unforgiving on countersteer but they handle really well once you get used to it. Honestly, I think the annoying part of RR64 specifically is that cars will cluster around the road and actively prevent you from getting past. Other RR installments spread the AI cars around so it's not such a challenge passing any single one of them. And once you get into the duel races, be ready to practice your blocking through the rear-view mirror.

[BIL]

^I'm glad to see someone comment on RR64's AI. At times it can feel like you're one car versus an enemy racing team... I remember the very last track in the Grand Prix was incredibly intense, getting past the leading cars was like doing a Gradius speed level in first person! Still had a great time with it, though.

[spl]

Not sure about the 64 version but I know on the arcade/PSX versions it's very easy to drift.

If you use the blue car you drift easily anywhere by just pumping the gas around a corner, with this and the yellow car you can actually do 360s on a corner and then keep driving straight.

Just practice I guess, you need to be a bit aggressive in the driving style.

[louisg]

Wow, using the d-pad really helped. It's a lot easier to tap out of a drift than it is to do it with the analog stick by far. Thanks!

[sjewkestheloon]

I'm currently playing Ridge Racer 2 on the PSP and it's bloody brilliant. I love Ridge Racer games and must have spent hundreds of hours on the first game when I got my PS1.

I second the motion that braking in RR is to be avoided 99% of the time. Turn in early, release and then reapply gas while turning in and then tap the opposite way on the wya out. Don't mindlessly drift around every corner though, shallow ones can be navigated without drifting or breaking at great speed by just using the racing line.

[E. Randy Dupre]

That's entirely correct for the earlier games, but in all the games since Ridge Racers - the first PSP release - drifting around absolutely everything has become a necessity in later races or multiplayer, thanks to the nitro boost mechanic.

[PC Engine Fan X!]

When I first acquired my boxed Ridge Racer Type 4 set, it came with one of those new-fangled JogCon controllers with the built-in force-feedback steering mechanism setup + brand new RR4 T-Shirt. It was slow going trying to master the fine art of drifting around the corners against the AI cars...so many instances of close calls of trying to overtake the final AI car on the very last lap approaching the finish line only to not make it. So it be off to another serious session to try to beat the final AI car on the last lap finally to proceed to the next race. Eventually, with all that practice, it became second nature to easily overtake the AI cars no matter how fast they were going.

The AI cars on Ridge Racer 6 for the 360 will use nitro boosts at times to try to get away from you as well (just like in both PSP ports of Ridge Racers & Ridge Racers 2 that feature the nitro boost functionality for both yourself and the AI cars). The same nitro boost feature is also found in the PS3 game of Ridge Racer 7 (with a cool feature to upgrade it to 3D TV capability if you using a 3D LCD/Plasma based TV monitor setup -- costs a slight bit of yen to do so on the Japanese PSN store site whereas on the USA PSN site, the abilty to upgrade RR7 to play it in 3D mode still hasn't been offered yet).

PC Engine Fan X! ^_~

[Jockel]

Just got my first RR game ever, the one for the 3DS.
So far it's really cool and i'm having loads of fun.
Might have to check out the other games in the series.
Anyone able to give me a rough idea how this one compares to the rest of the series?

[neorichieb1971]

I'm a fan of 5 on the PS2. I didn't like the nitrous versions as much.

[louisg]

Hahaha RR5 pissed me off so much. I think I would've tolerated it more if it were either easier, or if it started you off with a faster race. I would end up playing it, losing the championship, and being like "well, I don't really want to retry the same series of slo-mo races.. what else can I play?". It's too bad that generation only saw one real RR game; I would've liked to see something besides a grey-ass first-gen PS2 title and their so-so Gran Turismo clone.

A friend also introduced me to Rage Racer. I might have to get that; I really dug the far-out tracks, and wish RRV had taken that approach (or did it and I just didn't get far enough to see?)

[Zeether]

I wish we had gotten Rave Racer on a console. Rave Racer has an insane trick where you can draft the opponent's car on a jump, jump over them and then keep going at 370 km/h in first gear while drifting everywhere. You can see it in this video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MpxsAIuT9PA

[louisg]

I wish we had gotten Rave Racer on a console. Rave Racer has an insane trick where you can draft the opponent's car on a jump, jump over them and then keep going at 370 km/h in first gear while drifting everywhere. You can see it in this video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MpxsAIuT9PA

Wow! I had no idea you could do that. That video brings back memories (also the memory of how much smoother it handles with a wheel). Though, is it low res? The real arcade version is pretty high res AFAIR.

[neorichieb1971]

That looks like PS1 graphics. I remember RR looking better than that. Perhaps its just my bad memory though.

[louisg]

That looks like PS1 graphics. I remember RR looking better than that. Perhaps its just my bad memory though.

The video doesn't really do it justice. It's actually a really nice looking game (clean lines, but nothing too complex-- kind of like Time Crisis 2)

[ReKleSS]

I'd say the most important trick is learning to use the shallowest possible drift to get through a corner. This seems to vary between games. As soon as you've initiated the drift try to get the car pointed towards the exit, then hold it there - when the tyres grab they won't send you into a wall.

My actual technique (for RR1 and RRs) seems to be to enter the drift the usual way, counter hard so the car almost catches, then keep tapping it so it takes minimal motion to regain traction. As long as your tyres are sliding it doesn't seem to matter much where your car is pointing, for the purposes of getting around the corner.

[Zeether]

I wish we had gotten Rave Racer on a console. Rave Racer has an insane trick where you can draft the opponent's car on a jump, jump over them and then keep going at 370 km/h in first gear while drifting everywhere. You can see it in this video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MpxsAIuT9PA

Wow! I had no idea you could do that. That video brings back memories (also the memory of how much smoother it handles with a wheel). Though, is it low res? The real arcade version is pretty high res AFAIR.

Probably a really old cabinet recording.

[Ganelon]

That's a model display of how early you have to start drifting when going at top speeds through U-turns.

[D]

As for ps1/ps2 ridge racers: negcon
I remember playing RR64 a long time ago, but I thought it was weird. Can´t remember why exactly.

[msm]

Anyone able to give me a rough idea how this one compares to the rest of the series?

the 3ds one seems pretty similar to all the other ridge racers i've played - 6,7 and psp1/2. the earlier ones are different though, with no nitro or something?

in the nitro ones the idea is usually to use a nitro so it runs out just before a big corner, then drift as shallow/fast as possible and it charges the nitro up again much quicker. some cars you can drift without even letting off the accelerator.