Ridge Racer—the granddaddy of drift-happy arcade racers—gets dusted off and slapped onto modern consoles like the Switch 2, PS5, and Xbox Series X|S. For 16.99, you’re getting the original arcade game—think one track, one car (that red Mazda MX-5 lookalike), and a whole lot of techno beats. No frills, or DLC’s, just pure arcade racing.
We have seen a slight resurgance of Ridge Racer games with Type 4 and the PSP Ridge Racers 2 being rereleased on the PS4/5, making use of the consoles emulation, and as a fan of the aracde original I’m excited to see Ridge Racer ported to the home consoles… again.

The game takes full advantage of the analogue controlls offered by the modern consoles, The drifting feels good—tight, responsive, and satisfying when you nail that perfect slide through Ridge City’s bends. You’ve got four modes: Novice, Intermediate, Advanced, and Time Trial, each tweaking the speed and lap count. Time Trial’s the real MVP, pitting you against a rival car in a one-on-one showdown.
Two ROMs are offered, with the DX version using an H-shifter and clutch. It’s cool, but good luck finding a controller that makes it feel natural.

Hamster didn’t just add the arcade ROM and call it a day. They included in some extra goodies: A proper Time Attack Mode, High Score and Caravan Modes for leaderboard chasers, and a rewind feature for when you make a mistake on that hairpin turn. Multiple save slots are nice, and the redesigned UI’s slicker than the old Arcade Archives setup. PS5 and Xbox players get trophies and achievements. The extra modes make use of save states which are transparent tot he user, and stats are recorder and shared online with other users.

But here’s the kicker: no multiplayer, no extra tracks, no car selection, and no third-person view like the PlayStation version had. It’s the arcade original, which is both its charm and its biggest middle finger. There isn’t enough content to justify the price, even if the game is accurate to the original ROM.

Still it’s a nice charming game, and a nice tribute to Ridge Racer. Hopefully we will see further System 22 releases ported to home console, mainly Rave Racer and Ace Driver in their glorious 60fps.