REVIEW: Ridge Racer 3D (3DS)

3.. 2.. 1.. Go!

There is no storyline, this game is pure racing madness. You race your way to victory on Grand Prix mode and qualify for the next race. Actually I was a doubtful at first before buying this game, I was thinking is it really worth the bucks? Is it good? Is it lengthy? The answer is it is worth it, it is not good but great, and it sure is lengthy. The Grand Prix mode is lengthy. After tier-by-tier of racing in the cool designed tracks, I was left playing it for over 13+ hours of gameplay now and there's still lots of race that I need to drive. 

Game Mode Select

Ridge Racer 3D offers tons of Single Player modes but still lacks some functionalities for  versus and online modes. Grand Prix, Quick Tour, Standard Race, One-Make Race, Time Attack, StreetPass Duel are the available modes in the Single Player. They might be all the same, with just about the same mechanics, but that's what racing games are all about.

Harder the Better

This game is very challenging. The difficulty curve is nice. You begin the Grand Prix and race through it with ease, as you pass your rivals one-by-one the feeling is great - not when you entered the next tier of race. The feeling of greatness is replaced by frustration. Your rivals are turned to super racers with godlike AI. No one can beat a godlike AI right? No! The rival racers may be super fast and super intelligent but they are beatable.   I really like it because it adds challenge to the race and the points given are hard earned by you.

Jaw Dropping? - not all the time.

The graphical presentation is most of the time good looking but sometimes it isn't. During car selection, details on the cars are sleek but during races it gets dull, showing pixelated reflections of the surroundings. Some race tracks delivers very well though. It really uses the graphical prowess of the Nintendo 3DS. The things I like is when confetti, leaves and water splashes on the screen - the effect is great. Another thing to note is the depth, it has the farthest distance so far in the 3DS.   

Annoying

Ridge Racer 3D offers great selection on soundtracks. Each song has its own feel to it. Some are soothing and some can make you bop your head once in a while. The commentator lady is annoying though. She keeps on blabbering every time you drift or do a slipstream. It is forgivable if what she says is not very repetitive. I hope that they made over 100+ dialogs for her, but no, it seems like she have only around 20 sets of lines to say. That be told, it cannot be made to reality. 

StreetPass and SpotPass

StreetPass is available but not SpotPass. StreetPass is used for one-on-one battle with the other player. Not much love was given to it though. It's just like playing on a Versus match, nothing more. Ghost data are saved though. 

Play Coins

Sadly, it is not available. Isn't it nice to have Play Coins for purchasing trophies, car models, stickers for your cars etc? Namco Bandai does not seem to think about it.

Thoughts

A solid racing game for fans of the genre. It is worth the money because of its lengthy Grand Prix. It might not be the best looking 3DS games out during the launch period, but it is somewhere there. The use of the 3D effect is helpful, you can easily measure the distance of the curve to successfully conduct a drift. The soundtrack selection is neat, but not the commentator lady. The game has its flaws but it is forgivable. One game to add to your 3DS library.

Verdict: 4/5 Play Coins

*Pictures to follow