Ridge Racer (2011)

Ridge Racer is a PlayStation Vita launch title developed by Cellius and published by Bandai Namco Games and the twelfth installment in the eponymous series. It follows the traditional driving model of the franchise and has single-player gameplay, as well as support for local and online multiplayer.

Why It's Off The Ridge

 * 1) Poor value; costed $30 at launch yet only had three cars, five tracks, and seven songs. Because of this, many reviewers had called it a "Demo", as it has little content when one buys the game.
 * 2) The content itself was heavily recycled from past games. For instance, the three tracks and some songs from DLC included are all from Ridge Racer 7.
 * 3) Every car has identical stats in every way except for their appearance.
 * 4) To get more cars and tracks, as well as songs, you must pay for and download them from the PS Store (although a free DLC pack was included at launch, it has now expired and its content was again recycled from Ridge Racer 7).
 * 5) Bare-bones single-player mode; there is no career mode, no challenge mode, no way to earn new cars or tracks other than DLC, and no motivation to race aside from increasing the rank of the team you're part of.
 * 6) The racing team mechanic itself is half-baked and underdeveloped and unfinished; there's no reward to siding with a dominant team and no sense of loyalty since the four factions you can choose despite the factions are very large. There's also no background information for any of them, nor is there a description of their relationship with the other teams.
 * 7) Online multiplayer is dispiriting because you level up as you play, which increases your car's max speed - so you have no chance at winning against anyone in an online race who is a higher level than you which is unfair and makes multiplayer not worth playing.
 * 8) Upgrade system in which you can improve your car further separates the gap between players, and to even get an upgrade, you have to win or participate in at least four or five races. With so few tracks, that means a LOT of repetition.
 * 9) Underwhelming visuals and audio.

Redeeming Qualities

 * 1) The controls are very tight, the cars handle like they should in a Ridge Racer game.
 * 2) As usual in a Ridge Racer game, the soundtrack is excellent, with songs like "Into the Lead" and "Future Driven".
 * 3) Online multiplayer is overall very smooth.

Reception
Ridge Racer was heavily panned upon release, and GameSpot gave the game a 3.0/10, IGN also gave the game a 3/10. In June 2012, IGN also named Ridge Racer one of its ten "Worst Video Games of 2012 So Far." The game holds an aggregate score of 44 out of 100 on MetaCritic from 39 reviews. Common complaints include the game's bare-bones structure, limited amount of content, and the fact that it costs $30 yet feels like a demo.