, released without the R4<nowiki/>' prefix in PAL territories, is a 1998 racing video game developed and published by Namco for the PlayStation. It is the fourth home title in the Ridge Racer series after Rage Racer (1996) and was initially released on December 3, 1998 in Japan, with global releases following in 1999.

Maintaining the arcade-style gameplay of its predecessors, R4: Ridge Racer Type 4 introduces a new Grand Prix, named Real Racing Roots '99, consisting of four teams that the player may join, with associated sponsorships that can also be chosen, each offering different effects to the driving. Additionally, every team also has its own story mode, accompanied with a manager that interacts with the player during the season. The number of car models was expanded to include over 300 vehicles.

R4: Ridge Racer Type 4 was positively received, with praise for its presentation, art, driving, and soundtrack, though some criticism was directed to its cars' overly light drifting compared to earlier titles in the series. Retrospective reviewers considered it as one of the greatest racing games ever made. The game was later re-released on the PlayStation Network service in 2011, on the PlayStation Classic console in 2018, and in 2023 for PlayStation 4 and PlayStation 5. It was followed by Ridge Racer V in 2000, which moved the series on to next generation hardware.

Gameplay

thumb|left|A typical race in progress, taking place at the Helter Skelter circuit, featuring the player driving the Terrazi Ambitious as part of the Pac Racing Club attempting to overtake the Lizard Bonfire of Dig Racing Team

R4: Ridge Racer Type 4 is an arcade-style racing game with a strong emphasis on powersliding around corners. Vehicles use one of two styles of powersliding depending on the make of car they select: Drift and Grip. Drift cars require players to tap the brake once while turning to break into a smooth powerslide while Grip cars requires players to alternate between brakes and gas while turning to powerslide.

Vehicles are earned by playing through the game's Grand Prix mode. Players select one of four teams; R.C Micro Mouse Mappy (France), Pac Racing Club (Japan), Racing Team Solvalou (Italy), and Dig Racing Team (United States), who each have varying difficulties, and one of four manufacturers; Age Solo (France), Lizard (United States), Assoluto (Italy), and Terrazi (Japan), which determines the style of car and powerslide type the player will use. In each race, the player must attempt to reach a qualifying position, with later stages requiring players to place in higher positions to qualify. Depending on the qualifying position in each race, players will be awarded a new vehicle, or an upgrade to their current one, based on their team and manufacturer, with better cars earned for reaching consistently higher positions (i.e. the best cars are earned by placing 1st in each match while the least impressive cars are earned by just clearing the minimum qualifying positions). There are a total of 320 vehicles earned by racing with every combination of team, manufacturer and qualifying position. If the players unlock all 320 cars, they will unlock an additional one modelled after Pac-Man, for a total of 321 vehicles.

Development

Development of R4: Ridge Racer Type 4 began in May 1997. All the 33 staff members had also worked previously on the original Ridge Racer (1993). The game was also the first Ridge Racer on the PlayStation to use Gouraud shading on polygons. Developmental staff members commented that much "waste" was removed in order to make Gouraud shading and high polygon counts possible. Similarly to the critically acclaimed Gran Turismo at the time, R4: Ridge Racer Type 4 made use of SCE's Performance Analyser devkit. Okubo himself described R4<nowiki/>'s music as "more mature, more fashionable" compared to the past.

The music was designed to correspond with the game's human drama, so the composers aimed to evoke emotions of sadness and tension in their tracks. Both Takahashi and Sakai previously did not have much knowledge or interest in club music; initial tracks they composed for the game were frequently rejected by Okubo for not fitting into the club sound or being "game like". Takahashi described him as "the gatekeeper to club sound hell", while Okubo took piano parts from one of Sakai's tracks and reworked it into "Quiet Curves", Nakagawa, who was working on the soundtrack for Techno Drive at the time, was asked by Okubo to contribute due to his experience with composing techno music, while Nakanishi was involved towards the end of the project.

A soundtrack for the game, R4: Ridge Racer Type 4 Direct Audio was released by Media Factory on January 27, 1999.

Release

A peripheral, the Jogcon, was released alongside the game, packaged in special editions. The device features a steering wheel type device in the middle of the controller to provide accurate control. R4: Ridge Racer Type 4 was also released with a bonus disc containing a High-Spec version of the original Ridge Racer, running at 60 frames per second like its arcade counterpart. The disc also contains demos for LiberoGrande, Tales of Destiny, Tekken 3, and Klonoa.

Reception

R4: Ridge Racer Type 4 received "generally favorable reviews" according to the review aggregation website Metacritic. Jeremy Peeples of Hardcore Gamer said in 2018 that "R4 remains a high mark for the series and no entry has quite topped it yet." In 2023, Time Extension ranked the game first on their "Best Ridge Racer Games" list. Polygon and GamesRadar have ranked the game among the best PS1 games. Den of Geek included the game on their list of "20 PlayStation One Games That Were Way Ahead of Their Time" for getting the balance of "arcadey" and "realistic" right, also noting it as one of the best-looking PS1 titles.

Commercial

It was a commercial success in Japan, and various European territories. It was the 18th best-selling video game in Japan in 1998, having been on the market for under a month before the year end. The game sold a total of 759,527 units in Japan and 297,564 units in the United States, for a total of units sold in Japan and the United States.

Notes

References

  • (archived)
  • R4: Ridge Racer Type 4 Direct Audio at VGMdb