Ridge Racer Unbounded: a familiar experience for seasoned gamers

Cynics would have it that the motor racing genre is hamstrung by its own conventions – there's only so much you can do with a car, right? That's a theory Ridge Racer Unbounded looks to put to the test. For the first time, Ridge Racer moves away from traditional racing, instead concentrating on vehicle combat and destruction of urban environments, although some defining elements do remain. Like its predecessors, it is a game still wedded to the classic combo of drift-driving and high-energy dance music.



The result of this brave stab at a new direction, however, is something of a mixed blessing. While this iteration has tossed convention to the wind, it has done so only to follow a well-trodden evolutionary path.

Numerous contemporary driving series have adopted a similarly gritty urban setting, and Ridge Racer's new look merely joins them, rather than bringing fresh rubber to the party. It is prettier and more challenging than most, and certainly very good insofar as exciting racing is concerned. But, for all its effort, Unbounded will be a familiar experience for seasoned gamers.