Legendary Ridge Racer Series Debuts on Mobile Platforms

Namco Networks, one of the major publishers and developers of interactive content recently announced the release of their brand new car racing game, Ridge Racer Drift, on mobile devices, including Java, BREW, RIM and Windows Mobile.

Ridge Racer Drift brings the popular series of car racing games to BREW and Windows Mobile platforms, for the first time.

Created by Namco 13 years ago, the Ridge Racer simulation game was initially launched on the Namco System 22 arcade system board, which was the first of its kind specifically designed for polygon processing.

“Ridge Racer is a proven, well-established brand that stretches across multiple gaming platforms,” noted Carlson Choi, vice president of marketing, Namco Networks.

“With the popular series being Namco’s flagship in the racing genre, we wanted to make sure the mobile game appealed to both the hardcore and casual gamer, which we accomplished by creating two different game modes,” added Choi.

Compared with the original game, Ridge Racer Drift for Java, BREW, RIM and Windows Mobile adds six new tracks and nine high-performance racing machines.

Just like playing a car racing game on the PC, players will be able to virtually get behind the wheel and select Grand Prix or Single Race mode.

The former enables the driver to unlock additional tracks and cars by beating each of the five tracks, while Single Race mode allows the player to practice their driving skills on any track with the car of their choice.

As the name suggests, players will have to focus on mastering the art of drifting and win those few milliseconds needed to get ahead of the competition. Of course, accomplishments can be posted on in-game leaderboards, as well as on Facebook.

As a side note, players will be able to basically double the game's available content if they manage to unlock the extra courses by defeating all of the five tracks included in the Grand Prix mode.