R A G E     R A C E R
NTSC-J version, purchased 			30/11/96
		A few views and opinions:

General:
The game starts with a lot of fancy fmv (great for those with a
working SONY-CDROM) which ends with a somewhat ominous black  flag
with the 'Rage Racer' logo on it.

The game proper has 2 modes, 'Grand-Prix' and 'Time Attack'.  Time
attack is as everyone knows a 'time-trial' mode, but this time you're
on your tod (a'la Daytona).

The real game is GrandPrix.  This mode requires you to beat all the
courses (3) by 'placing' in each of them.  Place well in each and you
may get a trophy.  After you've placed in all courses, you get another
FMV bit and get promoted to the next 'class' where things get faster.
As you place, you get awarded points, and with these points you can
buy things like cars (supposedly 13, but I've only seen 7), tune-ups,
paint jobs, including design your own logo and so-on.  This is a leaf
out of 'Choro-Q's book and it is great.

After you beat the first 2 classes (total 6 classes) you get awarded a
4th track (any more??) which is basically a high speed oval rather
like a cross between "RAVE RACER" and "SUPER GT 24HR" with long
sweeping, joypad destroying banked curves.  The reward for getting 1st
in this is the highest in class 3, although don't even try it unless
you've got the FAST porsche looking car (about 8000eg) as you won't
see another car!

I just saved up my 'eg' to buy the 158000eg Countach, and screamed
around the oval, placing 1st every time allowing me to buy all the
cars.

No link mode was apparent, and no 2 player option was available :(

Tracks:
The tracks are still based, in the time-felt tradition of NAMCO, all
around one track with extensions off the main track.  This game is way
cool though, with lots of 1 in 4 gradients which need you to drop down
to 3rd or even 2nd to go up.  This is suprisingly natural to play
though, and doesn't feel as annoying as it sounds at first.  

Display:
The quality of the display is astounding.  The nightime shots are a
bit sparkly and the polygon edges often flicker white, but all in all
the display is VERY smooth and steady with almost NO POP-UP, and some
of the views of the up-coming scenery you get from the top of a hill
are Breathtaking.  NAMCO have really done a good job on this game.
Makes me wonder though, now that they have an racing engine capable of
doing the inimitable 'RAVE RACER', will they bother?  I mean they
wouldn't even need to re-model the track, just incorporate it into
either an 'upgrade scenery disk' later, or bonus/secret tracks.  ho
hum.  Maybe they have, as I still have classes 4-6 to complete.
Needless to say I reckon 4-5 will be 1-3 in reverse :(  What a
surprise though IF class 6 is the original RR track (wishful thinking
only!) 


Good:
The cars each have their own handling characteristics, and their own
'sound'  The Countach has a gut-wrenching roar and a 6-speed MT
gearbox.

Tires are now freely configurable for all cars from GRIP to DRIFT with
5 settings.

Little things are included like REV counter illumination in a tunnel
and at night.

Lighting and shading are very well done, and the whole 'feel' of
perspective is superb (in car view).

The quality of the display is on par with RAVE RACER finally, although
the resolution is a bit low.

The courses are wide and long, (average of 2 min/lap) with a very
NAMCO stylised version of 'NEED 4 SPEED'+'CHORO-Q'+'TOKYO HIGHWAY' and
with typical NAMCO finesse they have made an interesting ride for the
player with lots of hording (including a hording for TIME CRISIS which
should come out soon)

Miss "Rave Racer" is back, and she is looking 'horny', especially in
the Japanese in-CD manual, where she is wearing a skimpy 1-piece, boy
her pixels are so smooth and cooorrrr she's blowing me a kiss!!!


Bad:
Other little things are missed, like working brake and head lights
despite the REV counter lighting up!

Control now seems rather erratic in drift mode.  Evidently NAMCO tried
to upgrade from the 'slide and your always ok' model previously used
into a slightly more sophisticated model.  But I'm sure this just
takes getting used to, hell I've only had it a day!

Racing down a 1 in 4 hill doesn't feel as much like a roller coaster
as it should!

Cars still cannot cut curves by going over grass (this must happen too
much in Japan so they dis-allow it here)  I would prefer a Daytona
style where if you touch the grass you're gonna have some handling
problems as if you're on ice.

NAMCO still can't quite perfect the car-to-car crash algorithm.
Bumping a car mostly pushes the car away (in front), or pushes you
away (behind) which is great.  Sideways impacts though will often
cause your car to be snatched back behind the car that impacts you,
leaving you in the dirt and him miles in front.  If the impactee
happens to be near a wall, you can easily bounce back and forth 3 or 4
times until one of you breaks free!  This is VERY BAD!  I have seen a
couple of times where my mind is seeing that I am going forward at
180kph, and then suddenly when crashing I am what seems (in proportion
to scenery movement) to be moving about 100kph in reverse!!.  This is
NOT what should happen, to quote from Neal Stevensons 'SNOW CRASH'
(good book BTW)  'it breaks the metaphor'.  No no no.  NAMCO, this is
silly!!!



Conclusions:

Despite the crashing problem, which may only occur once per race, the
game is great.  In fact it is so great I would dare to announce to all
you people eagerly debating to buy RR-Revolution,  DONT !!!!  Buy
Ridge Racer, sure for nostalgia's sake, after all it IS a classic, but
if you want a game you can play, and want to play again and again,
then RAGE RACER is the one for you!

PLAYABILITY  :	8-9/10
GRAPHICS:	9-10/10
MUSIC/SFX:	8/10
SEX APPEAL:	10/10 (gotta love that Nina-esque girl :)
LASTING:      	7/10
VALUE:		7/10


Hope this helps any prospective test-drivers.

Mark Vanstone