Ridge Racer Type 4 (PS1) - Perfect Grand Prix with P.R.C. / Age Solo

Another racing game for the PlayStation 1 that I played when I grew up is Ridge Racer Type 4 from 1999. It is the only Ridge Racer game that I have ever played apart from the very first one. I should probably catch up with the other ones one day.

In this video I am playing through the full Grand Prix mode (basically the career mode) once with a perfect record. Perfect means that I am getting first place in all 8 races with the first try. It does not refer to the quality of my driving. There were definitely quite a few messy races in here but that also made them quite interesting and exciting.

There are 4 different teams that you can join for the Grand Prix and each of them has their own manager, who will talk to you between the races. It is definitely an interesting little touch that makes you want to play through the career mode several times to get to know all of their stories.

There are also 4 different car manufacturers, so already for the first race of the Grand Prix there are 16 different cars that you could have. And it becomes even more diverse later on because you get different new cars depending on your results. You will only unlock the best possible car for the final race with a perfect record in the previous 7.

The other teams will always get the same level of car as you, so the later races will actually be easier if you only get 2nd or 3rd places in the first races because then all the cars will be slower in the later ones but I guess this is a good way to allow bad player to complete the whole Grand Prix as well. And as an ambitious player you will be fine with making the later races harder for yourself because you just want to unlock the most awesome cars. :)

The comments of the managers also depend on your results and even with the same results there will sometimes be different ones. For example during my previous tries my Japanese guy always warned me about the "vultures in the press" after race 5 (which I personally prefer because it is a good introduction to what happens after the following races), so I was surprised that he suddenly came up with this letter from a fan during this one.

And the soundtrack of the game is pretty awesome as well. You should definitely check it out. :)

Here is a timeline of all the races in the video:
5:15 Helter Skelter
9:31 Wonderhill (close)
15:30 Edge Of The Earth (close)
20:45 Out Of Blue (very close)
27:15 Phantomile
31:15 Brightest Nite
36:39 Heaven And Hell (very close)
44:09 Shooting Hoops (very close)

Make no mistake though. Even though I was able to get a perfect record despite those mistakes here it is definitely not super easy to achieve. I did have several previous tries where I failed to get first place in some race before I eventually managed to record this one. And in here there were also several races where I absolutely had to drive perfectly at the very end and one more error would have lost it for me.

The opponents do allow you to make a few mistakes in every race but definitely not too many. And the handling of the cars is also not the easiest but at least there is more than one car that be driven without drifting (unlike in Ridge Racer 1) and also the drifting itself is at least a little bit easier than before. I still took a grip car for this video though because this is just the style that I prefer. :)

Here are the names of the songs that you can hear during the races:
Track 01 - Pearl Blue Soul
Track 02 - Naked Glow
Track 03 - Your Vibe
Track 04 - Lucid Rhythms
Track 10 - Motor Species
Track 06 - Silhouette Dance
Track 13 - The Ride
Track 10 - Motor Species

I did not use the default ones for the races 6 and 8 because I don't like those so much.

System: PlayStation 1 (emulated with ePSXe190)
Game: Ridge Racer Type 4
Mode: Grand Prix (full playthrough)
Team: P.R.C.
Manufacturer: Age Solo
Transmission: Automatic
Controller: Logitech Precision (d-pad only)