Namco freely uses the Ridge Racer songs in Taiko no Tatsujin as many of the songs chosen have high difficulty potential, in fact there isn't a single Ridge Racer song on this list that has below 8* on Oni. The song series began in Namco Original but was shifted to its rightful place in Game Music somewhere in the Taiko 10 generation, with a few songs being left out of the change simply because they were not included in the new songlists. The songs are composed by different people, as opposed to one person coordinating an entire song series.
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 -Ridge Racer series- | ||
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Ridge Racer
| Game | Genre |
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|
|
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|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| AC6 |
 /  |
- |
★6 (331) |
★7 (733) |
★10 (768) |
- |
| AC7 |
|
★5 (238) |
★6 (331) |
★8 (733) |
★9 (768) |
- |
| PS2 4 |
|
★5 (238) |
★6 (331) |
★8 (733) |
★10 (768) |
- |
| TDM |
|
★5 (238) |
★6 (331) |
★8 (733) |
★9 (733) |
- |
| DS 2 |
|
★4 (238) |
★6 (331) |
★8 (733) |
★10 (733) |
- |
| AC14 PSP 1 Wii 4 |
|
★4 (238) |
★6 (331) |
★8 (733) |
★10 (733) |
★10 (944) |
| AC0 Wii U2 PsVita NS1 PTB xBox (DLC) |
 |
★4 (238) |
★7 (331) |
★8 (733) |
★8 (733) |
★9 (944) |
| *2P* AC7 AC0 All Console (no PTB) |
|
★5/★4 (204/202) |
★6/★7 (301/302) |
★7/★8 (650/652) |
★10/★9/★8 (650/652) (video) |
- |
| *Full Ura chart set* Wii 4 |
|
★4 (267) |
★6 (406) |
★8 (778) |
★10 (944) |
- |
140
rr1 (Ridge Racer 1st song) / exrr1 (Wii4 Ura set only)As the title suggests, this song comes from the first Ridge Racer game. The composers of Ridge Racer's music are well known by their nicknames: Sampling Masters MEGA (Shinji Hosoe), Sampling Masters AYA (Ayako Saso) and SANODG (Nobuyoshi Sano). This specific one was done by MEGA (細江慎治), and Masubuchi Yuuji made the memorable red-blue-red-blue chart which players still remember fondly. Though if the song on Taiko games is simply referred to as 'Ridge Racer', the actual name is 'Ridge Racer (Power Remix)', as the song is a remix of the game's main theme.
The low BPM of the song accompanies a high number of drum hits, and it has exclusive multiplayer notes. One of the first songs to feature the classic mind-boggling 2 and 4 note clusters with many color switches, it was hailed for its intense difficulty at first, but because of the BPM, it was lowered to *9 in subsequent releases after the 7th arcade, then bounced back to 10* after Taiko DS2 for some reason, and then finally cut down to 8* on the HD Taiko revision. The other difficulties have their fair share of ups and downs, making Ridge Racer a song with the most unstable difficulty ratings.
The Muzukashii notechart is identical to Oni, and is the very first 8* Muzukashii chart after being updated from Taiko 6. The only difference is the slightly more lenient gauge requirement for a clear in Muzukashii. On Taiko DS2, Ridge Racer was also used in the boss battle with one of the Dokon Dan's noise-bots.
Similar in style to the original Ridge Racer but with even more unrelenting note clusters extending to continuous lines of four and six, this Ura difficulty can be seen as a modern update to the old notechart, and is just as, if not even more, confusing and headache-inducing than the first. Again, the low BPM keeps it from being awfully tough to clear, nor is it too exhausting, but is still quite a handful if you're aiming for a perfect combo.
Rare Hero Ridge Racer
| Game | Genre |
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|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| AC8 PS2 5 PSP 1 (DLC) |
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★5 (250) |
★7 (399) |
★6 (573) |
★9 (765) |
- |
| PSP 2 3DS 3 (DLC) |
|
★5 (250) |
★7 (399) |
★6 (573) |
★8 (765) |
- |
136 rr2 (Ridge Racer 2nd song)
Rare Hero is from the first Ridge Racer game, and the final song from that game to be featured in Taiko no Tatsujin. This song has a vague connection to the 2000 series in that Takahashi-san created the note patterns in Rare Hero (himself being responsible for the demonic note patterns in the first fourteen 2000 songs). In Taiko 8, Rare Hero was voted as one of the top 20 most popular Namco Originals of the version. It was finally brought to Game Music on Portable 2 before its tenure ended. Since its jump into modern games, the song's title ingame is displayed in full caps instead ('RARE HERO').
As a 9* song, Rare Hero is let down by an average BPM despite the dense and varied clusters in formation of 5s, possibly one of the reasons behind its re-rating since its immediately-later releases. There is an additional Go-Go Time on Taiko 8 in the middle of the song.
ROTTERDAM NATION (FOO MIX) Ridge Racer
| Game | Genre |
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|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| AC7 PS2 5 |
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★5 (173) |
★6 (284) |
★7 (513) |
★10 (680/652/602) |
- |
185~221 rr3 (Ridge Racer 3rd song)
Also known as Techno Rotterdam, this is the third Ridge Racer 1 track to be used in a Taiko game, and much, much harder than the first on launch. Rotterdam Nation remains one of the most popular (though underused) and challenging Ridge Racer songs to date, though that facet is easily undermined in today's super-intense metagame. The song's gauntlet lies in its crazy high BPM, which almost matches the god songs of the current generation but with simpler patterns, though that does not make it any easier to follow. The song doesn't make any sense, until you start playing the song backwards. The message is in full English, and it's the announcer saying 'Hey, you're trying to get a gold by going the other way? You're crazy.'
This song technically fits into the Game Music genre, but in Taiko 7 and PS2 4, the only two Taiko games which it was playable, it was under Namco Original, and currently still has no chance to move to Game Music. Its composer, Sampling Masters MEGA, expanded upon the crazy concepts of Rotterdam Nation by creating a completely different song with the same vibes as this, called Rotter Tarmination.
BLUE TOPAZ Rave Racer
| Game | Genre |
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|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| PS2 5 |
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★4 (173) |
★5 (284) |
★7 (513) |
★9 (639/555/495) |
- |
| AC0 K 3DS 2 (DLC) Wii U3 NS2 MP |
|
★4 (173) |
★5 (284) |
★7 (513) |
★8 (639/555/495) |
- |
| *2P* AC0 K All Console (no 3DS 2) |
|
★4 (166/166) |
★5 (249/249) |
★7 (466/466) |
★9/★8 (618/618) (video) |
- |
130 rr4 (Ridge Racer 4th song) / rr42 (AC0/3DS 2/Wii U3/NS2 only)The only song to spawn from Ridge Racer's arcade spinoff, Rave Racer, BLUE TOPAZ is composed by Takayuki Aihara (who would later compose the Namco Original song Negaigoto Puzzle and the game song TE-20). The 9* star Oni has forked paths throughout most of the song, and it's one of the fewer songs of this series with 1/12 beat streams. Due to its relative unpopularity, the song's only appearance is on Taiko PS2 Godaime. Ironically, for a game that only appeared in an arcade, BLUE TOPAZ never appeared in an arcade Taiko for the longest time.
It has a 2P chart with equal notes for both players, and the path changes are calculated by score instead of the usual note accuracy, making it rather difficult to climb back up after your combo has broken somewhere in the middle.
After an almost 10-year hiatus, BLUE TOPAZ returns as part of a 3DS2 DLC pack, and the song unlock for November 2014's DonChare on Kimidori. The rating is updated to a more modern 8*, and the music replaced with one cleared of the background voices, complete with a slightly-modified songID. Its long-awaited arcade appearance completes the picture of Ridge Racer songs footing outside Taiko console grounds.
URBAN FRAGMENTS R4: Ridge Racer Type 4
| Game | Genre |
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|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| AC11 AC11 Asia Wii 3 |
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★4 (116) |
★5 (144) |
★6 (281) |
★9 (375/375/375) |
- |
| AC0 M NC1 (DLC) xBox |
|
★4 (116) |
★5 (144) |
★6 (281) |
★8 (375/375/375) |
- |
142~146 r4op (Ridge Racer 4 Opening)
Debuts with Taiko 11 after three whole arcade versions without a new Ridge Racer song in Taiko. URBAN FRAGMENTS is the opening theme from Ridge Racer Type 4, composed by Kohta Takahashi. It is quite a short song with English lyrics, which is unusual for the series; most Taiko Ridge Racer songs do not have vocals at all! The vocalist is Kimara Lovelace, a singer from New York who would later on be called back for the series in both 'Best Of' albums and M.T.T.B., a track for Ridge Racer 7.
Urban Fragments changes paths near the end of the song, and all paths have the same notes. The only difference between each path is the speed of the notes scrolling at you. Normal notes scroll at regular speed, Advanced scrolls at 1.5x, Master at 2x. Three notes will be replaced with big notes in this portion (1 in Advanced, two more in Master), but are still the same thing. This is one of the only songs which has a speed-up for forked paths instead of more complicated beats.
Kamikaze Remix Ridge Racer 2
| Game | Genre |
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|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| AC11-14 AC0 PSP 2 Wii 1, 5 |
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★3 (163) |
★6 (224) |
★8 (501) |
★10 (737) |
- |
158~159 rrs2kk (Ridge Racers 2 Kamikaze Remix)
The next song comes from the 2nd Ridge Racer game, ignoring the Ridge Racer games's chronological order on Taiko games for the first time. Kamikaze Remix is just what the title says: it's a remix from another song named 'Kamikaze' from the Ridge Racer spinoff Rave Racer. The extra 's' in its SongID is due to the source game's Japanese title being 'Ridge Racers 2', despite the original game's JP title being 'Ridge Racer' as the rest of the world.
Ayako Saso (SamplingMasters AYA) is the creator of this Ridge Racer 2 song, which appeared as an unlockable song on Taiko 11. It made a very good first impression among expert players, being a tense song with even more tense note patterns, and stood as a standard challenging 10* Oni song, hence why it became a popular staple unlike the previous few Ridge Racer songs.
It was recently rereleased on Taiko PSP2 as a commemorative download song and finally taken out of Taiko HD. To date, Kamikaze Remix is one of the hardest songs in the Ridge Racer series, and still a pretty solid 10*. The secret is not just high BPM, but streams of notes following one another, each of them being quite tough to read, though almost none of them require hand-switching. It is one example of a song players just get better on with much practice.
SAMURAI ROCKET Ridge Racer V
| Game | Genre |
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|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| AC12-13 Wii 2 3DS 2 |
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★5 (201) |
★6 (338) |
★7 (647) |
★8 (765) |
★9 (888) |
| *Full Ura chart set* Wii 2 |
|
★5 (313/252/201) |
★7 (611/449/338) |
★8 (669/665/565) |
★9 (888) |
- |
136 rrsam (Ridge Racer SAMURAI ROCKET) / exrrsa (Wii 2 Ura set only)This song from Ridge Racer V (five), is composed by Kohta Takahashi and first seen in Taiko 12. It bears heavy resemblance to a Taiko no Tatsujin series classic, KAGEKIYO. Throughout Samurai Rocket, the background music will sometimes sound like KAGEKIYO, and many note patterns in this song are also lifted directly from KAGEKIYO.
Note that thinking this is a remix of KAGEKIYO is a gross misunderstanding, especially since the latter was introduced to Taiko first. Ridge Racer V was released in March 4 2000, while KAGEKIYO made its first appearance in Taiko 5, more than 3 years later.
Since its first appearance, Samurai Rocket comes with a Ura Oni difficulty. Like the regular one, it also has notes from KAGEKIYO, though it lifts some different note patterns and changes some of them slightly to fit. Some long streams are in here which are worth noting as the main combobreakers and the reason why this song is actually hard to FC, and one of the few songs with 888 combo on its Oni chart.
Naked Glow R4: Ridge Racer Type 4
| Game | Genre |
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|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| AC12 Asia AC13 ACN (Y4) PSP DX Wii 2 PS4 (DLC) Plus STH |
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★4 (196) |
★6 (278) |
★7 (587) |
★9 (823) |
- |
133.05 r4nak (Ridge Racer 4 Naked Glow)Introduced not in Taiko 12, but exclusively on 12 Asia (then ported to subsequent releases), this shortened version of Naked Glow is composed by Kohta Takahashi (タカハシ) and arranged by Mc Linn (you might remember him for his rap in EkiBEN2000). The song comes from Ridge Racer 4 like SAMURAI ROCKET before it; plus, just like Rare Hero, its title got a full-caps makeover with its re-release on more modern Taiko games, starting from Nijiiro Version!
Again, none of the later songs come close to matching Kamikaze Remix in terms of difficulty, but at least Naked Glow is a nice enough song. It features hard-to-hit note patterns like Blue Topaz, and at a lower BPM. Only Kantan and Futsuu mode have a 2 player notechart before PSP DX.
Venomous Ridge Racer 3DS
| Game | Genre |
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|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| AC0 Wii 4 (No Ura) Wii U1 PsVita (DLC) Plus STH |
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★5 (203) |
★6 (262) |
★7 (370) |
★9 (765) |
★10 (765) |
224 rr3dve (Ridge Racer 3D Venomous)Venomous is an extremely high-tempo track that comes from Ridge Racer 3D, a Nintendo 3DS launch game, which is a remake of the first Ridge Racer with updated graphics and a new soundtrack. The song is composed by Rio Hamamoto (濱本理央).
Although the Ridge Racer songs are generally quite hard they've never been all that fast, Venomous has an insanely high BPM. So insanely high, that the simple patterns of this song become nightmarish and tough to read no matter which part of the song it is, and becomes a worthy rival to the challenge of regular Oni Rotter Tarmination. There are minor BPM shifts along the song, which are not acknowledged on Taiko 0 but fixed on Wii 4.
Venomous has also been home for one of Taiko 0's debuting 10-star challenges, and the first Ura Oni to have the exact same note total as the regular Oni (the first Ura to have less notes than the regular is Yozakura Shanikusai, but not identical!). But don't let that fool you, the notecount may be the same, but it is effective arrangement of notes that sets apart easy from hard. Namco have managed to make every note in this total count for something more evil, with dense cluster sections made worse by the song's terrifying BPM and many different scrolling speeds throughout the song, from slow to fast, and back again. Giant drumrolls act like surprise curtains covering the upcoming notes until the last minute.
Oddly enough, this Ura difficulty is absent from Taiko Wii 4's songlist even though Venomous doesn't have to be unlocked.
Angel Halo Ridge Racer 3DS
| Game | Genre |
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|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| AC0 S Wii 5 PsVita |
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★5 (229) |
★7 (328) |
★8 (536) |
★10 (898) |
- |
224 rr3dan (Ridge Racer 3D Angel Halo)Angel Halo is one of the brother songs of Venomous, in that both are composed by Rio Hamamoto (濱本理央), both are from Ridge Racer 3D, and both share the same insanely high BPM. The final surprise for Taiko Wii 5 was not a Namco Original song, but this one instead, and it truly lives up to its name of being the final unlockable.
At 224 BPM, Angel Halo is faster than Kita Saitama 2000 and most other god-tier songs, and has a very intuitive and tiring notechart filled with streams everywhere. The patterns are easily readable, even the handswitch streams, but the speed makes it so difficult to manage it becomes a very tough challenge to overcome. Although a brother to Venomous, Angel Halo's notechart is far tougher and jam-packed than its sibling, both the regular and Ura. Matsumoto, the producer of Taiko Wii 5, hinted at this song three weeks before the game's release about a potential 'hardest song ever' in the game, and he was referring to this.
RAGE v.self Rave Racer
| Game | Genre |
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|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| AC0 K-D PSP DX (DLC) Wii U3 (DLC) |
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★3 (121) |
★4 (156) |
★6 (315) |
★8 (545) |
- |
144 rrself (Rave Racer RAGE v.self)And so, after a song from Ridge Racer 3DS, we go back to the music of Rave Racer, the 3rd game in the Ridge Racer series on the PlayStation. Wait a minute, what sorcery is this?
We are talking about one of the eight winners of the song-making contest held by Namco on the CreoFUGA website in 2011, and this is the only winner in the Namco Song Remix (Vocals) category! Its creator, nicknamed Joe [F-Lives], took one of Rage Racer's songs (also called 'Rage Racer') and turned into a rock song with lyrics about racing. The theme for the song in about a desire to win, as revealed in an interview with Joe by the Taiko Team.
Like the other CreoFUGA winners, RAGE v. self made its debut as one of PSP DX's downloadable songs. The Oni notechart has an unusually low notecount but still manages to deliver on the difficulty with complex patterns and clusters.
RIDGE RACER STEPS -GMT remix- Yuji Masubuchi (BNSI)
| Game | Genre |
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|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| AC0 M PsVita |
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★4 (160) |
★6 (211) |
★7 (322) |
★9 (536) |
- |
240 rr1wlz (Ridge Racer 1 Waltz)Once again for this song series, the next tune goes back into the Ridge Racer games chronology, as this particular tune's roots are right back to the first Ridge Racer videogame ever released.
RIDGE RACER STEPS is a swing-like remix of Shinji Hosoe's Ridge Racer (Power Remix), created by Masubutchi Yuuji for Game Music Triangle, the 2014 arcade collaboration involving the latest and most popular arcade rhythm game franchises of Bandai Namco Studios (BNSI), Taito and Sega. As such, this song is also included in the latest arcade versions of the Groove Coaster and maimai franchises as well, alongside the GMT mashups with Ridge Racer and one of the other two foreign-company game music tracks on the spotlight. Curiously enough, the waltz-like RIDGE RACER STEPS is the only one of the GMT to get an extended version (albeit being on the shorter side of the spectrum) for one of the City Connection/Clarice Disc Taiko no Tatsujin albums (Yaki-toumorokoshi).
On Taiko, the song has the highest BPM in any Ridge Racer-related song released so far, even if the scrolling speed has been made slower. However, the high speed doesn't always translate into and hard Oni mode challenge; while RIDGE RACER STEPS is mainly packed with 1/12 note formations and 3-beat stanzas, the Oni mode is pretty generous on the stamina side, curving the difficulty more on catching the song's rhythms rather than taking the player's physical resistance to their limits.
DIGITAL HORIZON Ridge Racer
| Game | Genre |
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|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| PsVita |
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★4 (199) |
★6 (312) |
★7 (529) |
★9 (857) |
- |
154 rrvdig (Ridge Racer V DIGITAL HORIZON)Strong of the title chosen for the Taiko no Tatsujin game for Playstation Vita, the Taiko Team has decided to play with V Version's title and ultimately includes five different songs from Ridge Racer games, strong of a Latin reading of the capital V as the number five. This also lead to the debut of a couple of new Ridge Racer songs, the first of which comes from the latest portable entry of the franchise.
Developed by Cellius and released in Japan on December 17th, 2011 as one of the PS Vita's launch titles, the once-called Ridge Racer Vita (just known as 'Ridge Racer' at retail) continues the series' tradition of illegal street racing with the return of many courses and cars from the previous home instalments and a huge slew of additional content, which ultimately led to the gaming having one of the lowest critical reception for the series to date, due to the lack of a meatier base game.
Aside from the introduction of the Kamata SYNCi in the game (both used in the game's cover art and featured on V Version as one of the assist deathblows), the Ridge Racer Vita game also introduced some new, moder-sounding tracks for the title like DIGITAL HORIZON, composed by series affiliate Rio Hamamoto (濱本理央) and sung by vocalist Aimee Blackschleger, whose works can also be found in both Anime (Shingeki no Kyojin and Kill la Kill among others) and ingaming grounds, from modern RPGs and sports games to bemani music titles.
Kawagen Collagen's notecharts for the song put an high enphasis of the inter-switching rhythms during the song, between, the instrumental+lyric parts and the dubstep-like section. On Oni mode, this concept is translated with frequent note spacing changes and a slight over-abundance of Kat notes.
Ridge Racer (RIDGE RACER USA MIX) feat.Takenobu Mitsuyoshi (SEGA)
| Game | Genre |
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|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| PsVita |
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★4 (177) |
★6 (361) |
★7 (519) |
★9 (942) |
- |
232 rrvdig (Ridge Racer V USA MIX)Coming from V Version is also the 3rd (third!) remix of the iconic Ridge Racer song in Taiko games, also brought in the aforementioned PS Vita title as part of a collaboration DLC not available worldwide.
Among the DLC collaboration content made for the Japanese version of the game and starring special elements modeled after selected brands and franchises (such as mobile operator DoCoMo and the Idolm@ster series), the most popular one concerns the always-popular arcade racing sensation Daytona USA from Sega, which added to the Ridge Racer title the game's symbol machine -the Hornet- and a custom Ridge Racer arrangement from Takenobu Mitsuyoshi (光吉猛修), one of the Sega Sound Team core composers who started his musical career as the only creator of Daytona USA's music. The Ridge Racer USA MIX also mirrors Takenobu's musical debut, as many of the cues from the Sega arcade intertwine with the original hit track from the first Ridge Racer game.
The USA MIX's Oni Mode is charted by Kawagen Collagen in a similar manner to Venomous' regular Oni mode, exploiting the song's insanely high BPM value as a source of common mistake for many continuous note portions in the song, thus making even mono-colored clusters a serious Full Combo threat if not properly faced by the players.
EAT'EM UP! R4 -RIDGE RACER TYPE 4-
| Game | Genre |
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|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| AC0 W Wii U3 PS4 xBox (DLC) |
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★3 (146) |
★5 (209) |
★6 (519) |
★8 (602) |
- |
152 eatem (EAT'EM UP!)For our next Ridge Racer song, we have a Pac-Man song that's actually not coming from a previous Pac-Man game! The reason of this will be explained right after a brief description about the origins of Namco's most successful arcade game and munch-addicted mascot.
The original Pac-Man (パックマン) arcade was made by Tori Iwatani (岩谷 徹) and came out in Japan on May 1980, in a time where space shooters where the predominant genre in arcade rooms. The rules are simple: the player has to move the circular-shaped Pac-Man in a maze of dots, gobbling every single pellet on the way while avoiding four differently-colored ghosts -Blinky, Pinky, Inky and Clyde- each with their own methods of chasing the yellow character. Coming out in its own system board (the Namco Pac-Man), the game's rights were purchased by Midway for distribution in America, which begun from October 1980. This localized release took the nation by storm, counting over 350.000 cabinets sold and generating an overall income of more than $2.5 billion in quarters by the 1990s, cementing the title's everlasting success in gaming culture and opening the way to a lot of sequels/alternate titles (either officially licensed by Namco or born as unauthorized bootlegs) for what is nowadays the current longest-running videogame series of all time.
The track that can be heard on R4 as EAT'EM UP! is a custom arrangement of Pac-Man BGMs and sound effects by Hiroshi Okubo (大久保博), mostly featuring the sounds made for the original game by Toshio Kai (甲斐敏夫) and sequel title Pac-Mania's Block Town theme, made by Junko Ozawa (小沢純子). Coming on Taiko gaming as an amiibo-related unlockable track, it made its first foray into arcade rhythm gaming as one of the debut tracks for Bandai Namco's Synchronica rhythm game series (link).
Much like Boku wa Synth and the Famicom Remix's Oni modes, this Game Music track features lots of 1/24 note couples that get mixed in single-note sequences and other small clusters, with 1/16 clusters still being the main feature of the song's Oni mode in Taiko gaming. This is also the first song in Taiko gaming whose notecharts are made by Takemoto (タケモト), the member of the Taiko Team behind their official Twitter account, as well as one of the recurring livestream hosts of the UStream days.
RUN PAC-MAN RUN! Ridge Racer 6
| Game | Genre |
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|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| AC0 W Wii U3 PS4 xBox (DLC) |
|
★4 (153) |
★5 (286) |
★6 (476) |
★10 (765) |
- |
117~155 rr6pac (Ridge Racer 6 Pac-Man)Could you imagine for fans of Namco's flagship racing series what does it feel to wait almost a decade for more Taiko representation, and it's actually a(nother) Pac-Man tie-in, when it happens? As we just talked about the yellow muncher's origins (one of my longer 'just's to date, seeing as nearly eight years have passed since the EAT'EM UP! debut!), here's a few words for thee xBox 360-exclusive entry that housed this track.
Launched worldwide between 2005's end (starting from North America on Novembre 22nd) and 2006's beginning (with Europe getting it last near January's end), it's a game that launched the series into the modern-gen mindset, both with returning features as well as revamped online multiplayer/DLC action and a brand-new carreer mode to boot, the 'World Xplorer'. Despite expecting roughly half a million copy sales in Japan on launch and not meeting such an expectation, RR6 was the core of the following numbered entry in 2006, this time as a PlayStation 3 exclusive. Among other things, the title was also notable especially for being the very last entry in the series being developed with Namco as an independent company, before the ongoing merger act with Bandai.
Unlike EAT'EM UP picking up Pac-dots and bits of songs from more than a game, this time we're only sticking to two short pieces of music from the original title: the familiar 'Game Start' jingle and the one which is heard during the "coffee break" intermissions (as coined by series creator Toru Iwatani) that would appear after clearing a few iterations of the original maze in a row with a credit. Akitaka 'AJURIKA' Tohyama (遠山明孝) was the man behind remixing duties for the piece, which curiously enough was originally titled without the final exclamation point in the first OST releases of Ridge Racer 6.
There's no exaggeration in stating how playing RUN PAC-MAN RUN's Oni chart feels like a break-less version of Doom Noiz (also another song born out of an xBox 360-initial-exclusive game, mind you!), filled to the brim with regular and more dense note clusters intertwining more than often. Similarly to how much time it has been since a Ridge Racer song, it's also the first 10-star Oni song sporting a Nam-Combo value in the ongoing rating standards, after Namco Original Asagao from 7 years ago!
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