In Ridge Racer V the player is a racing driver taking part in events across Ridge City in a variety of fictional cars. The focus is on accessible and fun driving rather than simulating how a car behaves in the real world; as such the player is encouraged to powerslide around most corners by tapping the brake when entering the turn. Racing on RRV is divided into different race formats. The primary mode is Grand Prix, a series of structured championships completion of which rewards the player with new cars. Other modes include Time Attack, a long distance endurance race called the 99 Trial and free runs on any of the unlocked courses. Two players can also take part in a split-screen race against one another. A special race is unlocked after the player fulfills certain requirements: it features the arcade game characters Pac-Man in a roadster and Blinky, Pinky, Inky and Clyde on scooters. Winning this race unlocks special duel class cars for use in other game modes. Duel class cars can be won by defeating bosses in the game's Duel mode after fulfilling certain requirements. After all 4 bosses are defeated in Duel mode, Battle Royal is unlocked, allow the player to choose any duel class cars and challenge all 4 bosses in a boss rush race.
Development
Kohta Takahashi served as the sound director and lead composer of Ridge Racer V, who was previously involved in . To create an "exciting new experience", he brought in Japaneseelectronic music duoBoom Boom Satellites and German DJ Mijk van Dijk, along with Namco composers Nobuyoshi Sano, Yuu Miyake, and Yoshinori Kawamoto, to contribute music to the game. This resulted in the game having a diverse soundtrack, including genres such as trance, death metal and breakbeat.
The PS2 version received "generally favorable reviews" according to the review aggregation website Metacritic. In Japan, Game Machine listed Ridge Racer V: Arcade Battle on their February 1, 2001 issue as being the second most-successful dedicated arcade game of the year. Famitsu gave it a score of one nine, one ten, one eight, and one nine for a total of 36 out of 40. Jeff Gerstmann of GameSpot awarding it 7.6/10, saying "Ridge Racer V is a fun, great-looking game that will please older Ridge Racer fans. Players that picked up the series around the third or fourth game may be a little disappointed with the way the cars handle, but not so much that their fun will be ruined. Overall, the game feels a little rushed with its easy-way-out track design, and it's really a shame that Ridge Racer V wasn't given the same treatment that Tekken Tag Tournament received when it was translated for the domestic market". Jeff Lundrigan reviewed the PlayStation 2 version of the game for Next Generation, rating it three stars out of five, and stated that "Like its predecessors, Ridge Racer V will initially amaze you with flashy graphics and a great sense of speed. Unfortunately, there's not a lot of meat under the basic shell of this game."
