One of my current gaming hyperfixations—one that I seem to fall into every couple of years—is arcade-style racing games. Specifically, the Ridge Racer series.
I'll admit, I am a late-comer to the Ridge Racer fandom. I somehow managed to avoid playing one until my early 20s when I downloaded a bunch of racing games onto my Vita during a previous bout of this fixation. The PSP launch title was, I think, the first I played. I didn't really "get" it, mainly because I didn't understand how drifting was supposed to work (I think I picked a "MLD" type drift car, which tbh is a type I still do not enjoy driving at all. More like mid amirite) and was more interested in playing Burnout Legends again at the time. But eventually, I read someone reminiscing about Ridge Racer Type 4 on social media or something and remembered that I had downloaded it with all those others. So I decided to fire it up, and it blew my fucking mind. The Music! The Style! The G A M E F E E L! I cannot imagine what it must've been like in 1998 to play it at release, but unfortunately I was too busy at the time playing the PS1 racing games my parents picked up from the bargain bin.
I've since played much more of the series and have begun to develop some Opinions on it and on arcade racing games as a genre. So I'm gonna keep rambling about it, but I'll at least put it below the jump.