Ridge Racer 8

Ridge Racer 8 (Japanese: リッジレーサー8 Hepburn: Rijji Rēsā 8) is a racing video game developed and published Bandai Namco Entertainment for the Nintendo Switch. It is the eighth main installment in the Ridge Racer series. The game includes over 200 vehicles and 100 courses, many of which return from previous mainline entries.

Gameplay
Further information: Gameplay of the Ridge Racer series

Ridge Racer 8 features gameplay similar to that of the previous games in the series, focusing on high-speed drift racing in Ridge City.

Development
In May 2017, Bandai Namco had announced the long-awaited Ridge Racer 8 at E3 and stated that it would be exclusive to the Nintendo Switch. The last time a Ridge Racer game appeared on a Nintendo platform was at the beginning of the 3DS generation in 2011. Before then, there was Ridge Racer DS in 2004, the spin off R: Racing Evoloution on the GameCube in 2003, and the Nintendo 64 title, Ridge Racer 64 in 2000. However, the game was delayed as the developers felt they needed some more time to polish it beforehand.

Demo
Before Ridge Racer 8 was released, a demo version of the game was made available for purchase via Nintendo eShop.

Reception
The game received fairly positive reviews according to the review aggregation website Metacritic. In Japan, Famitsu gave it a score of two nines and two tens for a total score of 38 out of 40.