The GBA handheld console was known as a “masterpiece shoehorned into the home console” back then, and it could be adapted to any weird transplant. From “Crazy Taxi” to “Jet Set Radio”, players complain about the performance and admire the developers’ extreme operations every time. However, I didn’t expect that in 2025, someone would challenge an even crazier thing – to make Ridge Racer into the GBA.
This is not a spoof or a video splicing, but an unofficial project being developed by developer Gvaliente《RR Project》. If you have seen the video he released, you may also exclaim like the netizens: “I never thought that one day I would see GBA running the first PS1 racing game!”
Although the specifications are downgraded, the taste is right: the GBA version of “Ridge Racer” ran to 30fps
Of course, trying to fit 1993’s arcade 3D masterpiece into the GBA would require a significant reduction in detail.
The car body model has been simplified, the objects on the side of the scene have been trimmed down to the skeleton, and the drawing distance is so short that you can smell the fog. But the most amazing thing is——
He actually made it run at 30fps!
And the picture is so smooth that one wonders whether the GBA’s CPU has been given a boost. More importantly, the blue sky, clean outlines, circling track and drifting rhythm unique to “Ridge Racer” have all been captured. You’ll know it’s not the full version, but you’ll recognize it: this is Ridge Racer!
There is no playable DEMO yet, but as soon as the video came out, the community reacted explosively and positively. Some people even left a direct message: “This is so crazy and exaggerated. I never thought it could be like this!”
From the 1993 arcade masterpiece to the 1994 PlayStation killer launch
“Ridge Racer” was a 3D technology showcase at the time. The arcade board style, high-speed polygon rendering, music and drifting feel scared the gamers of the 90s into silence. When it was ported to the original PlayStation in 1994, it shocked the world and became the console’s first Killer App, allowing PS1 to take off at a rapid pace around the world.
Later, although the series was continued on PS2, PSP, and PS3, since “Ridge Racer Unbounded” in 2012, Bandai Namco has basically frozen the series, leaving only some less careless mobile phone works that occasionally pop up to say hello.
Because of this, private revival plans like this to bring classics to the GBA have suddenly become the “spiritual sequel” that players are most looking forward to.
Someone is willing to make the impossible possible
The biggest charm of “RR Project” is not the performance, but the impact of “it should not exist, but it is alive”.
The GBA itself is nearly 25 years old hardware, and yet the developers are still willing to squeeze the soul of 3D racing into it in 2025.
The graphics, drifting, rhythm, and even the unique camera language of Ridge Racer are spelled out.
This is the feeling that retro players know best – not that the graphics are realistic, but that someone is willing to push the limits just to make a classic “live again” on another console.