A Ridge Racer Club Night Is Something We Never Knew We Needed

Ever walked into a nightclub and thought “I’d really enjoy this more if they played nothing but Ridge Racer soundtracks?” No, us neither, but it turns out a Ridge Racer club night exists and now we want nothing more.

As far as we can tell, Ridge Racer Night is an annual event hosted by publishers Bandai Namco hosted, of course, in Japan. This year’s was particularly special though, as it marks three decades since the release of the title on consoles, having initially hit arcades in 1993.

Hosted at WOMB in Shibuya, Tokyo, on 7 July, a ticket would’ve cost you a fairly hefty 9,900 yen (about £48, or 11x that of the entry fee to Spiders Nightclub in Hull). For that though, it seems you’ll also have been given a 50-minute long CD with remixes from the DJs in attendance.

Those DJs including Shinji “Sampling Masters MEGA” Hosoe, Ayako “Sampling Masters AYA” Saso, Nobuyoshi “sanodg” Sano, Hiroshi Okubo, and Sho Okada, who have all contributed to Ridge Racer soundtracks throughout the years.

From a few clips we’ve seen doing the rounds on social media, it looks like a pretty banging time, although we must admit we don’t have a great deal of information more than that. Our Japanese isn’t so great, after all.

For those of us unfortunate enough not to be able to attend Ridge Racer Night, Bandai Namco has at least begun uploading soundtracks from the games to Spotify. At the time of writing, those of both PSP titles, the sole PS Vita game and Ridge Racer 6 are available to listen to. Hopefully, it won’t be long before Ridge Racer Type 4 finds its way on there.

We’ll be doing our best to manifest ourselves being there in 2025. You know, for journalism purposes, of course.