As far as Ridge Racers go, you could do a whole lot worse than Ridge Racer Unbounded. This latest Ridge Racer from Namco finally does more than shunt you down narrow sterile roads with only a contrived drift mechanic where the gameplay should go. It instead takes a cue from actually good arcade racers. Which you should probably play instead.
This is a companion discussion topic for the original entry at http://www.quartertothree.com/fp/2012/04/09/still-just-a-ridge-racer/