Ridge Racer Unbounded offers a number of changes that depart from traditional Ridge Racer gameplay. Additions to the game include the ability to design and share tracks and a new emphasis on vehicular combat.
While Unbounded was originally scheduled for release in North America and Europe in early March 2012,[3] it was delayed just before the planned release, as Namco Bandai wanted to allow more time "to pack the disc with features that will truly make the game sing".[1] The game was released in March the same year in North America and Europe and later in April in Australia on all platforms. The game was never released in Japan. Despite this, it seems to borrow inspiration from another Namco game, Critical Velocity (クリティカルベロシティ, Kuritikaruberoshiti), also a vehicular combat video game, released in 2005 only in Japan.