During Namco’s preview event earlier this week, we were able to take the latest Ridge Racer out for a test drive...and boy were we in for a surprise.

Before I begin, there’s something that should be made clear: this isn’t Ridge Racer. Sure, it’s in the name, but the gameplay is anything but. It was especially jarring as I had just finished playing the classic-style Ridge Racer on the Vita before trying Unbounded, and it took several head-on collisions before realizing this is a whole different game. No longer are your drifts guided around turns like a roller coaster; instead it has a much more of a simulation-type feel to it, which left me squirling all over the track as I tried to come to grips with the controls.

But once I did, I liked what I saw, as it combines two of my most memorable racing games: Burnout and Split/Second.

Ridge Racer Unbounded is a lot more urban than past installments, with the races taking place in the bustling downtown areas of Shatterbay City. The city is broken up into different districts, each containing an array of challenges. Of course, your standard races are ever-present, but you’ll also find some more unusual challenges as well. In The Escape, it’s your job to get away from the fuzz who’s hot on your tail. Conversely, Frag Attack has you racing as a semi-truck with the only goal being to destroy as many police cars as possible, by ramming them into walls or boosting into them using nitrous you’ve acquired from drifting or drafting.

In fact, the game places a large emphases on playing offensively, rewarding you with nitrousfor taking out your opponents, Burnout style. In fact, the game even features the same slow-motion “crash cam” from Burnout 3, which adds a nice visceral punch to your actions.

Now nitrous plays a larger role than just giving you a speed boost - it’s also what allows you access to reach a handful of secret shortcuts hidden behind some kind of barrier--usually a wall. Now obviously, walls usually edge out ahead in the great Car vs Wall battle, but nitrous allow you to burst through them like a house of cards to reach hidden paths. Now in lieu of having you boost around willy-nilly (much as I did when I first started playing), the game helpfully points out these breakable barriers with an on-screen indicator, in a manner very similar to Split/Second. Not only are taking the shortcuts very rewarding, but it also introduces an interesting risk/reward dynamic in whether you should use that nitrous now for a speed boost, or hold onto it for a potential upcoming shortcut. It’s decisions like these that keep me up at night.

The game also features a track-editor that allows you to piece together your very own city using “blocks” (as in, literal city blocks) you’ve unlocked by earning points in races. Unfortunately, we weren’t able to see this in action ourselves, but it sounds very promising,

Ridge Racer Unbounded is really not a Ridge Racer game at all, and instead feels more like what would happen if Burnout and Split/Second had a baby. The result is a seamless blend of ideas that makes Unbounded feel like something new in its own right, and should lay the groundwork for some heated online matches.

Look for Ridge Racer Unbounded to race into stores on March 6th.