RIDGE RACER STEPS -GMT remix- is a bold jazz-fusion rearrangement of the iconic Ridge Racer theme, produced by Yuji Masubuchi, the sound director of Taiko no Tatsujin at Bandai Namco Studios. The song was commissioned as the first installment of the Game Music Triangle (GMT) collaboration, a cross-title event that brought maimai, Groove Coaster, and Taiko no Tatsujin together to share a single original track across all three arcade music games. Its release on April 17, 2014, for maimai GreeN PLUS generated considerable buzz among fans of all three franchises. The original composition behind this track traces back to Shinji Hosoe (Sampling Masters MEGA), who wrote the theme for the first Ridge Racer arcade game, a landmark title known for introducing texture-mapped 3D graphics to arcade racing. Masubuchi, who recalls encountering the original Ridge Racer cabinet as a high school student, faced the challenge of creating a fresh arrangement when the original "Ridge Racer (Power Remix)" had already been featured in Taiko no Tatsujin. His solution was deliberately unconventional: he recast the song from its original 4/4 time signature into a waltz-like 3/4, anchoring it with intricate drum patterns, warm organ chords, and jazzy guitar lines. The result is a sophisticated, almost lounge-like interpretation that stands apart from the high-energy racing connotations of the source material, a choice Masubuchi himself described with self-deprecating humor as "original song destruction." At 240 BPM, the track retains the Rush of the original's tempo even as its groove shifts into triple meter. The arrangement's "mature" atmosphere, as described in the official soundtrack booklet, comes from the interplay of its jazz instrumentation against the driving BPM, a distinctive contrast that makes the song instantly recognizable among the GreeN PLUS roster.