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Good: Classic gameplay

Bad: Drifting, zero car damage, graphics

Does it feel "next-gen": Mostly not

The Ridge Racer Series has been a staple of console (and more recently handheld) racing since the very early days of the original Playstation. Having launched with both of Sony's home systems, Namco has now delivered for Xbox 360's launch effort. While often forgotten in the mass of console racers over the years, the series has never been able to replicate the success they produced since hitting gold with Ridge Racer Type 4 (RR4). So the question is, will they regain their lost glory with their 6th edition?

First things first however. Drifting, it's back with a vengeance. Back and even more unrealistic than ever. In fact, drifting is really the name of the game. Essentially, the outcome of the race is based almost entirely on how well you can control your wild tire scraping on nearly every turn. It actually eliminates the need for braking altogether as you can drift through a turn no matter how fast you are traveling into it. At first it can be somewhat entertaining, but after awhile, it definitely gets old.

Despite the fact that RR6 features all "homemade" (non-licensed) cars, they are actually quite attractive and vary greatly in appearance. I want to emphasize "appearance" however, as they all drive almost exactly the same which really makes unlocking them feel pretty shallow. There are over a hundred cars to unlock though, so if you do feel the need to earn all of those Xbox Live achievements, you'll have your work cut out for you. This game is all about speed however, and that's made more evident by the fact that the Ridge Racer world still features zero car damage. Slamming into walls or other cars will result in very nice crashing audio effects, but your vehicle won't ever lose its glossy finish.

One new addition that RR6 has introduced since its previous editions is a new nitrous boosting system, complete with blurring effects. Essentially whenever you drift, (i.e. All the time) you build up power in your nitrous meter. This meter is divided into three levels, with each progressive level that you build up to allowing your car to boost longer and faster. The problem here is that the game feels slow to begin with, especially with the advent of the superb Burnout series and it's bone rattling intensity. In fact, Namco probably borrowed the concept of "building up" boost through driving feats from Criterion's Racer. However, the only time you ever really start to feel a solid sense of speed is when you are boosting and that's not really a good thing. Strategy wise though, it is occasionally satisfying to fly by an opponent on the last leg of a race in an Xbox Live match or rocket skyward from a large hill over your fellow racers.

Graphically Ridge Racer 6 delivers a mixed bag. The non-licensed car models look good, with good lighting and reflections to go along with them, but just about everything else is pretty disappointing. The scenery features plenty of jagged lines, rough polygonal modeling and generally Xbox 1 level visuals. Some levels are actually downright embarrassing and are made to look that much worse when they are thrown up in front of the car models. To put it simply, RR6 seems to fall in line with a lot of the other Xbox 360 launch titles that look and feel like souped up Xbox 1 games.

Speaking of Xbox Live, there is a good amount of different modes and options are available to play with, or at least all the modes that one might expect in a racing game. Nothing to write home about really. The only real addition here is the ability to upload your best race recordings onto Live for all the world to judge. That's kind of neat though, right guys? Yes?

Overall, this is just another Ridge Racer game. It is not a revolution or even much of an evolution of the series, it's just another (better looking) Ridge Racer game. While this is an arcade racer, the ridiculous drifting is just too much and its lack of vehicular damage, especially when Burnout and other racers have long since perfected the concept, is somewhat embarrassing. RR6 certainly isn't ugly, but its really not that pretty either and it is a shame to see this sequel suffer from nearly the exact same problems that its predecessor suffered from when Ridge Racer 5 launched on the PS2. As with RR5 back then and a good number of other Xbox 360 launch titles, the developers of RR6 really could have used another 6 months or so with the X360 hardware before releasing their games to consumers. Bottom line, the fans of the series will enjoy this sequel for what it is, but the rest of us will expect more and should likely just wait for Burnout Revenge to hit in the first quarter of next year.

Graphics: C

Sound: B-

First Play: C+

Last Play: C-

Gameplay: C

Overall: 74% C

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