Reviewed: January 5, 2006
Reviewed by: Mark Smith

Publisher
Namco

Developer
Namco

Released: November 22, 2005
Genre: Racing
Players: 1-2
ESRB: Everyone

9
10
8
9
9.1

Supported Features:

Ridge Racer has been around for as long as I can remember, and you can be sure that whenever a new system is about to launch that a new version of this popular racing game is not far behind. Just look at the DS and PSP. In fact, if you played the PSP version of Ridge Racer then you already have a good idea of what to expect with this latest version.

While this new career mode is quite inventive it is also quite unnecessary and even a bit detrimental to gameplay at times. You see, once you pick the races that make up your route you then pick a car and are locked into that decision for as many races as you highlighted. The problem is that one car is not always the best choice for all tracks, and since there are no penalties for exploring the universe one hex at a time, why risk losing a race for the mere sake of saving a few seconds of choosing your next race and loading it up.

As you explore the massive hex map the races get progressively more challenging and the car classes increase in HP and top speed. Winning certain key races will unlock new cars that are added to your growing garage, and when you complete a linear sequence of events you will unlock new areas of the universe map.

Additionally, there are internal areas on the universe map, and once you surround these areas with completed races you will earn new vehicles that are locked in these areas. Hexes are coded to indicate various race rules like No Nitro or a Duel with one other vehicle. Normally, these Duels are a sequence of races and once you win them all you will win the vehicle you have been racing.

Outside of the massive World Xplorer mode you have your standard Single Race that allows you to race any of your unlocked cars on any of the available tracks. Global Time Attack is a three lap challenge that has you racing alone for the best time, which is then uploaded to Xbox Live and compared to the rest of the world.

For multiplayer action you have Online Battle and Multi Battle for online and split-screen racing respectively. Online racing has never been easier to setup or join in. If you come into a race lobby during a race you can follow the action on a top-down map or watch the race as a spectator. Online Battles actually give you access to cars you may not have already unlocked in your own game.

Ridge Race has never pretended to be anything other than an arcade racer, so if you are looking for something serious or sim-like then you had better head over to PGR3. This game is all about blistering speed, power sliding through turns, and burning more nitro than the L.A. street racing scene on a Saturday night.

Control is amazingly fluid thanks to the flawless 60fps this game delivers on what can only be described as photo-realistic scenery and the best car models ever depicted in a racing game…ever. Sure, they are all fictitious designs and made-up names. There are no licensed rides here, but whether you are racing a truck, sports car, hovercraft, or Pac-Man Flying Saucer, you have never seen vehicle models this clean and perfect.

Physics are obviously exaggerated for the sake of arcade racing. Your car will break traction a bit too easily and slide for days. Drifting is a key component in Ridge Racer and even more so in Ridge Racer 6 with the addition of Nitrous. First introduced on the PSP, nitrous comes in the form of 3 canisters that slowly fill up while you are drifting through turns or even on straight-aways, provided you are up to “speed”.

You can then fire off these canisters, either one at a time or save them up for double and triple burns for exponentially faster speeds. And if you drift while burning nitro you can refill those canisters at an accelerated rate. Nitro will quickly become a major factor in winning a lot of these races, which only makes it that much more devastating when you eventually get to the “no nitro” races, especially since the other cars are free to use nitrous.

Another even more challenging race mode starts you off with two filled nitro canisters and only allows you to fill your nitro while drifting during a burn. If you don’t pull this off correctly those two canisters might be your last for the entire 3-lap race.

There is no point system in place for coming in second or third, even when you pick multi-race routes in the world map. This is a win or redo until you win game and nothing can be more disheartening than to race two perfect laps then choke on the final lap and watch the competition streak past and steal your victory.

There is no car damage whether you hit the wall or another car. These moments of contact will merely slow your car to a crawl and usually result in a restart of the race since any major failure past the second lap is unrecoverable. Ridge Racer 6 is all about learning the tracks and the cars and driving perfect laps at optimized speeds, building nitrous on the turns and using it wisely.

The garage is simple and straightforward with four classes of cars (five if you count the Special class) that separate the various race events. Within those classes you have several models of cars, each with their own drift type and top speed. Drift types indicate how easily your car can drift. Dynamic drift cars are really unstable but you can drift with little loss of speed and build up nitro easily. Mild drift is usually the preferred drift mode but you usually lose a bit of top speed, and standard drift indicates a stable car that hugs the turns.

There is nothing to upgrade on these cars although you can earn new paint jobs for body and rims. You can also go into the garage and view the cars in full 3D, toggle the headlights and burn the three levels of nitrous to see the colorful results.

There are day races and night, sunrise and sunset, but the weather is always clear. There is no rain or wet tracks to deal with in Ridge Racer 6 and no artificial shiny streets at night. One of my favorite tracks has you racing across a bridge with water on either side and fountains will shoot up columns of water in sequence as you drive by.

The bumped-mapped surface of the asphalt pops off the screen during the pre-race pans around the cars. And speaking of cars, you just can’t imagine how good these cars look. The screenshots only hint at what this game has to offer. There isn’t a single jaggy edge in the game and the polished surface shines and reflects the sun and the scenery in real-time.

Special effects are mostly lighting effects like shadows and lens flares. There are some particle effects for the sparks that trail behind the cars and if you happen to be leading the lap when you pass by the spectator stands they will shower you with colorful confetti. Your headlights realistically light the tracks in the night races, although you really don’t need them to see.

You can race the game from either the front bumper or from the standard chase view. The bumper cam is my preferred mode offering the greatest sensation of speed, but it can be tricky to drift from this view since you are often seeing the side of the track, but it soon becomes second nature to straighten the car out and keep on racing as you exit the turns.

There is also a nice replay feature included that allows you to watch the entire race from several camera angles and save your favorite races. You can even hide the replay HUD for pure racing action.

Sound effects are nothing more than engines noises that change only slightly with the car types and class. Obviously, Pac-Man’s flying saucer will sound a lot different than a speedy SUV or racecar. There are also some nice effects for the nitro burn and drifting.

Let’s talk about that announcer. Every Ridge Racer game that I can remember has had some kind of announcer. In this game he is referred to as the DJ and he will be the first thing you will want to turn off. I have never heard anything this annoying in my life. It’s so bad it’s humorous at first and then it grows painful after about four races. It’s not so much what he says, even though he is limited to about six catch phrases, mostly all dealing with nitro, but it’s his “black-trying-to-be-white-homosexual-trying-to-be-straight” delivery of those lines.

Thankfully, you can unlock two other DJ’s, one an emotionless female voice that sounds like a starship computer simply announcing facts about the race, and Heihachi, the burly fighter from Tekken who delivers his commentary in authentic Japanese. As cool as he is as first, even his overacting wears thin after a dozen races. Ultimately, you’ll want to settle on the female voice simply labeled as “Extra” in the options menu.

I’ve already covered the online racing options above and racing over Xbox Live will add countless hours to the life of this game. There is also the promise of fresh content from Namco later this year. Hopefully we’ll see a new track or two. I really don’t need any more cars.

There are 1000 Achievement points to be unlocked and added to your gamer profile. Some of these are earned by completing certain routes, filling your garage or driving x-many miles. Others require some extra effort like doing a 360-drift during a race, driving Track 108 without using nitrous, or scoring 15,000 points in the Pac-Man mini-game that can be found in the options menu.

I’ve played them both and enjoy them both, but at the end of the day when I am looking for a quick thrill and some rewarding racing action I still keep coming back to Ridge Racer 6. It’s one of those games that relies more on instincts and experience than reflexes, and it is easily the best looking racer and one of the two best looking games currently available on the Xbox 360.