Ridge Racer 6

The long running arcade series appears on a next-gen console. Does the classic gameplay stand up today?

I guess I should get one thing out in the open right now: Unfortunately for Ridge Racer 6 on the Xbox 360, I played Project Gotham Racing 3 first. And while the two games are admittedly different kinds of racers, since they both came out as launch titles for the Xbox 360, it is hard not to compare them. In the comparison Ridge Racer comes off looking a bit dated while PGR3 is definitely next-gen material.

The Ridge Racer franchise definitely has a venerable history. Like many great racers, it was born in the arcades and then made its move to home systems. In Ridge Racer’s case, that move was onto the original PlayStation console as that system had its initial launch. As the PS1’s first great racer, it firmly established itself as a game franchise to be reckoned with through the PS1/N64/Saturn generation of consoles. Sadly its dominance did not last long. Ridge Racer V hit the PlayStation 2 at its launch and the critics were – shall we say – underwhelmed. Now it is five years after Ridge Racer V’s unspectacular debut and, for this critic at least, Ridge Racer 6 continues to amble along like an aging sports star who does not realize he has been eclipsed by the younger bucks.

Ridge Racer 6 falls into the racing genre sub-category of a drift racer. This means the player need only be concerned with sliding or “drifting” the car into the turns rather than braking. This is accomplished by accelerating up to the turn, letting off the accelerator to allow the rear of the car to slide out in the turn, and then accelerating away from the turn. And while this does work to some extent in the real world, Ridge Racer 6 takes these physics to some ridiculous levels.

As far as game modes go, Ridge Racer 6 has some good ones. Of course there is a single-player mode – World Xplorer – that challenges the player to clear races and unlock more content. There is also the Single Race mode that just allows the player to jump in for a quick race. Rounding out the single-player modes is the Global Time Attack that lets the player race alone on a track for the best time. Player times can then be uploaded to Xbox Live for comparison. Of course this would not be an Xbox 360 racing game if it did not have Live-enabled multiplayer racing, and Ridge Racer 6 does indeed support up to 14 players online. (That is actually more than PGR3’s eight player maximum.) A two-player, split-screen racing mode rounds out the experience.

As far as an arcade drift racer goes, the gameplay experience is pretty solid. Namco even updated the gameplay to include nitrous boosts that are earned as the player successfully executes high-speed drifts. And while the drift system of racing can get a little repetitive, it does make for a nice pick-up-and-play racing game.

Being a simple arcade racer, Ridge Racer 6 does not really sport the nice little additions that many racing fans have come to expect in their games. There is no way to tweak car performance. The garage mode in the game is simply a place to see the cars you have unlocked while racing (Namco touts having over 130 different cars in the game.) and change their paint jobs.

Namco chose to go the route of unlicensed cars for their game. One of the great things about going with unlicensed vehicles is that you can abuse and beat them up any way you want. Therefore it is strange that the cars in Ridge Racer 6 have no damage model whatsoever. Smash into a wall at 150 MPH and the car does not show a scratch. Another plus of unlicensed vehicles is that you can have fantastic and futuristic cars. Ridge Racer 6 does have those, and many of the more unconventional cars are very well realized.

Tracks present a limiting factor in Ridge Racer 6. Namco claims 30 tracks, but what that really means is 15 standard tracks and 15 mirror images of those standard tracks. Yeah, it has been done for years, but it bears pointing out. Namco also opted for tracks that do not exist in the real world. And some of the tracks even look oddly familiar from past Ridge Racer games.

Controls are tight and responsive. The stock Xbox 360 controller works well for the game. Though I found myself wishing for a steering wheel to get the full experience. Luckily MadCatz will be releasing its new officially-licensed-by-Microsoft steering wheel soon. Then we’ll get to see what all these new Xbox 360 driving games are like with the controller nature intended for them to have.

Where Ridge Racer 6’s gameplay really fails is in giving the gamer the sense of speed that has been so well done in games like Burnout. PGR3 managed it, but Ridge Racer 6 seems to ooze along the track by comparison. Losing that feeling of burning around the track at mach speed with you hair on fire is a definite letdown.

From a presentation standpoint Ridge Racer 6 is a mixed bag. The tracks don’t look so hot. The cars are a bit better, but they still only have the look of perhaps a very good Xbox 1 game like Forza Motorsports. Since the visuals are one place you can absolutely directly compare Ridge Racer 6 and Project Gotham Racing 3, Ridge Racer 6 pales by comparison to Microsoft’s flagship racer. Lighting, texture details and car models are all inferior. To Ridge Racer 6’s credit, the frame rate does hold a constant 60 fps.

Audio is only workmanlike: adequate but not outstanding. The sound effects are okay. The techno-music soundtrack has some fair tunes. Custom soundtracks are supported so you can rip and play your favourite driving tunes while playing. In the continuing effort to give every game possible some “street” flavour, Namco added an announcer to the game known as the “DJ.” His inane prattle will drive you to distraction, but thankfully Namco gave us the ability to shut him up completely in the options.

So is Ridge Racer 6 the Xbox 360 launch racer for you? Fans of simulation racers are going to crap a brick when they see this game: the physics are incredibly implausible. Arcade-racing fans will be more forgiving. If you are looking for some fast and furious racing action that can just be picked up and played, Ridge Racer 6 is probably a fair selection. It doesn’t do a whole lot more than its predecessors, and it is probably the shallowest play experience of the three launch titles, but as an arcade racer it works pretty well. And that earns it at least a respectable B- score.

This review courtesy of our friends at Gameshark .