Review: Ridge Racer 6 (360)

With the realism side of racing the focus of Microsoft's foremost launch title, Ridge Racer 6 caters to the opposite end of the genre fans. Variety is the spice of life, after all, and Ridge Racer can certainly hold its own.

The art form of drifting takes centre stage here and mastering it is crucial to success; but while drifting sounds simple on paper (simply brake slightly and then reapply the throttle as you enter a bend), doing so while overtaking your opponents is something more challenging - one little nudge of a competitor's rear end can set you back. But drifting well earns 'nitrous', a temporary speed boost for your car, with three bars each becoming more full as you perform more drifts. Juggling both of these systems and using them at the right moments will be necessary if you hope to conquer the World Xplorer.

Here you have a grid which displays a number of races linked to each other, so you simply plot a course through each race earning various new cars and secrets. Easier said than done; the basic routes may be a walk in the park, but once you reach the more challenging duels and dreaded Master races you'll be in for a tough fight. It's also at this point that Ridge Racer 6's biggest weakness becomes apparent.

Whenever you feel like the computer is cheating, regardless of game or genre, you always come away with a horrible taste of dissatisfaction. RR6 is no different in this respect. Later courses will have you battle much tougher opponents, but these AI cars won't use their computer-given skill, but instead magically gain extra speed out of nowhere. One particularly annoying moment happened when Gamestyle was approaching the finish line; just inches away from taking the lead, the computer decided that it would be a laugh if it activated a nitrous boost, even though it was very nearly using the nitrous non-stop throughout the entire race. This is the part where our fist met the wall.

Insanely enough, you will sometimes be asked to participate in a 'non-nitrous' race, but this doesn't apply to the AI cars. Oh no, they can race around with their fingers constantly on the nitrous button while laughing at you maniacally (or did we imagine the laughing?). It's moments like this that hardly make the game seem fair; yet you can still come away as the good guy, fighting the odds, skillfully blocking opponents from passing and timing your own nitrous strategically. For instance, rather than using it as soon as the bar is full, saving your nitrous and waiting for the final stretch may be the better plan. A mixed bag then: your enjoyment of RR6 will purely be defined by how patient you are with it and whether your rage can be kept in check.

Moaning aside, there's plenty of enjoyment in the single player races and, once bored of that, one could always challenge people online, which is exactly what Gamestyle did. A completely lag-free environment, Ridge Racer 6 really shines online and the allure of being able to unlock cars online that you can't access offline is an added bonus (not to mention, the finely tuned ranking system). Although there are a slurry of cars for you to unlock, the differences are mostly cosmetic. With that said, once you find the classic Pac Man car, all is forgiven, not to mention the various nods to other classic Namco games (the Galaga Goo and even ones named after Soul Calibur stars Mitsurugi and Kilik).

Gamestyle really tried to see Ridge Racer 6's dubious AI issues as a minor annoyance, but race after race it hit us in the face. Despite this, we listened to our heart instead of our head and couldn't help but fall in love with the simple mechanics and pure adrenaline-fuelled racing. Graphically, Ridge Racer is no slouch either; while not up to the standard set by Project Gotham Racing 3, nobody was expecting that from an obviously less serious racer, but it does certainly do the job and adds to an already fine game. Definitely worth a purchase for arcade racing devotees and Ridge Racer fanatics.

Rating: 7 / 10

Words by Adam Gulliver