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Ridge Racer 6 Review
Jon Wilcox
18/01/2006
Shock horror as TVG manages to play that rarest of things: a new Xbox 360 title...
It's not everyday that a wholly new (i.e. platform exclusive) title for Xbox 360 makes its way to your desk, even if it is the sixth instalment of an arcade racing series that's jumped from Sony to Nintendo, back to Sony, and now Microsoft - or something like that. Namco's Ridge Racer series seems to be one franchise that tweaks and prods with every new iteration, always retaining that drift heavy gameplay but never scared of adding small details or features. Though it has its critics, who knock the game for the lack of licensed cars, tracks, and the 'pinball effect', the fact remains that the series continues to thrive. Mirroring it's immediate home console predecessor, Ridge Racer 6 was released as a launch title for a new console (in North America at least), this time on the Xbox 360; it's taken several weeks for the game to finally reach European shores, so how does it fair up to the HD-era and is it one ridge too far?
One thing to bare in mind about the Ridge Racer series as a whole is that Namco's arcade racing titles is exactly that: an arcade title. Forget licensed vehicles racing around real-world tracks such as Laguna Seca and the Nurburgring Nordschleife, at its heart Ridge Racer has always been about super fast cars travelling across tracks at an angle of 90 degrees or more, and it will come as no surprise to discover that that's exactly what you get with Ridge Racer 6. As well as offering offline game modes, Ridge Racer 6 marks the first time that the series has gone online with up to fourteen players capable of racing together via Xbox Live though the core gameplay comes in the form of the 'World Xplorer', a web of races that allows players to choose their own career path. The non-linear structure and its subsequent interface displays exactly how much game there is in Ridge Racer 6 with 111 races in the Basic difficulty setting alone - this is one Xbox 360 title that won't be completed in the space of a few hours. Along the way gamers are able to unlock certain hidden vehicles and race a number of different events including reverse tracks. Other races disable the ability to drift charge Nitrous, leaving gamers rely on 'Ultimate Charges' - more on that shortly - to achieve high speeds.
Namco have taken the Nitrous concept added in Ridge Racers on PSP and further developed the idea so that players can link together two or three boosts as "Double" and "Triple" Nitrous. Players are also encouraged to launch the "Ultimate Charge", which sees players build up further Nitrous whilst using the residual boost from the previous blast of the good stuff. Such continued introductions develop the gameplay of the Ridge Racer series, and in this case adds a further level of strategy to the race. These refinements to the Nitrous dynamic continues to evolve the experience, which certainly feels more rounded compared to the debut of the feature on PSP.
Racing around the tracks, which continue to feature the trademark high speed drops and ramps of instalments of old, it's easy to take the stylised visuals and label them current-gen and old hat. Neater reflections and visuals effects are one thing, and certainly add to that extra 'spit 'n' polish' that the next-generation offers, but Ridge Racer certainly doesn't push the graphical barriers of the console. However, this style is very much a key essence in what makes Ridge Racer, but some of the finer details on the game can stick out as disappointing, not least the 2D sprite crowds. We're not two months into the beginning of the next-generation and already we're very spoilt. After experiencing PGR3 and EA's sports titles with their crowds it comes as a surprise that Namco have retained that current/past generation favourite, the 2D sprite. It may have been a bit of rush job to bring the Xbox 360 a raft of launch titles, and it might be important to retain the visual style of instalments gone by, but the sight of those 2D sprites are slightly disappointing.
One of the general concerns aired with Ridge Racer is the simplicity of kicking every opponent's butt for the first two dozen races, and whilst it has to be said, that the rivals in the game aren't the most 'competitive' (at least not at the start of the game), they do put up more of a fight in later races. One tweak that has been make since the franchises last iteration on PSP has been the requirement to finish in first place in every single race. Early races in the handheld races (and in other versions of the series) allowed a very shallow difficulty curve by requiring players to finish in the top four for the first race of a championship, third in the second, and so on. In Ridge Racer 6, players have to hit the ground running - second place is for losers.
Finished creating a route across the web of Basic level races? Think you're ready for the next difficulty? Forget it, as Namco have created bridge races that link the various difficulties together. Adding a little variety, these Special Route races see gamers go on a one-on-one, head-to-head race with some of the more exotic racers in the Ridge Racer universe. Such races are usually tense and mean that every drop of Nitrous and every Nitrous building drift counts. At times it can seem that the rival car has an endless supply of the boosting formula, but concentration (and perhaps some blocking) should mean that players will quickly move to the next difficulty proper.
One of the great selling points of Ridge Racer is its playability, which enables gamers off all skills to pick up a gamepad and race around like they're fully fledged gaming god. It might take a couple of races to get use to the drift nature of the game, but the fact remains that this is one franchise that isn't embarrassed (and indeed embraces) its coin-op roots. Ridge Racer 6 continues with this legacy, which means that not only is it a good game to play with relative non-gamers, it's also a game that can warrant a 'quick five minutes' or a whole afternoon of racing action.
Coupled with its already established addictive qualities, the addition of online modes in Ridge Racer 6 does push the franchise that little bit forward, with up to fourteen players capable of racing against each other on Xbox Live. With the European service yet to be activated, we instead had to make do with the Global Attack Mode, allowing us to rack up some head-splitting times (sub-two on certain tracks.) These modes really do expand on the lifespan of the game, and coupled with the already impressive single-player mode, creates the foundation for Ridge Racer 6 to potentially add a new twist to the Live experience.
Whilst it continues to carry the franchise's strong gameplay roots, and continues to tweak some of the basics, the fact remains that there's very little originality in Ridge Racer 6. It certainly doesn't push back the barriers of the racing genre, but then again that's not the intention of the developers. This is a game about speed and drift as it's always been, and in that respect it doesn't disappoint. It may not have the best looking visuals on the system to date, and critics will not doubt continue to pick holes in its seemingly simplistic gameplay, but Ridge Racer 6 is a great deal of fun with a level of high speed enthusiasm and personality that is sometimes found lacking in other racing titles.
