Out of sight and out of mind, Ridge Racer 6 on Xbox 360 has completely bombed. It was officially the worst selling 360 game in North America around Christmas time, and apart from the odd gamer on your Friends List it has sank without a trace. The likes of Project Gotham Racing 3 and Need for Speed Most Wanted have both eclipsed it in sales, and it's a real shame as in some ways Ridge Racer 6 is better than both of them…

One very important thing needs to be cleared up now regarding this game: This is a true and proper Ridge Racer game. Driving round corners is a no-no - drifting is king, there are no licenced machines (cars), real racetracks or licensed music in the game; it’s all about brightly-coloured Solvanous, Downtown Rave City and Rotterdam Nation. It’s 1993 inside this game and nothing much has changed handling-wise, but Namco have tuned the Burnout-style nitrous system since Ridge Racer on PSP, and the single player game has been completely overhauled.

Nitrous boost now plays a much more significant part in the game, with some events not allowing any usage at all, and some only letting you charge it at certain points. Whereas in the PSP version you had 3 tanks to fill up, and you could use any one tank once it was full, you can now use one, two, or three tanks in one go if you have them all full. Using two tanks at once gives you a much bigger boost than using one, and obviously using all three tanks gives you a huge and lengthy boost. You charge the nitrous by drifting around corners (approach corner at full speed, let go of accelerator, steer slightly, floor it, slide around corner). The bigger and longer the drift, the faster the gauge fills up, although certain vehicle types require a slightly different style of driving.

The handling is unique, and you feel like you’re almost being pulled around the corner by the game – like a slot car. As you begin to slide you do not lose any speed whatsoever, and your car is pinned to the tarmac with the back-end almost overtaking the front of the car as your nose is pointing directly at the inside of the corner. It’s incredibly unrealistic, but can be very, very satisfying when you get it right.

The tracks are beautifully designed, with perfectly designed corners, chicanes and tunnels which work so well with the handling, just like all Ridge Racers before it. There are various themes too, such as nighttime cities, harbors and hillside races, and they are all very pretty and well detailed. Admittedly nowhere near the detail of a PGR3 city, but then Ridge Racer 6 runs at a constant 60 frames per second and has fourteen cars on a track. Panoramic views, long draw distances, huge skyscrapers in the distance, vast suspension bridges, lush sandy beaches and bright blue skies fill the screen up, and it looks so polished and sharp, it really is a lovely looking game, and one that certainly benefits from the 360’s HD output.

Technically there are over 130 machines in the game, and although there may look like there are hundreds of different ones, in fact most are just duplicates of the same model. However there is plenty of choice, and there are different handling types too. Some cars have lots of grip and react strangely if you try to do huge drifts in them, whereas others are more classic RR, with very little grip allowing huge, controllable slides. I sticked with the “Standard” grip type until I reached the Special car classes, which have their own handling type. The majority of the cars are new to the series, with just some familiar manufacturers making a return. However there are some classics in the game too, such as the Angel car from Ridge Racer Revolution, and a certain black car makes an appearance as well…

After the huge single player mode, there is of course the online racing mode too. I am really pleased because it works incredibly well. The lobby has many, many features that match and even surpass PGR3’s in places, with options like; random track setup, spectator mode, catch-up settings, ongoing win/lose indicators, and machine class lockouts. Basically everything you can think of is here, and it’s really great to see. There are also Ranked games too, which go towards the world leader board. Racing is always smooth and lag-free, even with 14 humans in a race. I have raced Japanese and North American gamers at the same time and there are no lag issues at all, in fact the only had a noticeable “online moment” was when there was a split second pause when someone dropped out of a race whilst it was in progress. Everyone in the race can talk to each other, and voice comms are clear and stable. There are even 23 cars to win online too, which when used in certain offline races will unlock Achievement points.