OUR RATING: 9 EXCELLENT About our ratings

TANGIBLES: Gameplay: 9 Visuals: 7 Audio: 9 Value: 9 Quality: 10

Why you should buy it: Not Available Why you should rent it: Not Available

UNIQUE RATING: 9 SUGGESTION: N/A

Believe it or not, this series was in a slump once.

1998's R4: Ridge Racer Type 4 was a “from-the-ground-up” overhaul for the series that took it far from its old-school roots, after Rage Racer had a poor showing on sales charts a couple years prior. Although 2001's Ridge Racer V went a long way in righting the ship, and was a sign of the good things to come, it still had its problems (most notably using an oval, of all things, as the game's final circuit). The PSP launch earlier this year marked the series' true return to greatness, with what was not only the most content-loaded Ridge Racer yet, but also the most well-representative of the franchise at its best. It simply called itself “Ridge Racer” (or “Ridge Racers” in Japan), and did an excellent job in justifying that with its classic-style gameplay alongside some next-gen polish.

When you first load up Ridge Racer 6 on your brand new Xbox 360, the first thing you will notice is the amazing likeness the game bears of the aforementioned PSP instant-classic. It's clearly an acknowledgment by Namco that they want this style to define Ridge Racer's identity in the long run, and with good reason; it's the most sensible, streamlined interface the franchise has ever worn.

A few things have changed, though. As you test the feel out in the game's Single Race mode, you'll quickly notice that the nitrous boost system has been tweaked. Just like the PSP game, drifting will gradually raise your nitrous level until you fill all three of your tanks. How much nitrous you accumulate while drifting is determined by the speed at which you were skidding around the turn (or, for the more skilled players, down the straightaway). Although you couldn't accumulate nitrous while burning some off, a sound strategy from the PSP game was to kick off a drift right at the end of a nitrous boost, resulting in an ultra-high-speed powerslide that filled up your meter really fast. This carries over from the PSP, but it now includes a bonus and the name “Ultimate Charge.” In the best of times, it's reasonable for a single Ultimate Charge to fill two tanks and then some, but it'll take some real practice to get that kind of return on your boost.

Another upgrade to the nitrous system is a more accessible one. In the PSP game, you could only burn off your boost one tank at a time. Ridge Racer 6 gives you the option of using multiple tanks at once, resulting in longer-lasting and more powerful nitrous boosts. It will take you some time to understand when to use how many tanks, but it's a nice strategic system that perfectly completes one of the series' best ideas yet.

One key thing to point out is that the Grand Prix mode, used by most Ridge Racer games to unlock hidden content, is gone. Instead, most of your single-player time will be spent in the game's “World Xplorer” mode (which, unfortunately, really is spelled like that). This is akin to the quest modes found in recent Dance Dance Revolution games, as well as Namco's own SoulCalibur franchise. Essentially, you'll be exploring an enormous map loaded with individual races, many of which include special stipulations such as the self-explanatory “No-Nitrous” or the dreaded “Reverse Charge.” The latter is a poorly-worded name for a race that starts you off with two nitrous tanks, and only allows you to accumulate more by drifting while you're already boosting (as opposed to while you're not). If you fail to accumulate at least one full tank at the end of a boost, the gas party is over, and you're left to finish the race old-school style.

Like its aforementioned influences, World Xplorer mode is enormous, perhaps even larger than its inspirations. Unless you're an established Ridge Racer god who can blow through any race with their eyes closed, you can pretty safely expect to spend a good 40-50 hours grinding through here and unlocking what has to be a record number of cars for the Ridge Racer franchise, along with some other interesting Easter-Egg additions like changing the color of your cars (not available up-front like it was in the PSP game), unlimited nitrous for offline exhibition races, and even the ability to select Tekken's Heihachi Mishima as the announcer.

One nice inclusion is time trial competition. So you think you could get a better time than that guy who just smoked you in a standard race, if only he'd stop cutting you off and blocking the pass around corners? Now you can prove it, by pitting your time against his in a free run where there are no other cars on the road to block your path. Time trials are all about uncut, uninterrupted speed. Unlike a normal race where you're only concerned about your position relative to the other cars, time trials will have you obsessing over the little things, like getting that perfect drift around a hard hairpin turn without hitting the far edge, or how maybe you could get a better time on an uphill straightaway if only you could get a stronger drifting start. Think of it as an “OCD Mode” for Ridge Racer 6, tailor-made for players who are always thinking about how they could possibly shave a few more tenths of a second off of their personal best time (but preferrably everyone else's as well).