•• Story ••
I couldn't find any semblance of a story here. This is a racing game, so there doesn't need to be one. Usually they end up being lame and contrived anyway.

•• Gameplay ••
Anyone familiar to racing games will have no problem picking up this game and playing. The right trigger is the gas and the left is the brake. The thumbsticks steer and the red button is nitrous. Pretty basic stuff, those controls.

The game consists of several game modes. The primary mode aside from multiplayer is World Explorer. This is a grid of pentagons each representing a race and interconnected through paths. You choose the path you want to take and combination of races. The ultimate goal being to complete the entire world from left to right. As you complete sections you earn cars to use in single races and multiplayer.
The races get harder as you go further right.

This is an arcade racer, so while there is a garage option in the menu, there is zero customization you can do. Heck, the only stats you can see are the class, top speed, and drift type. You can look at the car, but not really do anything with it. Not sure why they called it the garage if you can't tweak it.

As well, being an arcade racer, the racing dynamics in-game are meant for fun, not accuracy. That means the physics are not realistic, the cars have a minimal difference in feel, and the speeds are outrageous. One of the problems plaguing racing games is the lack of sense of speed. Most convey speed through the speedometer. Look you're going fast now, right? This is not a problem with Ridge Racer 6. The sense of speed is wonderful, blistering fast. It is quite exciting.

Back to the drifting thing. This is an essential tool to master in the race. While most games recommend you not lose traction with the road, it is the only way to win online and in higher single player levels. The reason for this is that the more you drift, the more your nitrous charges up. You have three levels of nitrous which give you a boost. Don't drift? Then you won't get far in the game. This is the heart of the game and at first I didn't like it. Then as I found myself playing for hours and hours, so the only conclusion is that this type of focused racing is highly addictive. I didn't need to worry about tuning the car. I didn't need to worry about braking gently around corners. I didn't need to worry about advanced physics. The only thing I needed to worry about was getting the perfect drift around each corner. It was surprisingly fun.

The big complaint I have with the gameplay is not the overall lack of accurate physics, but one aspect of it. If you hit the wall with the front corner of your car, you will skitter across it continually pointing into the wall. In real life and every other racing game, if the front corner of the car starts to grind along the railing, the rear end will follow and the whole care will slide along the rail. This bouncing into the railing is maddening because it's impossible to get out of without almost stopping the car entirely. Highly annoying.

As well, it would have been nice for the cars to take some sort of damage. It is impossible to flip a car. The most it ever goes is a few degrees off axis when taking a jump. As well, when smacking into another car, there is no feeling that I just smashed into another car. There is no damage to the cars even though they are all fictional. I realize this is an arcade racer, but allowing your car to flip over on a bad jump or crash would in no way detract from that.
Additionally, showing the damage that occurs from hitting a barrier at 150 mph would also add to the fun, without ruining the staple gameplay.

All told, there are 110+ races spread amongst roughly 10 maps. This is a very nice selection of maps and each race is configured so differently that
it feels like each race is different. The level design is fantastic. A good mix of hairpin turns, open road and a few fake-out turns keep the action alive and continually made me change my strategy. I never got tired of the maps.

•• Graphics ••
The graphics in Ridge Racer 6 are a mixed bag. While the cars look great, this is less a plus and more of a requirement. In today's day and age of advanced hardware, the cars need to look immaculate.
And thankfully they do. While some are kind of different, they never take full advantage of the fictional cars and make them truly outrageous. This is fine and a creative choice. Just an observation.

The environments range from really good to decent. The downtown night missions are ablaze with neon and creativity. But then there are some sparse environments with one-dimensional buildings and only a few scenery objects. The graphics are not on par with Project Gotham Racing 3 and probably nothing that couldn't be on the original xbox.

•• Sound ••
For the first time ever in a racing game, I actually liked the music! It ranges from house to techno to rock to pop to Latin., And all of it is funky and upbeat. Instead of having hard-driving guitar rock or music from garage bands that no one has ever heard from, the music is delightfully generic and peppy. I heard the same music over and over and it rarely got old. I actually found myself looking forward to certain songs.

Now that announcer. Sounding like a cross between Chris Rock and Gary Coleman, he is definitely enthusiastic. He has a comment for everything that happens on the road and the voice-actor does a good job. But the vocal prompts get repetitive after a while. They are useful for know what is going on behind you, but if I hear him talk about "crazy nitrous" one more time..... Luckily, he can be turned off in the options.

•• Multiplayer ••
The multiplayer of Ridge Racer 6 is outstanding. Sporting up to 16 players on Live, the action is fast and furious. I found myself playing against a number of Japanese players and they absolutely schooled me. Despite our distant proximity, there was no lag or performance issues.

Like in single player, there are different gameplay options. We can play with or without nitrous, different classes of cars, reverse nitrous, etc. This is the part of the game that is going to have drifting race fans playing into the night. And with dozens of maps available, the variation is great. Big thumbs up for the multiplayer.

•• Achievements ••
I wish the Achievements were as good. I played for hours and hours and only got 2 achievements. 90% of them are secret so you won't know what they are until you get them. The surprise is always nice, but they shouldn't all be secret. Achievements are meant to reward the player and should be given throughout thew game at various levels. I only found achievements for completing the game and unlocking all the cars of each class. I would have liked the achievements to be a little easier to earn.

•• Parents Should Know ••
This game is rated T for Teen and is safe for everyone. There is no foul language, no one dies and no cars ever crash. This game is safe for everyone, unless yo are concerned about your 8 year-old stealing the car and emulating the drifting he sees in the game.

•• Conclusion ••
It took me a while to warm up to it, but once I did, I couldn't get enough. Lack of physics or damage is offset by the precision drifting racing and super-fun arcade stylings.

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Recommended:
Yes