AnatolyKarpov69

Gorgeous graphics, great soundtrack, and with unbelievably tightclean racing controls, Ridge Racer 6 does nearly everything necessary to bring the series to the heights it needed to except having confidence in the series itself. The first mainline entry with drifting causing a boost to charge after RR PSP introduced the idea. I preferred the pure focus on the core driving in the earlier entries like type 4 and 5 but didn't mind letting a drift rip here and there in the more modern games until I got to the end of this one and understood that the rate at which the AI were getting their boosts refilled were almost certainly impossible. Dealing with it in the late game challenge races required optimizing not my ability to maneuver my car through the turns as quickly as possible but rather getting ideal drift charges (which feels arbitrary, inconsistent, and often divorced from any connection with what would have been the best way todo the corner sans drift charge). In addition to the unreliability of the charging mechanic, you need to know that drifts pulled right as/after a boost ends charge the boost at a ridiculous rate. The game became a test of learning where I could start boosts so that I'd end on turns, and figuring out where turns were that I could consistently hit for good charges. Ridge Racer is fun because its drift controls, first person view, and tight but simple racing gameplay creates a stylish and engaging racing game where the feeling of pulling the perfect line out of tight drift through a corner to squeak by your opponent cleanly was perfected to a level on the ps1 with RR Type 4 that is unmatched by any other franchise or developer. Idk if sales went down with RR 5, and they thought the average gamer wanted a boring passive boost charging mechanic to a game already about drifting because then they could hit a button and go faster every once in a while. Maybe they really thought this was the best way to evolve the series (I hope not), but the decision to balance the difficulty of late game challenges around at least somewhat optimized use of boost charging mechanics which is a mechanic I preferred to largely ignore except to activate my boost whenever it happened to come. The challenge races unlocked after reaching the end of the standard tree and some of the last few normal races suddenly made me have to move away from what I actually liked and focus on optimal boost charging while still racing competently. Nothing about optimally charging boost is even remotely enjoyable. Drifting is satisfying enough that doing it well enough is plenty a reward, and boost charge earned has very little to do directly with what's actually fun and nuanced about the drift mechanic (the actual control over movement during turns the mechanic allows, NOT the boost meter filling up super quick because I started my boost at a specific place on the map I've learned set me up well post boost to Ultimate Charge). I haven't played much of 7 but maybe it handles it better. Ridge Racer Vita kind of does once you unlock all the potential modifiers there's some methods of making boost way more interesting and improvisational, but RR vita has many many much larger issues. However, realizing that the developers had chosen to force proper boost charging to be the focus of what skill is tested rather than actually driving the courses as well as possible. Passing is now, more often than not, done in a single quick burst of speed since out boosting the AIs is how I was being forced to play it. Once I realized that they had spent the series last few entries potentially ever ingraining and iterating on a mechanic which has no business anywhere near the series, and that the design of the games (type 4 and 5) I had really fallen in love with were abandoned in favor of more homogenized car handling and the beautiful simplicity of RR drifting marred by the imaginary complexity of optimizing drift charge I became depressed and haven't touch 6 since. Instead of using the simple to learn but hard to fully master mechanic the series was built on to focus on shaving as much time off the corners and otherwise implausible precise maneuvering, RR 6 ends up being a game about holding your self back from boosting liberally and knowing if your speed is going to be enough to get a sizable charge off a drift. In becoming this it loses the appeal it had for me while adding boosting attracted approximately 12 new fans of Ridge Racer. All 12 have since tragically passed due to advanced lead poisoning from 11 unique cases. This game also puts the first nail in the coffin of the now long forgotten once titan of a series. I can't help but feel a focus on core gameplay wouldn't have lost much in sales from not having boost, and it would've been more likely to leave an impression if it was a well designed game. Tldr I really really really hate charging boost. One of the worst designed mechanics in any game. (not proof reading, apologies for typos)

Very odd entry in a series with an unusual dedication to maintaining and only ever tweaking the core gameplay. Developed as Western Nintendo dev team NST's first game, it is the only console RR game developed outside of Namco's internal teams (I believe), and it's this change in dev that, despite nailing the look and getting most of the feel right, makes it feel a bit awkward in a way that picking up the others don't as an experienced fan of the series. This can be alleviated in a hard to see settings option to change the drifting and/or collisions setting to be more like ps1 entries. I didn't hate the default drifting in RR 64, but I found the last few harder levels to be much more enjoyable in the ps1 drift setting. Drifting isn't quite as good in 64 as in type 4, but, on the ps1 setting, it's not far off. 64 also runs at 60fps while having 4 more cars per race than Type 4's 8 cars at 30 fps on ps1. The tracks in 64 are more plentiful than Type 4 but with way way less variety with you constantly repeating the same 3 track themes with increasing difficulty in AI and track design. I found winning each race to be mostly trivial until near the end where it got a bit tricky, but I never ran into any major difficulties until the final set of 3 levels which are BRUTAL. I never came anywhere near handling my car well enough with the high speed and tough courses of the last levels, but the AI's leniency for mistakes seemed to also sharply fall off in the final levels. I never beat them, and, while I don't consider the final challenge being brutal in difficulty wrong inherently, it doesn't work with RR 64's biggest flaw: its hopelessly botched collision handing. I mentioned earlier the collision settings can be flipped like the drift settings between ps1 and n64 style, and, unlike the drift setting, I noticed no change when flipping it. RR games discourage collisions without having a car damage mechanic by making side by side collisions achieve little but negatives for everyone involved and rear ending kills your speed while giving your opponent a small boost forward. RR 64 differs from this otherwise universal design aspect of the RR titles by adding random variance where a rear end will every 3rd or 4th time behave abnormally and basically teleports you in front of them while also reducing their speed. This sounds like a pleasant glitch to experience until you realize the AI can pull the same thing back on you. The difficulty of the final levels loses any fun factor when the extremely challenging opponents you'll have to spend the whole race slowly and precisely passing can very reasonably end an attempt in one or two collisions (even if the collision was an opponent lightly brushing the back of your car as you pass them). Up until the last set of 3 stages I did not find the collisions to be a hindrance and moreso a funny quirk when compared to the others in the RR series. Playing through most of RR 64 was a very enjoyable romp through an odd entry in the series. In addition to a slightly off game from normal, the track design has some oddities as well including the occasional super narrow sections. Idk if any of the changes were for the better, but it's not bad and it keeps unlocking new cars, tracks, and speeds at a breakneck pace until it's over while also running at 60 fps with 12 racers instead of 8 racers at 30 fps on ps1. I'd never recommend it over type 4 or especially 5, but I'd put it as the 3rd best option for anyone trying to play the pre drift to charge boost RRs. I'd probably give it a 5 nowadays, but I think I'd have been more forgiving at release with some of its issues and would've gone 7 or so. Regardless, it's classic ridge racer in a very pick up and play release with the best performance and most cars pre RR5 on ps2 outside of arcades. Worth checking as a fan of RR or if you're interested in the series and only have this one (through switch online n64 expansion pass maybe). (forgive any typos, I am not proof reading this)