It's been a while since the wipEout series has hit the big screen in a notable way. Both wipEout Pure and wipEout Pulse were released as PSP exclusives, and the PS2 outing, wipEout Fusion, was less than stellar. For its PlayStation 3 debut, the series is returning to the well by pulling tracks and music from the two PSP titles rather than bringing us all new content. We had a chance to spend an evening with the game earlier this week in order to see how well everything scaled up from the small screen to the full 1080p of our HD display.
The first thing you notice about wipEout HD is the rather Spartan menu system. Reminiscent of wipEout 3's menu, everything is cleanly drawn with geometric shapes and liberal amounts of white and grey. Ships and track trophies are the only items of note in full color. Also noticeable is the lovely EULA, which you must agree to before play. We're not quite sure why PSN games need EULAs while Xbox Live Arcade games don't. Someone at Sony must be in love with the legalese.
Here are seven retired racing game franchises that are overdue to make a comeback.
Still playing BLUR during lan sessions and having a blast, wouldn't mind ever getting a BLUR 2.
A new release on the Xbox Series X|S consoles this week has been yanked from sale, after it appeared to infringe on Sony’s software.
The shameless Anti-Gravity Racing WipEout appeared to include slightly edited emulated versions of the original WipEout and its successor WipEout 3: Special Edition, with minor texture changes and button prompt alterations.
But after being exposed in a Digital Foundry video – where it’s also revealed that developer LLS Games pinched a CGI reimagining of the original game’s intro from YouTube – it’s no longer available for sale.
The WipEout series was, at one point, considered to be a dazzling showcase for new Sony hardware. The original game accompanied the PS1's release in the West and arguably did a lot of sell the console to sceptical punters, while WipEout Pure and WipEout 2048 were jaw-dropping launch titles for the PSP and PS Vita, respectively.
PS4 sadly didn't get a WipEout at launch, although it did get the excellent Omega Collection in 2017, a pack which pulled together content from WipEout HD and the aforementioned PS Vita entry and holds the distinction of being the only instalment to top the UK sales charts. Had things turned out a little differently, we could have been playing one of the most dramatic reimaginings of the series yet seen on PS4; an entry which would have retained the anti-gravity mechanics but evolved the on-track action into something closer to a traditional racing game.
