simultaneously hypnotic and exhilarating. tries to convince you to become addicted to sugary energy drinks (the kind that is krating daeng mixed with bubbly water). unlike its sole contemporary at the time, it's less about going up to an absurd speed on a flat plane and more about finesse and the maintenance of your momentum while weaving your way through tight, undulating courses. floaty (duh), yet precise no matter your input device.
less than a year after a solid, but frustrating and flawed first outing, psygnosis clapped back with 8 circuits, pit/health strategy, one new team, and the most important addition, scraping - slightly forgiving collisions that don't bring you to a halt every single time you touch a wall. track memorization and ship acclimation are paramount to success at all speed classes. thankfully you're provided with the resources to put the necessary practice in, and every "event" is just a single race. i'm still enamored with the physics in the PSX wipeout games, from the seamless accumulation of boost as you glide over pads, to the perceived weightlessness until you have to throw up one (rarely ever two) of the air brakes. i could lap any given circuit here for hours on end (and probably have done so for like 5 of them), and still enjoy each and every corner as i just wooosh through them.
wipeout in general is an acquired taste, and the way it functions can come off as a bit idiosyncratic to those accustomed to kart racers, expecting something like "the britbong Jumping Man Kart of Formula Zeroes" from it. some might even jump to a hardline assumption that it isn't a racing game at all because it has combat. placing first and flying clean should be the priority of any player in wipeout Extra Large (because 2097 is a Large number). i tend to remember more about the tracks in the second wipeout compared to the third, but both are truly unparalleled as anti-gravity racing games (a tribute act notwithstanding). just about every other anti-gravity racing game just feels like a vehicle that's stuck to the ground, dependent on your imagination to believe what you're feeling is suspended in air. wipeout, (sans fusion and ESPECIALLY the psx trilogy) in comparison, actually feels like you're piloting a craft through the air.
it's floaty, because it should float.
less than a year after a solid, but frustrating and flawed first outing, psygnosis clapped back with 8 circuits, pit/health strategy, one new team, and the most important addition, scraping - slightly forgiving collisions that don't bring you to a halt every single time you touch a wall. track memorization and ship acclimation are paramount to success at all speed classes. thankfully you're provided with the resources to put the necessary practice in, and every "event" is just a single race. i'm still enamored with the physics in the PSX wipeout games, from the seamless accumulation of boost as you glide over pads, to the perceived weightlessness until you have to throw up one (rarely ever two) of the air brakes. i could lap any given circuit here for hours on end (and probably have done so for like 5 of them), and still enjoy each and every corner as i just wooosh through them.
wipeout in general is an acquired taste, and the way it functions can come off as a bit idiosyncratic to those accustomed to kart racers, expecting something like "the britbong Jumping Man Kart of Formula Zeroes" from it. some might even jump to a hardline assumption that it isn't a racing game at all because it has combat. placing first and flying clean should be the priority of any player in wipeout Extra Large (because 2097 is a Large number). i tend to remember more about the tracks in the second wipeout compared to the third, but both are truly unparalleled as anti-gravity racing games (a tribute act notwithstanding). just about every other anti-gravity racing game just feels like a vehicle that's stuck to the ground, dependent on your imagination to believe what you're feeling is suspended in air. wipeout, (sans fusion and ESPECIALLY the psx trilogy) in comparison, actually feels like you're piloting a craft through the air.
it's floaty, because it should float.