Sony Computer Entertainment is at it again with their WipeOut franchise, taking the PlayStation Portable by storm with the newest installment, WipeOut Pulse. This title, similar to games past, is set in a far-off cyberpunk future and pits racing teams of hover crafts against one another on tracks woven into urban environments.
The game, as is par for the series, looks utterly gorgeous. The racing crafts zoom along at speeds in excess of 600 miles per hour, though despite the speed of the races and the intricacy of the rooftops and skyscrapers in the background, nary a detail is spared or slowed down. It’s a sci-fi racer’s wet dream to watch the high-speed contests, and though the graphics are a tad repetitive throughout the game, they never get old or boring.
There isn’t any character development to speak of, though there is a pretty nifty reward system for your machine of choice. Eight teams comprise the vehicular arsenal of Pulse, and the more you win with a specific team, the more loyalty points you earn. Earn enough loyalty points and benefits are conferred, ranging from new paint jobs to enhanced editions of your machine of choice. It takes a whole lot of racing to reach each new upgrade, but the satisfaction of each new reward will keep you going.
The sound of the future, apparently, is nothing but electronica and break-beat. Ed Rush, Kraftwerk and DJ Fresh populate this “thump-thump, thump-ba-bumb” soundtrack, and unless you’re a techno-phile, there’s no difference to discern between each tune. Standout tracks include remixes made specifically for Pulse, including Rennie Pilgrem and Blim’s “Slingshot (Wipeout Mix)” and Aphex Twin’s “Fenix Funk 5 (Wipeout Edit).”
Then there are the races themselves. They’re fast and nasty when other racers are involved, with a bevy of weapons ranging from rockets and plasma blasts to mines and electric bolts. Other pick-ups include shields and turbo boosts, and sliding over the pick-up pads for an item can mean the difference between winning by a millisecond or getting blasted from behind and losing the game. There are also turbo-boosting pads on each track, and hitting as many as possible is a surefire path to victory.
There are also time trials, which are incredibly unforgiving. You’d better be able to hit every turbo pad and cut every corner at speed if you want to win a gold medal for the trials and thus advance in the “Racing Grid,” which serves to track your progress through Pulse‘s ranks. Also included are “Zone Races,” in which you need not accelerate–the game does it for you, getting progressively faster from “Beginner’s pace” to “Whoaaa shit, I’m gonna fuckin’ dieee!” speed.
The multi-player mode, which uses both the PSP’s infrastructure and the ad hoc network system to connect with other PSPs, is a blast. It feels a bit underdeveloped though, given that the races against human players are just the same as racing the computer–in fact, the racing AI is probably as clever and quick as any human you’ll play.
There is also a play mode that allows players to create tracks using bits and pieces of the standard courses. It’s fun to tinker with the tracks, implementing a blend of practicality and downright craziness to create your own superb racing grounds.
This game is certainly worth purchasing if you are a fan of the series, and it’s a great starting place for gamers new to the series as well. It takes about 15 hours to unlock all the races, and the re-playability is really high, given the track editing mode and the multi-player feature, in addition to the fun of trying to unlock all the team-specific bonuses. So, if you’ve got a PSP and even a thimble of interest in going fast, you’ll want to pick up WipeOut Pulse.