hen the original PlayStation debuted to universal acclaim in 1995, one of its crown jewels was a high-octane futuristic racer called Wipeout. Fully 3-D (at a time when such was rare), lavishly textured and rocketing along at a constant 30 frames per second, it let players speed floating race-ships through half a dozen geometrically tortuous tracks to an assortment of pulsing electronic grooves.
A full decade later, Wipeout Pure—one of 24 launch titles for Sony's new PlayStation Portable game system—is an update to the classic franchise in every way, while at the same time returning the series to its roots. The year is 2197 (the original was set in 2052), and the location is the Pacific island of Makana, where the FX300 league have crafted 16 serpentine tracks consisting of eight completely new circuits, four updated classics and four special "zone" mode runs. There are eight race craft available, rated in four areas of performance that range from extremely fast but difficult to control, to slow but highly agile. Littering the tracks are speed boosts and weapon pickups, and there are 10 offensive and defensive subsets, though the game now offers a choice between using the pickup and reabsorbing it to replenish ship shields. The ships can be maneuvered using either the PSP's analog stick or D-pad, and there's a new "side-shift" option that allows quick scoots left or right without loss of forward motion by quickly double-tapping the left or right shoulder button.
Game modes include single race, tournament, time trial, zone and free play, and progress is measured with medals awarded according to placement—achieving gold medal performance unlocks new class modes and the classic tracks and offers access to developer artwork. The new "zone" mode locks players into ever-accelerating race craft and runs until the ship's energy deteriorates from banging into track boundaries. Classes like "Vector" and "Venom" initially consist of slow- to medium-speed competitions but gradually open to more extreme-velocity races as new classes are unlocked. Multiplayer allows up to eight players to compete wirelessly using the PSP's integrated wireless capability, and Sony has promised new content will eventually be available for download directly from the Internet.
A racer that fits in your palm
The history of handheld gaming has always been about backpedaling a generation or two. For thermal and power reasons, portable gaming usually lags in graphics or audio several years behind current video-game technology. Thus it's difficult to convey the experience of holding a Sony PSP in your hands and playing a game that looks and sounds very similar to something you'd play—right now—on a PlayStation 2. Put bluntly, Wipeout Pure is absolutely gorgeous, decked out in glorious 16:9 widescreen format at a healthy 480 x 272 resolution, and boasting even better, more intricate graphics than its most recent PS2 predecessor, Wipeout Fusion.
All of the animated background objects and meticulously textured race tracks are here. Rain falls in vector-relative directions and beads realistically on the screen; snow falls, swirls and gusts, and light bleeds from the tailpipes of ships or slips effervescently through oscillating watery walls to produce undulating shadows. The sensation of speed is magnificent, and the coiling tracks are expertly designed, forcing players to combine strategy with speed to snag the elusive gold. The only visual downer is the game's lack of anti-aliasing, resulting in occasional raggedness along diagonal edges, but the brisk frame rate (it dips, but rarely) makes this a mere passing criticism.
Wipeout Pure's AI is adept without cheating, and frequently boasts its autonomy by assaulting other ships with "quake" beams or using "shields" at just the right moment to deflect incoming missiles. In the higher classes, beating the mercurial AI requires an intimate knowledge of the tracks, as any wall-bumping and resulting slowdown can be enough to lose the race. While it's fairly easy to rip through the first tournament or two, prepare to invest heavily in memorizing hairpin curves and sinuous stretches as the speed classes ratchet up. The only real issue in Wipeout Pure isn't the fault of the game at all, but rather the PSP's awkwardly placed joystick just below the D-pad: when used in conjunction with the right and left shoulder buttons, it can cause significant thumb discomfort for play sessions longer than 30 minutes.
A few years ago, the notion of toting around a mini-PS2 would have garnered disbelieving chuckles, and yet that's exactly what's suddenly been made available, and at a not unreasonable cost. Top that off with a racing game that would be A-caliber if it had been targeted at any of the current consoles, and you're talking an experience that—for the first time in a long while—is nothing short of revolutionary.
If you want to send jaws plummeting to the floor, pick up a PSP and Wipeout Pure immediately—Sony's new gizmo trumps Nintendo's handheld lineup in nearly every way.
—Matt
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