Wipeout 1, a masterpiece of game design (Wipeout 1 (PS))

Member Name: bluetack

Product:	Wipeout 1 (PS)
Date:	15/08/00 (64 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: A real gamers game.

Disadvantages: it aint easy.

I bought Wipeout at 7 o’clock one cold September morning in 1995 with my brand new Playstation, the day it was released in fact. The anticipation had been building for several months and now I had it, I had a grey box and a copy of Wipeout.

The adrenaline rush you got from playing Wipeout back then was like being smacked in the face with a brick, a real shock to the system. The speed was (and still is) mind bending, the speed at which the textured polygon’s fly past could and often did induce a headache. Never had anything like this been seen before. Huge cliffs to fly off, mines to dodge, airbrakes to master, missiles to fire and speed up’s to hit. Its all a bit too much to start with, you will think you have no chance.

Many people moaned and complained about the difficulty level of the first Wipeout and I agree the game demands time, total concentration and practice beyond any game I had played before. But the satisfaction of being able to do perfect lap after perfect lap with out hitting a wall and stopping dead in your tracks was immense, as was shaving fractions of a second of your lap times.

The game included an awesome sound track including The Chemical brothers, Leftfield and Orbital. Bang the sounds up loud and blow your mind.

The Designers Republic designed the weapon icons and trackside billboards and these added a suitably futuristic feel to the game.

The game spawned 3 sequels in Wipeout 2097, Wip3out and Wip3out SE. But none of these captured the spirit of the first game, tweaks were added here and there but they all lost the demanding nature of the first game, sure the graphics improved and the sound tracks got better but something was lost forever.

If you have never played Wipeout and you think you have what it takes to play Psygnosis’s finest buy it.

The original game is only about 5 quid second hand and its worth every penny.

Summary: