As PlayStation turns 30 (again), Eurogamer’s Jim looks back at WipeOut 2097: the game that perfectly captured a moment at the height of youth optimism in 90s UK and gave the new PlayStation console a grown-up swagger that the other consoles from SEGA and Nintendo just couldn’t compete with. But why has the anti-gravity racing genre been a bit of a non-event ever since? Well, Jim thinks it peaked too early: WipeOut 2097 was so stratospherically good that the only way left to go was down.
WipeOut 2097 would be followed up by Wip3Out, WipeOut Fusion, WipeOut HD, and various handheld spin offs, but the magic just never quite came together in the same way. It also inspired dozens of tribute acts: the likes of Redout and Pacer, while not exactly direct copies of WipeOut, are clearly influenced by the king. These days, the best modern take on WipeOut 2097 happens to be a small, fan-led passion project in the form of BallisticNG: a highly moddable WipeOut-style antigrav racer that absolutely nails the brief, from ship movement and track design to its incredible era-appropriate soundtrack. It’s a special kind of retro gaming that doesn’t seek to preserve the content of an original classic game, but perfectly restore its vibe.
Why was WipeOut 2097 so special?
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