Developer: Psygnosis
Released: April 1996
Price: £39.99
As a game wipEout is a good game, if somewhat ordinary. However the wipEout series is responsible for dragging gaming into the mainstream mass market that it now finds itself. So just how is this very ordinary racing game responsible for such a migration.
Originally debuting on the Sony PlayStation, before receiving a port onto the SEGA Saturn many months after release.
As one of the first games available for the system Sony very cleverly and with great foresight (some may say luck, but I don't think so!) marketed this game at the underground dance scene, and with some top DJs signed up to provide the soundtrack and system linked PlayStation's placed in the Chill Out rooms of many top clubs.
Realising that a great many opinion leaders of the time operated within the scene Sony hit upon instant success with the title, so much so that a year after the PlayStations launch 1 in every 2 owners also owned a copy of the title.
Some strategically released photographs of pop music stars, Premiership footballers and TV personalities, only further increased the aurora of coolness that surrounded the Sony machine, completely destroying the traditional stereotype of gamer, the pasty white, spotted geek stuck in his bedroom. Gaming, specifically PlayStation, was well and truly in the public eye!
wipEout was, inevitably given its success, given a sequel shortly afterwards. wipEout 2097 was a much improved update over the original, again featuring a fully licensed soundtrack from more top DJs including Chemical Brothers, Underworld and Prodigy. Also enrolled this time were Red Bull, another 'cool' brand, and The Designer Republic were tasked with creating the overall style of the product, designing all the team and pilot logos, all the stylistic elements of the game and all the game logo itself. This was TDRs first videogame, but they were not short of credentials though previously designing album covers for Supergrass and Pop Will Eat Itself and working with Sony and Swatch watches. The gamers loved the sequel and consequently sold millions.
The wipEout series is still going strong after more than a decade since it's original release on the PlayStation One. The series reached a pinnacle with wipEout Fusion for the PlayStation2 giving the most fun and graphical thrills.
Some of the newer version continue the tradition of the series of being good but not great however with all the style added it is still a must have game. The newest title to be released is wipEout Pure for the PlayStation Portable.
