WipEout Fusion
The game the defined the original PlayStation gaming experience is back, and boy is it good.
Published: July 4, 2002
It was the game that all but defined the attitude, style and essence of the original PlayStation. In the UK, it was the game of choice when SCEE wisely placed PlayStation kiosks in some of the hippest clubs. It was a redefinition of speed in gaming and it was a showcase for the start of the close knit relationship that licensed music and games could share. More than that, though, the original WipEout helped fuse two genres that are nearly ubiquitous in gaming today: racing and techno music.
Here in the US, it helped introduce an underground music movement to the gaming masses, uniting a crowd that typically would not be out listening to electronica in clubs with some of the biggest names and hottest up-and-comers on the scene. Artists like The Chemical Brothers, Prodigy and Orbital got heavy exposure, and the PlayStation got its image: hip, cool – even for the mainstream – and undeniably here. The sequel only pushed this farther, joining a greater sense of speed and more tweaked, perfected gameplay with perhaps the best electronica soundtrack ever heard in games. The aforementioned three artists made returns and met with big names like The Future Sound of London, Daft Punk and Underworld. The mix still stands as one of the best ever released, games or otherwise.
The point that I'm trying to make here is that as much as the WipEout series has flexed graphical and aural muscles, it's essentially led up to the PS2 effort. WipEout Fusion is most accessible, fastest, most potent version of the series. It's arguably the best of the four games that make up the series, but nobody can deny that's easily the prettiest. So many things about the formula that made WipEout successful have been tweaked, improved, even perfected in some ways. In just about every possible respect, WipEout Fusion is the pinnacle of the series. If you've never played any of the games, this is a perfect way to get introduced, and if the shift to uber-accessibility that Wip3out took to hook the mainstream scared you off from the more challenging days of WipEout and its XL brother, welcome back.
If for some reason you've never heard of the series or don't yet know what it's about, there's the short and sweet run-down. WipEout is a racing game, and as such it is your job to get to the finish before all the other racers. Simple enough, except that you race with hovercraft of varying degrees of handling, acceleration, speed and weapons and shield strengths. Scattered about the tracks are grid which you fly over to pick up a power-up of some sort, usually a weapon, but at times you're gifted with a shield for a brief tangle with invincibility. That's essentially it, though so much of that recipe, from the controls to the power-ups to the ways you unlock the extras in the game have been expertly tweaked to make for a combination of a game that's almost instantly playable, but has an astonishing amount of longevity.
WipEout Fusion's core game lies in the AG (that's anti-gravity) League mode, where you'll work your way up in varying leagues, winning cash to upgrade each ship's top speed, thrust (acceleration), brake force, lateral stability (cornering), weapon power and shield power. At first, you're only able to pick from three anti-grav manufacturers: Feisar, with its superior handling but lackluster acceleration; Van-Uber, with great acceleration and weapons, but poor shielding; and G-Tech, which allows for a well-rounded, but ultimately slow ship. When you pick a team initially, you can only select the second pilot, but once you bulk them up with a better ship and spend some time getting used to the manufacturer's ship mechanics, you'll unlock the lead pilot, who's ship is usually lighter and can be upgraded beyond what the second pilot's ship can handle. As you finish each league, you'll not only open up the next successive league, but you'll unlock the opportunity to race one-on-one with a pilot from an unlockable anti-grav manufacturer. Beat them and you can race as them in the AG League. You'll continue this until you unlock the king of all anti-grav racers, Piranha Advancements' ships, and you haven't seen speed until you've upgraded one of those puppies to max stats.
If the AG League is the key to unlocking new teams and craft, the challenge mode is where you can open up new weapons. As you complete leagues in the career mode, you unlock team challenges for each team's craft that you can attempt in Challenge mode. As the name implies, in Challenge mode, you take a baseline version of your team's ship, and attempt to complete a handful of different objectives for a race. It might be simply placing first, or it might mean completing a lap within a time limit, or it might mean you have to destroy as many opponents as possible. By completing these challenges, you unlock weapons that you can use in all the other game modes. Get gold medals in all the challenges for a team, and you can take a stab at a gold challenge to unlock a super-weapon. It's good stuff, and since you can only unlock challenges by racing a career in AG League with each team, you'll have plenty to keep playing with if you want all the weapons and super-weapons unlocked.
Then there's the Zone mode, which is unlocked after (you guessed it) completing the AG League. Zone challenges you to take a ship around a track starting slowly, then ramping up the speed with each successive "zone" you pass through in a level. By the time you get into the 20's, the speed is absolutely insane, and it's a constant fight to keep off the walls. What's more, you get no chance to refill shields, so once they're gone, so are you. Along with Zone mode, you do get one final treat in AG League once you've gone through: the appropriately-named custom league, where you literally create your own league with any of the now available tracks. Since each of the game's seven courses are revealed bits at a time in three different track configurations and their reverses, you have ample opportunity to get to know which part of a course you like.
This is really the key to WipEout Fusion's fun factor. The game is open enough at the beginning, but there's literally dozens out hours of unlockable extras that keep the game absolutely enthralling. There's already an evil "just one more game" feel to it, but since things are pulled away in layers, you're constantly being spoon fed little bits more. By the time you've completed the AG League with a given team, there's actually MORE stuff to unlock and play through than when you first started. It's absolute genius and when coupled with a difficulty that slips right in the middle of XL's perfectionist pace and Wip3out's super-casual take on challenge, you come away with a game that's perfectly in line with what the casual gamer can slip into, but is still difficult enough at the end that there'll be some challenge for the more experienced WipEout player.
And then there's the graphics; sweet, sexy, nummy visuals that tickle your peepers relentlessly with gorgeous framerates, absolutely mind-blowing speeds and plenty of very subtle effects. WipEout Fusion manages to oust the previous king of PS2 speed, XG III, but only barely. I could go on for another 1000 words on WOF's attention to detail, the detailed and varied texture work that seems vastly different for each of the courses yet still very familiar, the way the levels are replete with gobs of colored light, thrown into the tiniest of nooks and splayed across the various surfaces you'll fly across in the blink of an eye. Or perhaps the way the vehicles change and deform, not just when you upgrade them (sometimes with little resemblance to their original forms), but when you subject them to a nice beating against other vehicles and walls. The noses curl apart, splitting open and exposing slowly swirling groups of particle energy.
This is all filler, all eye candy, however, for the main course: WipEout Fusion's course design. I neglected to mention it along with the rest of the gameplay because it's as much an aesthetic component as it is a gameplay feature, if not more so. More than any WipEout before it, Fusion, lives up to the name, mixing the traditional hovercraft racing venues first established by the original, and mixes them with, for lack of a better description, off-road elements. It makes sense, of course, since these ARE hovercraft, why shouldn't their speed be able to take them over water or ice or dirt? Fusion plays off this, dumping you out into the middle of ice caverns or dirt tracks or over waterfalls in a delicious break from the usual flatland racing that's been the series' norm. There's also been more of an effort put forth to change elevation as much as direction; tracks now curl into massive loops (complete with see-through bottoms so you can see the world below you as you fly upside-down), or shoot straight up into low clouds only to drop off and allow your racer a glimpse of flight.
Throughout all of this, a rock-solid sense of style pervades the game, thanks to a slight diversion in graphic design at the hands of series newcomers Good Technology, who pick up where The Designers Republic left off. I have to admit that I'll miss DR's gorgeous style, but at the same time, it is nice to see a slightly different take on the artistic designs of the future, and in most cases Good Technology delivers (though, perhaps none more perfectly than on the official web site). The only real gripes I have about the entire presentation are the occasional slowdown and drops in framerate when there's too much on screen and the core interface, which seems a little sloppier than the rest of the game. Things like hearing samples when you pick your own music playlist (more on that in a second) or actually being able to see the course layouts and flybys when building your own league in the custom league would have been a monumental help.
But about that audio. I suppose nostalgia plays a big part in my comparison, but it's still very much a toss-up for me as to which game has the better soundtrack; WipEout XL or Fusion. Both sport an amazing assortment of killer tracks, thought Fusion seems to have a more Plump DJs-heavy slant (something that I not only don't mind, but that I love since I've just recently gotten into their stuff), but both feature plenty of big names and even share a few artists. Orbital returns (albeit remixed by the Plump DJs) with the fantastic Funny Breaks, bt's Plump DJs remix of Smartbomb (already heard twice in both SSX soundtracks), Timo Mass, The Future Sound of London, Utah Saints… The list is extensive, and once again meshes so perfectly with the on-screen action that it seems impossible to imagine the game without it. What's more, you have the option to ditch the default playlist (since the game only supports playing 12 of the 20 available tracks at any one time) and build your own, in your own order. While the interface for doing so is rather cumbersome and lacks any sort of preview for tracks you don't quite know yet, it's a nice addition – especially for axing that one track you hate that you seem to hear more than any other.
When you aren't bobbing your head to the music, there's still plenty to tease your eardrums. All of the classic effects, from the missile lock-on to the klaxon as your ship explodes are here. The clang of your ship slamming into an opponent or wall has a satisfying crunch, missiles scream off in a whoosh of aural smoke, and the explosions have the familiar muffled pop to them. In fact, my big complaint with the effects portion was that the always cute accented female computer voice and the more gruff generalized comments from the announcer that they were often almost completely buried under the music. You do have the option to turn up the effects, but this boosts the explosions and slams on top of the voices, so you really never get a chance to hear them. I suppose this is for the better; I'd rather want to hear the voices than wish they'd just shut up.
I really can't recommend WipEout Fusion enough. It's the perfect introduction to the series, and although it took its sweet time making its way to the US (kudos to BAM! for being smart enough to see a good thing and jump on it) and as a result sports some of the familiar flicker from some earlier PS2 efforts, I can't think of any reason why most gamers wouldn't absolutely love it. Best of all, once you've plopped down the 50 well-deserved smackers to own the game, you'll be treated to weeks worth of gaming goodness. There's no other way to say this: buy WipEout Fusion and do it as soon as possible; you won't regret it.
Here in the US, it helped introduce an underground music movement to the gaming masses, uniting a crowd that typically would not be out listening to electronica in clubs with some of the biggest names and hottest up-and-comers on the scene. Artists like The Chemical Brothers, Prodigy and Orbital got heavy exposure, and the PlayStation got its image: hip, cool – even for the mainstream – and undeniably here. The sequel only pushed this farther, joining a greater sense of speed and more tweaked, perfected gameplay with perhaps the best electronica soundtrack ever heard in games. The aforementioned three artists made returns and met with big names like The Future Sound of London, Daft Punk and Underworld. The mix still stands as one of the best ever released, games or otherwise.
The point that I'm trying to make here is that as much as the WipEout series has flexed graphical and aural muscles, it's essentially led up to the PS2 effort. WipEout Fusion is most accessible, fastest, most potent version of the series. It's arguably the best of the four games that make up the series, but nobody can deny that's easily the prettiest. So many things about the formula that made WipEout successful have been tweaked, improved, even perfected in some ways. In just about every possible respect, WipEout Fusion is the pinnacle of the series. If you've never played any of the games, this is a perfect way to get introduced, and if the shift to uber-accessibility that Wip3out took to hook the mainstream scared you off from the more challenging days of WipEout and its XL brother, welcome back.
If for some reason you've never heard of the series or don't yet know what it's about, there's the short and sweet run-down. WipEout is a racing game, and as such it is your job to get to the finish before all the other racers. Simple enough, except that you race with hovercraft of varying degrees of handling, acceleration, speed and weapons and shield strengths. Scattered about the tracks are grid which you fly over to pick up a power-up of some sort, usually a weapon, but at times you're gifted with a shield for a brief tangle with invincibility. That's essentially it, though so much of that recipe, from the controls to the power-ups to the ways you unlock the extras in the game have been expertly tweaked to make for a combination of a game that's almost instantly playable, but has an astonishing amount of longevity.
WipEout Fusion's core game lies in the AG (that's anti-gravity) League mode, where you'll work your way up in varying leagues, winning cash to upgrade each ship's top speed, thrust (acceleration), brake force, lateral stability (cornering), weapon power and shield power. At first, you're only able to pick from three anti-grav manufacturers: Feisar, with its superior handling but lackluster acceleration; Van-Uber, with great acceleration and weapons, but poor shielding; and G-Tech, which allows for a well-rounded, but ultimately slow ship. When you pick a team initially, you can only select the second pilot, but once you bulk them up with a better ship and spend some time getting used to the manufacturer's ship mechanics, you'll unlock the lead pilot, who's ship is usually lighter and can be upgraded beyond what the second pilot's ship can handle. As you finish each league, you'll not only open up the next successive league, but you'll unlock the opportunity to race one-on-one with a pilot from an unlockable anti-grav manufacturer. Beat them and you can race as them in the AG League. You'll continue this until you unlock the king of all anti-grav racers, Piranha Advancements' ships, and you haven't seen speed until you've upgraded one of those puppies to max stats.
If the AG League is the key to unlocking new teams and craft, the challenge mode is where you can open up new weapons. As you complete leagues in the career mode, you unlock team challenges for each team's craft that you can attempt in Challenge mode. As the name implies, in Challenge mode, you take a baseline version of your team's ship, and attempt to complete a handful of different objectives for a race. It might be simply placing first, or it might mean completing a lap within a time limit, or it might mean you have to destroy as many opponents as possible. By completing these challenges, you unlock weapons that you can use in all the other game modes. Get gold medals in all the challenges for a team, and you can take a stab at a gold challenge to unlock a super-weapon. It's good stuff, and since you can only unlock challenges by racing a career in AG League with each team, you'll have plenty to keep playing with if you want all the weapons and super-weapons unlocked.
Then there's the Zone mode, which is unlocked after (you guessed it) completing the AG League. Zone challenges you to take a ship around a track starting slowly, then ramping up the speed with each successive "zone" you pass through in a level. By the time you get into the 20's, the speed is absolutely insane, and it's a constant fight to keep off the walls. What's more, you get no chance to refill shields, so once they're gone, so are you. Along with Zone mode, you do get one final treat in AG League once you've gone through: the appropriately-named custom league, where you literally create your own league with any of the now available tracks. Since each of the game's seven courses are revealed bits at a time in three different track configurations and their reverses, you have ample opportunity to get to know which part of a course you like.
This is really the key to WipEout Fusion's fun factor. The game is open enough at the beginning, but there's literally dozens out hours of unlockable extras that keep the game absolutely enthralling. There's already an evil "just one more game" feel to it, but since things are pulled away in layers, you're constantly being spoon fed little bits more. By the time you've completed the AG League with a given team, there's actually MORE stuff to unlock and play through than when you first started. It's absolute genius and when coupled with a difficulty that slips right in the middle of XL's perfectionist pace and Wip3out's super-casual take on challenge, you come away with a game that's perfectly in line with what the casual gamer can slip into, but is still difficult enough at the end that there'll be some challenge for the more experienced WipEout player.
And then there's the graphics; sweet, sexy, nummy visuals that tickle your peepers relentlessly with gorgeous framerates, absolutely mind-blowing speeds and plenty of very subtle effects. WipEout Fusion manages to oust the previous king of PS2 speed, XG III, but only barely. I could go on for another 1000 words on WOF's attention to detail, the detailed and varied texture work that seems vastly different for each of the courses yet still very familiar, the way the levels are replete with gobs of colored light, thrown into the tiniest of nooks and splayed across the various surfaces you'll fly across in the blink of an eye. Or perhaps the way the vehicles change and deform, not just when you upgrade them (sometimes with little resemblance to their original forms), but when you subject them to a nice beating against other vehicles and walls. The noses curl apart, splitting open and exposing slowly swirling groups of particle energy.
This is all filler, all eye candy, however, for the main course: WipEout Fusion's course design. I neglected to mention it along with the rest of the gameplay because it's as much an aesthetic component as it is a gameplay feature, if not more so. More than any WipEout before it, Fusion, lives up to the name, mixing the traditional hovercraft racing venues first established by the original, and mixes them with, for lack of a better description, off-road elements. It makes sense, of course, since these ARE hovercraft, why shouldn't their speed be able to take them over water or ice or dirt? Fusion plays off this, dumping you out into the middle of ice caverns or dirt tracks or over waterfalls in a delicious break from the usual flatland racing that's been the series' norm. There's also been more of an effort put forth to change elevation as much as direction; tracks now curl into massive loops (complete with see-through bottoms so you can see the world below you as you fly upside-down), or shoot straight up into low clouds only to drop off and allow your racer a glimpse of flight.
Throughout all of this, a rock-solid sense of style pervades the game, thanks to a slight diversion in graphic design at the hands of series newcomers Good Technology, who pick up where The Designers Republic left off. I have to admit that I'll miss DR's gorgeous style, but at the same time, it is nice to see a slightly different take on the artistic designs of the future, and in most cases Good Technology delivers (though, perhaps none more perfectly than on the official web site). The only real gripes I have about the entire presentation are the occasional slowdown and drops in framerate when there's too much on screen and the core interface, which seems a little sloppier than the rest of the game. Things like hearing samples when you pick your own music playlist (more on that in a second) or actually being able to see the course layouts and flybys when building your own league in the custom league would have been a monumental help.
But about that audio. I suppose nostalgia plays a big part in my comparison, but it's still very much a toss-up for me as to which game has the better soundtrack; WipEout XL or Fusion. Both sport an amazing assortment of killer tracks, thought Fusion seems to have a more Plump DJs-heavy slant (something that I not only don't mind, but that I love since I've just recently gotten into their stuff), but both feature plenty of big names and even share a few artists. Orbital returns (albeit remixed by the Plump DJs) with the fantastic Funny Breaks, bt's Plump DJs remix of Smartbomb (already heard twice in both SSX soundtracks), Timo Mass, The Future Sound of London, Utah Saints… The list is extensive, and once again meshes so perfectly with the on-screen action that it seems impossible to imagine the game without it. What's more, you have the option to ditch the default playlist (since the game only supports playing 12 of the 20 available tracks at any one time) and build your own, in your own order. While the interface for doing so is rather cumbersome and lacks any sort of preview for tracks you don't quite know yet, it's a nice addition – especially for axing that one track you hate that you seem to hear more than any other.
When you aren't bobbing your head to the music, there's still plenty to tease your eardrums. All of the classic effects, from the missile lock-on to the klaxon as your ship explodes are here. The clang of your ship slamming into an opponent or wall has a satisfying crunch, missiles scream off in a whoosh of aural smoke, and the explosions have the familiar muffled pop to them. In fact, my big complaint with the effects portion was that the always cute accented female computer voice and the more gruff generalized comments from the announcer that they were often almost completely buried under the music. You do have the option to turn up the effects, but this boosts the explosions and slams on top of the voices, so you really never get a chance to hear them. I suppose this is for the better; I'd rather want to hear the voices than wish they'd just shut up.
I really can't recommend WipEout Fusion enough. It's the perfect introduction to the series, and although it took its sweet time making its way to the US (kudos to BAM! for being smart enough to see a good thing and jump on it) and as a result sports some of the familiar flicker from some earlier PS2 efforts, I can't think of any reason why most gamers wouldn't absolutely love it. Best of all, once you've plopped down the 50 well-deserved smackers to own the game, you'll be treated to weeks worth of gaming goodness. There's no other way to say this: buy WipEout Fusion and do it as soon as possible; you won't regret it.