Mario Kart was lovely, and F-Zero may have beaten Wipeout to doing the whole superfast futuristic racer thing, but Wipeout took things that step further with its gritty polygonal graphics, and soundtrack from big electronica artists like Leftfield and the Chemical Brothers. While in many cases polygonal graphics just don't look as good as they used to, the clinical, industrial look of the second entry in the series, Wipeout XL, still has a certain rustic charm today, combining with a wide range of dystopian tracks, power-ups and metallic vehicles to embody that ravey cool-kids appeal of the PS1. The original Wipeout may have started the futuristic-racer revolution, but it was second game in the series, Wipeout XL, that was the most impressive, with much-improved steering and proper split-screen multiplayer support. The game's pace genuinely made us grit our death and hold our controllers in a white-knuckled death grip, taking us to extremes that no other racing game up to that point had.
Gamer, Researcher of strange things.
I'm a writer-editor hybrid whose writings on video games, technology and movies can be found across the internet. I've even ventured into the realm of current affairs on occasion but, unable to face reality, have retreated into expatiating on things on screens instead.
