It's Time For Another WipEout Game
WipEout is one of the most iconic racing games ever made. One of the few launch titles on the original PlayStation, the hard as nails rave racer from Studio Liverpool was distinctly a product of the time and place it was developed. Every game takes references from developers’ lives and experiences to some extent, but WipEout was forged in raves at Liverpool’s infamous nightclub Cream and some of its finest ideas came to fruition during a pint session in a pub just across the water.
People argue that this is precisely the reason why the WipEout series didn’t survive and developer Studio Liverpool (formerly Psygnosis) was closed down. Even some of the game’s own developers think this. Neil Thompson, lead artist at the studio, said the same to Eurogamer in its exhaustive investigation of the studio’s closure.
Related: Source Code For The Original Wipeout Released
"What I would have liked to have seen - and I don't know whether the business would have supported it - was WipEout to evolve in its look and its music and its fashion, because it was still harking back to [iconic ‘90s counterculture design label] The Designers Republic thing,” he says. “That's the past. That was my youth, not the youth of today. What are they into? You want to write that game with the twenty-somethings who are writing games now, and say, 'Right, you take it.' Call it WipEout. That's the dynamic. But what's the aesthetic? What's the soundtrack? What's the look? What's the design ethic?”
It’s good reasoning. After the original game in 1995 and WipEout 2097 the year after, future instalments failed to capture the same ‘90s club culture vibe. They still had the same fast-paced, ruthless gameplay, but the tone felt off. The excitement of WipEout had
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