In March 2005, Sony's brand-new PSP turned into a vivid kaleidoscope with sharp, futuristic-looking vehicles and an occasional screen-shaking explosion. Studio Liverpool’s newest addition to the Wipeout series happened to be a PSP launch title by the name of Wipeout Pure, and in the years since its release, Wipeout Pure remains one of the best games on the handheld.

Wipeout Pure was my first experience with the series. I loved the futuristic arcade racing and the challenge of a game that moved at the speed of light. I was further impressed as months passed and more downloadable content was made available to dedicated fans of the game.

When I heard about Wipeout Pulse, the second Wipeout game on PSP, I was excited for that rush all over again. To say the least, I did not end up being disappointed with the final product. This is a solid and safe addition to the Wipeout series because it takes everything that worked from before and makes it better, faster, and smoother while remaining as entertaining as ever.

Get your pulses racing after the jump!

From the main menu it is obvious that Wipeout Pulse provides a satisfying quantity of game modes; seven in fact. These include traditional tournaments, time trials and single races. The slightly different approach to career mode is welcomed by me. Rather than constantly providing challenges that steadily rise in difficulty due to their speed class, a la Wipeout Pure, Pulse introduces a grid system. The sections on the grid represent different races and will be filled in with whatever medal is awarded for participating in and winning the highlighted race. As new parts of the grid are unlocked, new races can be entered. Once a certain number of points are earned by winning medals, the higher-level grids are unlocked and harder courses and challenges are presented. I personally refused to progress into harder grids until I earned gold medals on every race in the current one.

There are also new types of races, my favorite being zone mode. Zone races are particularly exciting because the vehicle actually accelerates on its own, passing through "zones" every ten seconds it stays intact. Since the speed is constantly rising, zone races are some of the fastest and twitchiest ones in the game. For long-time Wipeout fans, elimination mode makes its first appearance since Wipeout 3. This mode is not about racing, and I am sure it would take anyone either one or two guesses at most to predict its purpose. To say the least, staying alive becomes more of a priority than ever.

In case one enjoys racing online, one must keep in mind that Wipeout Pulse offers Wi-Fi Compatible Infrastructure and Ad-Hoc multiplayer matches. Up to eight people can race on the same track. If Wipeout Pure’s success is any indication, Wipeout is a popular choice globally—one can expect to find a lot of competition online. In all of my experience with PSP and Wi-Fi, Ad-Hoc was almost always more successful in connecting and running smoothly than Infrastructure. In a game requiring near-instant reflexes, there can be no lag. Pulse fortunately lacks that annoying issue and runs very smoothly, at least with a decent wireless connection. Obviously, overloaded free coffee shop connections probably will not be the best option for playing online.

As always, Wipeout offers a great selection of vehicles to use. You can select from a lot of “teams”, and each team features its own unique vehicles and styles. Each vehicle has different strengths and weaknesses: at first my favorite team was Assegai. Assegai’s speedy unit was quick to accelerate, had a high top speed, and great handling. It did not feature the best thrusters, so using the boosters laid out on the tracks was not as effective for me as my opponents. To combat this, I had to be sure that I caught most of the boosters on certain parts of the track. Any section loaded with turns was easier as long as I was able to control the shoulder buttons with a little bit of grace. In fact, handling was by far the most important factor in most of my racing experience. Being able to airbrake well with the shoulder triggers (or dash laterally by double-tapping) was a skill I considered essential to winning every race.

The 12 tracks are also pretty good. The level designs are simply fantastic, with some layouts providing a truly threatening and thrilling challenge. Some tracks feature 90-degree drops and full loops thanks to special magnetic strips. Avoiding death on each harrowing turn is one of the main joys of Wipeout, and the tight turns and heart-pounding sense of speed are only two of the challenges each race presents. The A.I. has been improved to the point that they sometimes seem to have an unfair and unseen (but still obvious) advantage. Although catch-up A.I. is not really a problem found in Wipeout Pulse, the frequency of opponents picking up the most useful power-ups is somewhat annoying. Rather than having to race an impressive line, taking turns well and utilizing power-ups and boosters effectively, sometimes success requires more. Sometimes Pulse asks the player to race an impressive line, taking turns well and utilizing power-ups and boosters effectively while also dodging incessant enemy attacks.

Naturally, you can return fire as well. Wipeout lets you use power-ups like homing rockets, spike mine strips, temporary auto-pilot, and even one that results in the destructive upheaval of the race track in front of you. Annoying the opposition with the same things they are throwing at you is definitely possible, and happens frequently due to the sheer speed of the game. You can also absorb power-ups with the Circle button to re-charge your energy shields and stay alive. Sometimes absorbing power-ups at the right time is the difference in surviving the track or becoming a nasty wall stain on one of its deadlier sections. It is not strategic in the way that you'll have to premeditate your power-up usage before each race, but it just adds a bit more to the thrill and necessity of a lightning-fast response.

Wipeout Pulse, in every visual and aural way, "pulses". The graphics are bright and neon with slick, flashy and futuristic renditions of…everything. In the process of trying to describe things individually, like the spacecraft and the backgrounds, I realized that every single one of those adjectives I listed could be applied to everything. People who walk up behind or near you and see Wipeout Pulse in action will say “Wow,” quite like they would if they saw Crysis running at its maximum settings on a great computer.

One of the series’ traditional focal points is its music, and Pulse does not disappoint in this category. It offers 16 different electronica tracks (Kraftwerk, Aphex Twin, etc.), all of which perfectly accompany the beautiful but deadly blur of speed. Playing this game on mute is a different experience—not only does the music make things more interesting, the sound effects also help to keep you alive against enemy power-ups. In other words, do yourself a favor for the sake of personal entertainment and keep the sound on.

Final Score: A-

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