Wipeout 2097

1996 · Racing · PlayStation

About Wipeout 2097

Wipeout 2097 (1996), Wipeout XL in North America and Japan, is Psygnosis's anti-gravity racing sequel with destructible craft, gentler wall collisions and a soundtrack from The Prodigy, The Chemical Brothers and Underworld.

Wipeout 2097 in Depth

Set more than four decades after the first game, it introduces the faster and more dangerous F5000 anti-gravity league. Players race hover craft that handle unlike cars, using air brakes to corner at high speed. Each craft now has a shield energy quota, and when weapons and impacts drain it to zero the craft is destroyed, though a pit stop can recharge it at the cost of a few seconds. New weapons include the Quake Disruptor, which sends a wave along the track that throws rivals into the air.

The classes Vector, Venom and Rapier rise in speed and track complexity. Gold medals on every track in the first three unlock a full season, which in turn reveals hidden options and new tracks, and Challenge mode advances only by winning, and finishing worse than third costs one of three lives. Four teams fly differently: FEISAR's balanced, well-shielded craft suits beginners; AG Systems is quicker than FEISAR but corners worse; Auricom is faster than both; and Qirex the fastest with the poorest steering. The PlayStation version supported analogue control through the NeGcon, while the Saturn port used Sega's 3D Control Pad.

Making Wipeout 2097

Psygnosis in Liverpool developed the game in seven months, with promotional art by Sheffield's The Designers Republic. Producer Andy Satterthwaite had asked to make a sequel and was given a tracks add-on instead, with a team of three coders, six artists and Nick Burcombe; work on the tracks began in January 1996, and he realised he could do more. Lead artist Nicky Westcott built on the original craft designs, and the team made the learning curve easier while keeping the top end hard. The biggest change was letting ships scrape along walls instead of stopping dead, which took longer than expected; months went into balancing the AI so that every ship could win. Westcott called it "a period of great energy and immense exhaustion at the same time".

Shown at E3 in May 1996, it sold around a million copies, and Saturn and Windows ports followed in 1997. GamePro gave it perfect scores, IGN said "It's games like this that make you proud to be a PlayStation owner", and EGM named it 1996's best music. It averaged 94.75% on GameRankings, third among PlayStation games there.

Wipeout 2097 Trivia

It began as a tracks add-on for the first Wipeout, and the name 2097 was chosen so it would not seem a full sequel.
The North American title was going to be Wipeout XS, until someone pointed out that XS could mean "extra small".
Ghost vehicles appeared only in the European version because Atari held a US patent on them from Hard Drivin'.
Fluke wrote "Atom Bomb" for the game, with a music video set in the Wipeout universe.
The game disc also worked as an audio CD of the soundtrack.