Wipeout 64

About Wipeout 64

Wipeout 64 (1998) is Psygnosis's anti-gravity racer for the Nintendo 64, the only Wipeout released on a Nintendo console, adding analogue control, team weapons and four-player split screen.

Wipeout 64 in Depth

Set in 2098, a year after Wipeout 2097, it keeps the series' futuristic anti-gravity racing against human or AI rivals. Inspired by Formula One, but instead of downforce for grip, its craft use fictional air brakes for ever sharper turns. It introduced analogue control suited to the Nintendo 64 pad, along with new weapons, teams and tracks; most tracks are mirrored layouts of circuits from Wipeout and Wipeout 2097.

Alongside returning homing missiles, machine guns and electro-bolts, each team has its own unique weapon, and new options include firing three rockets at once and rear-locking missiles. An unlockable "Cyclone" power-up, exclusive to this game, strengthens weapons, and an elimination counter tracking opponents destroyed paved the way for Wipeout 3's Eliminator mode. Where earlier games linked two screens for multiplayer, it introduced four-player split screen, and a new Challenge Mode sets goals in fixed classes and tracks: the fastest time trial, the highest race finish or the most eliminations in a weapons-based deathmatch.

Making Wipeout 64

Psygnosis developed it and Midway Games published it for the Nintendo 64 in 1998. It received generally positive reviews, critics praising its individuality within the series, graphics, larger choice of tracks and craft, atmosphere and "superior track design", with "everything a futuristic racer needs". At the time Psygnosis was owned by Sony Computer Entertainment, and every later Wipeout game appeared only on Sony hardware, leaving Wipeout 64 the series' sole Nintendo release.