by Wipeout XL (released as Wipeout 2097 in Europe) is a blistering, anti-gravity racing masterpiece and the second installment in Psygnosis’s futuristic franchise. If you’ve never experienced a Wipeout title, you are seriously missing out. While almost every entry in the long-running series has its merits, there is something entirely magical about the original PlayStation trilogy.
Admittedly, Wipeout XL can make a brutal first impression. When I first booted it up, I wasn’t a fan; the sheer speed felt uncontrollable. But Wipeout is a game that demands respect. Once you commit to learning the tracks and finally stop careening into the walls, the gameplay clicks, and it becomes incredibly easy to fall in love with its rhythm.
Mastering the Anti-Gravity Physics
The game starts you off with a choice of four distinct racing teams (plus one unlockable ship later on). Each craft handles uniquely based on five core attributes: acceleration, top speed, turning radius, aerodynamics, and shield strength.
While the basic controls are straightforward (hold “X” to accelerate and steer), the game completely breaks away from traditional racing physics. Because you are piloting a floating, frictionless anti-gravity vessel, standard brakes are nonexistent. Instead, you have to master the airbrakes: you can press R2 to activate your right brakes and L2 to activate your left breaks
Learning to feather these airbrakes to drift smoothly through corners without losing momentum is one of the franchise’s core skill gaps.
High-Stakes Combat
As you tear through the game’s eight distinct circuits, survival is just as important as speed. Driving over glowing weapon grids awards you a random weapon, ranging from homing missiles and plasma bolts to earthquakes.
Every hit you absorb chips away at your ship’s shield. If your shield hits zero, your ship catastrophically explodes, resulting in an instant elimination. To survive a frantic race, you have to make a tactical choice: do you stay on the racing line, or do you sacrifice valuable time to pull into the glowing pit lane near the starting grid to regenerate your shields?
A Time Capsule of Cool: Y2K Style and Sound
Visually, the game is a stunning showcase of the late-90s “Y2K” futurism aesthetic. A perfect parallel to this look is the 1995 cult-classic film Hackers, which famously featured gameplay footage of a prototype version of the original Wipeout.
The immaculate art direction is perfectly matched by what is arguably one of the greatest licensed soundtracks in video game history. Psygnosis loaded the disc with legendary electronic, techno, and big-beat artists like Fluke, Underworld, The Chemical Brothers, and The Prodigy. Bombing down a neon-lit tunnel at 500 mph while The Prodigy’s “Firestarter” thumps in your speakers is a transcendent retro gaming experience.
Don’t Be Intimidated: Play This Game
If you are a seasoned racing veteran, you might breeze through the initial Vector and Venom speed classes. Conversely, if you’re completely new to anti-gravity physics, you will likely struggle during your first few laps.
Fortunately, the game balances this perfectly. The difficulty slopes upward seamlessly across progressively faster speed classes, giving players of all skill levels the room to build their reflexes before throwing them into the absolute chaos of Rapier mode.
Ultimately, Wipeout XL isn’t just a great racer—it’s a cultural landmark for the PlayStation 1. If you are in the market for a high-speed, stylized adrenaline rush, dust off your old console, crank up the volume, and give Wipeout XL a fair chance.
