Wipeout Pulse

Wipeout: Pulse is the latest game in Studio Liverpool’s futuristic racing series to hit the PlayStation Portable. As with the previous iteration, Wipeout Pure, Pulse puts you behind the wheel of a number of hovercrafts and pits you against a range of other teams in races. Wipeout Pulse introduces EG-X to the team roster and a new weapon, the Mag-Strip, which locks hovercraft to the track.

The meat of the game is in the Campaign mode which features sixteen races over four grids. When you begin the only speed level available is Venom, while the others require unlocking. It works well to ease new players in. Meeting the requirements of the races will award you with the medals required to unlock more tracks and grids.

Once you get into the racing you soon realize - if you’ve played a Ridge Racer title - that air-break turns are to Wipeout what Drifting is to Ridge Racer; master them and you have half a chance of winning. The other half comes with catching as many power-ups as possible and gunning down your opponents with the weapon on hand.

Each craft packs its own shield and performance stats so choosing a craft best suited to the given track is essential. The speed class also has a big impact on how long your shields last, as they can run out just from rubbing on the walls - and that happens a lot in the faster modes such as Phantom, where you’re going over seven hundred kilometres an hour.

Pulse retains the classic Wipeout control scheme: the shoulder buttons for air-breaking, face buttons for accelerating, hand breaking, and absorbing power-ups, and the d-pad or analog stick for steering. It’s easy to get a handle on, yet difficult to master. For players who can’t get a handle on using two buttons for air-breaking, Studio Liverpool has included a single button air-break setup for more simplified controls. It works well for Ridge Racer fans as the controls can be altered to resemble the default Ridge Racer controls with weapons in place of Nitro boosts.

As an alternative to Campaign, Pulse features a Race Box mode that allows players to customize the race to their liking, from race type to difficulty, and pick one of three available tracks without unlocking any in the Campaign mode. It makes for a good practice mode for any skill level, even if you can’t unlock anything in it.

The usual race types are here: Tournament, Head-to-head, Time Trial, Speed Lap, Zone and Elimination are all available straight away in Race Box mode, while campaign mode has all but Time Trial and Single Race locked.

Wiepout: Pulse isn’t very open to newcomers, as a lot of the Campaign is locked and even on the lowest speed settings beginners will struggle with the unique handling on the hovercraft, let alone avoid hitting the track walls. However, veterans will jump in, take a ride, blow up the opponents and unlock pretty much everything in a couple of days and spend hours more just being addicted enough to neglect sleep and forget to eat.