The speed alloy
The Wipeout Omega Collection covers the last decade of the saga, when the brand of Psygnosis, which had indefinitely marked the onset of the first Playstation, had already lost a bit of that creative impetus that had decreed its worldwide success, ” backing “from the home consoles to the small, but no less ambitious, PlaystationPortable screen.
Pure and Pulse, two years later between 2005 and 2007, were unkindly considered minor chapters, either for the lower technical skills of the small Sony homeowner, or because of the lack of a regular episode that could spark public enthusiasm of the newborn PS3, where both of them would then come in, with the name of Wipeout HD .
It was then the turn of Fury, an add-on that focused on battles and on the less pure side of production, favoring a different approach, not only of supersonic speeds and narrow curves but also of last-power battles and furious clashes between hulls.
The quality of the Playstation 3 package was never questioned either by critics or by the public, but the spark that had sparked the masses a decade ago seemed to be lost, as if the sad destiny of Psygnosis (which was previously Studio Liverpool and then forced to close the doors) was a metaphor of that of his most famous franchise.
Yet the shot was around the corner: as many (including the writers) said, Wipeout 2048 , the exclusive launch of the promising PlaystationVita, is still one of the best episodes in the series thanks to a track design particularly inspired by a return to the atmospheres and gameplay of the origins, more focused on times and speed sensations than on airborne battles.
Today, all of this content is re-designed for a new user, who may have never heard of Wipeout , unless they have played it, and the result, even quantitatively, is applause: we counted forty-four different airplanes, including new entry Tigron, twenty-six lines, become fifty-two if one considers that everyone can be faced in mirror mode, and nine different gameplay modes, however average quality is more than convincing.
Old but gold
It could be argued that there is almost nothing again, that the Pure and Pulse track design is not at the level of Wipeout 2048 , that the portable origin of all three titles can be seen, despite the excellent work of cleaning up and raising the definition of Sony and Clever Beans, and in none of these cases it would be wrong, but reducing Wipeout Omega Collection to these small issues would be a major mistake.
In a less desolate look than a few years ago for futuristic futuristic racing games, and forever waiting for Nintendo to defeat the beloved F-Zero, Sony’s offerings are as cool as varied, as long as it is challenging, offering a way of running completely new to the new generations of video game players, which at the same time will instantly feel home fans of the series, who will not find enough news even if they have already played the products in this package.
The Wipeout Omega Collection is played like all the titles in the series that preceded it, anticipating the curves, storing every inch of the twisted tracks, working up on the airframes, craming centimes a second on the lap through a ramp taken over and a less contact with trackside barriers.
The centerpiece of the gameplay is today, as it is, twenty years ago, at a glance, in the maximum concentration, in the ability to recreate a mental map of the path so as to predict right-angle curves, jump ups, power up trajectories and the inevitable shortcuts.
All this, of course, at a supersonic speed, which brings the series to new peaks, thanks to sixty granite frames, even in split screens, a way often overlooked by modern titles but much appreciated.
Although the top of the offer is surely represented by Wipeout 2048, the most modern and enjoyable lottery title, all three single player campaigns conceal pitfalls that even the lowest difficulty between the three available can not soften unless the prolonged absence of the series, combined with more and more permissible racing titles, did not smell more than we thought.
