His tunes were so good that it often felt like the race was designed around Wright’s composition, not the other way around.Īs you leaned your entire, real-life body into a corner, the air brakes made you feel at one with the game–and successfully clearing a tricky turn at breakneck speed was one of the most rewarding experiences on the PS1. I’ve waxed lyrical about a specific track of his in the past, but his entire carefully crafted, bespoke work underscored the importance of designing music carefully around the source material. Wright was to WipEout’s music what TDR was to its design.
It leveraged major names in EDM like the Chemical Brothers, Leftfield, The Prodigy and Orbital, but the real star was CoLD SToRAGE, the alias of Welsh composer Tim Wright.
WipEout and its first sequel were early pioneers of music licensing, and in its first iteration it literally put the full soundtrack on the disc itself, leading gamers like me to think that placing any game in a CD player would give you the entire score. What’s more, they established real emotional connections with gamers from the earliest releases, right through to the likes of Omega Collection.ĬoLD SToRAGE’s atmospheric, pitch-perfect score There was the spritely, safe European Feisar the bulky but fast Russian Qirex the fragile but sharp AG Systems of Japan American all-rounder Auricom the nigh-on perfect Piranha from Brazil the beginner-friendly Goteki 45 from the Pacific Islands Africa’s nimble Assegai and the fast, lightweight Icaras from Great Britain.Įvery team had much more to them than mere stats and origin stories they had full-blown personalities created from multicultural backgrounds in a presumably friendly world of the future, albeit one that promoted violent racing. The Designers Republic's beautiful, unique take on the racing teams of 'WipEout'. as WipEout 2097) for The Designers Republic to pull back from the pilots themselves and focus solely on the brand-heavy constructors, the teams always had real depth. While it took until WipEout XL (known over here in the U.K.
The lore and traits behind each one of WipEout’s original teams–expanded from five to eight in Wip3out–was heavily researched and perfectly delivered. It drew inspiration from Japanese culture, Soviet design and the atmosphere of movies like Blade Runner to create iconic box art, landscapes, branding and, most importantly, the teams themselves.
TDR created a living, breathing world through its brash, futuristic style, and it was at its unique, raw peak on the PlayStation. Without Sheffield-based studio The Designers Republic, the WipEout franchise would’ve suffered a false start and never pulled away from the line. The Designers Republic’s razor-sharp design
It wasn’t as accessible as other games, nor did it have as much depth as its successors, but it was the start of an utterly unique, effortlessly cool series that still stands the test of time today–even more than GT. It was both dangerously addictive and punishingly difficult but brought a whole host of incredible experiences that shaped the racing genre forever. It didn’t mince its words, and the title delivered nothing short of what was promised. The promotional campaign for 'WipEout' is still seen as one of the most controversial. It boasted a surprisingly brutal promotional campaign that described it as a “dangerous game,” using a young, pre-fame Sara Cox as its bloodied poster girl. Its debut in 1998 signaled a dramatic move away from multiplayer-centric racers like Micro Machines V3 (developed by Codemasters, which responded to GT with Colin McRae Rally), but it also hit traditional arcade experiences hard, too.ĭue to the shift in tastes ushered in by the simulation racer, the Need for Speed and Test Drive franchises withdrew from the market–though Need for Speed was later reinvented with Underground–while enjoyable one-offs like Total Drivin’ and Porsche Challenge were no competition to the simulation’s success. Even Ridge Racer disappeared into relative obscurity after the incredible Type 4 in 1999, and even this fourth outing embraced a more grown-up, elaborate veneer.īut before GT wiped the floor with the competition, WipEout was there, three years earlier in 1995, as a European PlayStation launch title. The widely accepted taste-breaker was Gran Turismo. Not only were developers trying to resonate with an aging (though admittedly still young) audience they were empowered by greater technological abilities, not least full-3D capabilities.