Wipeout Pure holds the promise of being the must have game for the PlayStation Portable, but can it live up to the hype? We find out.

Our quick take

That isn't to say you won't love it. As a racer goes all the elements are here: the tracks, the spaceships and even the power-ups to blast your opponents.

For us the love affair is over and Wipeout Pure just doesn't hold that magic anymore.

Now where is that copy of Ridge Racer?

wipeout pure psp image 1

Wipeout Pure - PSP - 3.5 / 5

FORAGAINST
  • Graphics
  • the tracks
  • the spaceships and even the power-ups to blast your opponents
  • Lack of excitement

Being a huge fan of the original Wipeout game on the PlayStation and then the follow-up Wipeout 2097, I have to admit I am a big fan of the previous outings having lost whole summers to their completion.

The sense of speed, the futuristic tracks and the spaceships whizzing around and through buildings and the countryside is a lovely one. So it was with great glee that Wipeout Pure landed in the office. Could this game rekindle that lost love. Had it really been 10 years since the first outing?

While the game is graphically impressive on the PSP and certainly one to show off the capabilities of the machine, unfortunately the same can’t be said for the gameplay. The sense of speed has gone, the love affair fizzled out.

At first I wasn’t sure whether it was the game or me, 10 years is a long time, and just like those children’s television shows revisiting some times later sometimes destroys the memory. So I battled on, putting to one side the urge to play something else hoping that the game would some how miraculously improve itself. A month later and I'm still disappointed and still always looking for other games to play over this one.

The main grumble as already mentioned is the speed - the game seems to come across incredibly slow in the early levels - especially if you play the separate speed level outside the championship mode.

But it doesn’t stop there, the graphics, which while impressive, soon grind to a halt once you’ve got more than a couple of ships and explosions on the screen at any one time.

Likewise is the frustration that no matter how well you do on the previous race you always start at the very back with those eight places to make up all over again and finally the fact that the 16 courses are all fairly similar.

To recap

For us the love affair is over and Wipeout Pure just doesn’t hold that magic anymore