1. I have always thought of this series as being a grown up version of Mario Kart. This isn't really fair as everyone I know who plays Mario Kart is as old as I am which is thoroughly grown up--well, from a legal perspective anyway.
2. The most notable difference between these two combative racing franchises is strictly presentation. In Mario Kart you wing around dirt tracks in a go-karts, playing as cute well-known character that drops banana peels while gophers pop out of the ground. In WipEout, you hover in sleek, futuristic vehicles. fly around hover tracks and blast competitors w/ missiles and gravity shock waves. Nothing pops out of the ground and you play as nobody in particular.
3. There is a much more meaningful difference beneath this, however. Specifically, WipEout has a much great emphasis on realistic racing mechanics.
4. I use the term realistic pretty loosely here. We are talking about hover cars that fly at multiple hundreds of miles an hour after all but there is an emphasis on holding racing lines and maintaining speed that most kart racers just don't have. This is an arcade style racer for sure but if you like the feeling of really nailing a lap in Gran Turismo, there might be more here for you than you might expect.
5. As of writing this, the servers for online play have long been shut down so, unless you have friends (you don't), you are going to be playing WipEout Pulse in single player mode. Thankfully, the career mode is awesome.
6. You get several grids of many events that gradually unlock as you successfully complete challenges. These involve all styles of play, not just races, and there's an absolute tone of them. If you are some kind of completionist nutbag, this is going to take you many dozens of hours to complete--and that is if you are already familiar w/ the series. I could see this getting into the hundreds of hours if you really want to 100% everything.
7. This glut of content would be worthless if it wasn't fun and challenging but it is. Don't you even worry about that.
8. Racing is the centerpiece of course. It's tense and satisfying. Esp. when you start out at a new speed class, you will find yourself careening about the tracks all over the place. Crashing into walls or falling off the edge will not only set you back but eventually end your race all together. Getting from the point where racing feels like it requires super human reflexes to where you can smoothly slalom through corners w/o effort is enormously pleasing.
9. To this end, I found that either turning off combat or just playing through the several time trial modes to be even better than racing. W/ no other racers--and none of the half dozen odd projectiles and obstacles they can add to the mix--it's just you and the track. I found this completely engaging. It is rare where I find a racing game where I get the highest level achievement available in any event and keep playing just to improve my personal best but WipEout Pulse is one of these games.
10. The music in this is slightly worse than in its predecessor, WipEout Pure. The series started in 1995 and kept the same style of music throughout. By the release of Pulse in 2008, you could see how that well of music might be getting a bit dry.
11. On faster speeds, esp., the analog nub on the PSP becomes a problem in WipEout Pulse. It is just really hard to give that thing just a tiny tap in white knuckle situations. You get better at it w/ practice but it's going to make you drive into walls more often than you'd like.
12. Just to be sure to touch on the one notable difference between this and WipEout Pure, there is one new mechanic: some sections of track that are magnetic (or so they say) and that makes your ship not only control a bit differently but allows for steep vertical climbs and drops as well as some upside down sections. It's all very cool looking but does not make for a vastly different experience.
13. Do you wanna go fast? You wanna go fast. And WipEout delivers fast. Any game is an adequate into to the series to be honest. If you are a PSP person, between Pulse and Pure, I found I got way more into Pulse but, you know, my mood fluctuates w/ my hormones and the phase of the moon so maybe I was just ready for a deeper dive into a racing game than when I played Pure. In any case, if you are a fan of the series already, Pulse is pretty much a must have. Get on it.
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