PS Vita Review – WipEout 2048
We might not know what the future holds for the Vita, but if PlayStation series WipEout is anything to go by, the future of racing is bright. And fast.
A fully fledged Vita WipEout title, 2048 immediately sets itself apart from the system’s other launch titles with its looks – Golden Abyss might be more technically impressive, but nothing else tests the OLED screen’s colors like the dazzlingly vibrant WipEout. Unlike the 60fps WipEout HD, the game runs at only 30fps, but you won’t notice. It runs beautifully and smoothly, no matter how much is going on on the screen. In fact, sometimes the amount of colorful chaos exploding on the screen can detract from the experience simply by obscuring the racer and the race track.
As expected with a WipEout game, you’ll need to make clever use of the boost and powerup pads littered along the track, which seem to be more prevalent in this game than previous entries. You’ll need to hit a good percentage of the boost pads to stay in the race, as well as make use of the multitude of defensive and offensive weapons that will either protect your craft or destroy others. Sometimes you’ll have to choose between driving over a boost, a green defensive pad or a yellow offensive pad, with your choice possibly deciding the outcome of the whole race.
That for many is the best thing about WipEout, and for others the worst – there are no second chances in a race. Every single turn matters, every boost, every weapon. Some of the earlier races are a bit more forgiving, but the difficulty ramps up quickly – perhaps too quickly – from B to A class. Tracks are a little wider than in previous games, giving you a little more room to maneuver, but the game is still not for the fainthearted and requires delicate use of the airbreak. Luckily, if a particular track in the campaign is too hard, the game will give you the option to skip it after a few fails.
Playing the campaign is vital to unlocking tracks and vehicles as your original selection is rather limited. The rather long campaign, which spans several whole seasons (of increasing difficulty), includes classic racing, battles, time trial and the gorgeously psychedelic Phase courses. Veteran WipEout fans might be a bit annoyed that they have to grind through a few of the earlier races to get a decent track roster, but it should encourage newcomers to test their mettle on the campaign. The campaign isn’t entirely linear, with some races opening up side levels that are entirely optional – a nice touch if you just want to power through until the end.
Racetracks also aren’t linear, with a few short cuts (called Skillcuts) that require you to time your turn just right. The short cuts don’t give you much of a lead, but with WipEout every millisecond counts. Of course, if you don’t make a turn, you’ll end up smashing into the side of the track, hurting your vehicle and slowing yourself down considerably. Depending on where you are in the campaign, the AI will also use the skillcuts, giving them an advantage in the race. As usual with WipEout, the racers never fail to take a shortcut – they’ll either take it or they won’t, not smash into the middle.
To ensure that you also never fail, you’ll need to get acquainted with the controls. You’ll have a choice of a more classic WipEout control scheme (X to accelerate), generic race controls (triggers to accelerate) and a fully touchscreen and accelerometer based system. More options might have been preferably for some, but most bases are covered. Sometimes the use of the back touchpad can cause the odd accidental hit, and the accelerometer isn’t as precise as it could be, but overall the controls are solid.
Online gameplay is also mostly solid. Bar the odd dropout, and slow matchmaking, you’ll be able to play online against fellow WipEout players relatively quickly. Unfortunately, loading the main game up isn’t as painless – you’ll have to take some time to load up a race, something that would be Ok on a console release, but is disappointing for a mobile product that you might want to quickly play at the bus stop.
While at the bus stop, be sure to bring a pair of headphones so you can listen to the futuristic thrum of your racer, the loud boom of a rocket exploding and the background music from electronic-music artists like The Chemical Brothers, DJ Fresh and deadmau5.
2048 is one of the best launch games on the Vita, and easily the best racer, speeding past Ridge Racer and Asphalt Injection. Compared to other WipEouts, the new edition doesn’t bring that much new to the table, despite being a reboot of sorts, but it doesn’t need to – it’s a refinement of the series that takes most of the best parts of the franchise and packs it into a powerful handheld title.
PlayStation LifeStyle’s Final Score
+ The best racer on the PS Vita - Slow loading |  |
-
13 Responses to “PS Vita Review – WipEout 2048”
Great review, Moss. It gets straight to the point. Helpful tips, what to expect.
if you want to get a better time, DO NOT GO BACK TO THE MAIN MENU (retry)
also, I was disappointed with there being no Custom Soundtrack, I remember hearing that PSVita would be able to do custom soundtrack (and WipeOut HD did Custom Soundtrack superbly)
WHAT!? no custom soundtrack??? I also remember reading that Sony said PS Vita would have universal own music playback. If this isn’t true that’s a big negative and Sony STILL hasn’t received the message after PS3 owners have pleaded for years to have this feature on the PS3 and still nothing. If Vita doesn’t have this feature than I’m getting more and more dissapointed by Sony.
[people in the backward compatibility thread]
Guys I’m getting a VITA to play VITA games with VITA music. Keep you iPod if you want to listen to custom music.
[/people in the backward compatibility thread]
I’d look into it, but my copy of WipEout 2048 seems to FREEZE after about 10 minutes. I’m sure everything will be fixed in a firmware update. even miniS that Sony says work, don’t work currently.
thinking Sony plans to release a firmware to allow miniS and games to work properly at PSVita launch, keeps people who had JP PSVitas or Vitas before proper launch from accessing games.
not sure if you’re trying to go through the in game menus to get the custom soundtrack but everything I have seen on the internet has shown that you can start the music player, then jump into a game and the music will continue playing in the background…
Honestly I’m sick of this conversation though. The game developers chose the music they thought was best suited for the game and I’m always perfectly happy with their selections…if they thought Justin Bieber belonged in the game they would have put it there.
Listening to music before jumping into anything and then going into something and the music still plays is EPIC! The best would be having the option to cancel out everything sound except for your music and also having the option of having both the sounds of whatever you’re doing and your music.
We’re aren’t talking about a games music, we’re talking about having the option of playing anything in your music player while doing anything on your Vita like Sony has said.
I love WipEout and I’m really glad to hear this WipEout is great! I’m defiently bummed about the online negatives and loading times which Sony having had the experience from the PS3, 360 and PSP online and load times should be perfected by now. I hope that these issues are just because it’s the launch window and I hope by the time the launch window passes all these things will be perfected for Vita.
There’s never been a bad WipEout game. And it never will.
I will have to try this game out. The last wipeout game I owned was Wipeout XL, so yea I haven’t played Wipeout in a while lol.
great review!
great review, can’t decide to get this or super stardust. (already getting uncharted guaranteed)
I would say WipEout, since Super Stardust seems like less game for your buck (though ideally you get both! They both look like fun!
)