EPTSome of them are deeply flawed but have this special something that sinks its hooks into you and won't let go. Some are pure nostalgia at this point, viewed through rose-tinted glasses that hide their shortcomings to your subjective perspective.
I've been thinking long and hard and I believe I have found this single absolutely flawless game that I've been playing on and off for decades now (as a series of course, not just one title) and the more I think about it the better it gets and it's harder and harder to find any deficiencies with it. The shining paragon of great game design.
Let's talk about WipEout series (talking about the first release back in 1995 up to Omega Collection in 2017, the mobile abomination done by a different studio in 2021 is not part of it).
On surface it is a very basic game - just an arcade futuristic racing with some extra stuff on top. But the devil is in the details as usual. If you think about it this game has exactly the content it needs and nothing more. Everything is streamlined and polished to the point where adding or removing something would probably be detrimental. The game itself in its basic form is very easy to get into but at the same time it is very challenging to master. There is a bit of luck involved to keep things interesting but for the 99% of it the pure skill is what counts. You have both extensive single player campaigns and multiplayer options. There is plenty of variety in the ships you can fly but it's all extremely well balanced.
With the minimalistic approach you would think it's very similar to other popular competitive titles like TrackMania and you'd be right. But WipEout goes so much deeper... Where TrackMania is all about just mechanics WipEout has very extensive lore behind each craft and team (example: https://wipeout.fandom.com/wiki/FEISAR ). Hell, even the on-board assistant voice is different for each team. The minute details in how each craft handles that you start to pick up as you become more experienced, the sheer feeling of transcendence when you master a particular course (which are all also awesome design). The achievements that actually require a lot skill to accomplish so you can brag about them.
Different game modes it offers:
- Race - standard race vs opponents
- Tournament - a series of races with cumulative points for standings
- Elimination - a race where you want to do the most damage and destroy the most opponents
- Zone - a simulation where your craft is constantly picking up speed and you have to navigate the course, every touch of the wall reduces your health, every perfect lap restores your health (there are even achievements for reaching supersonic speeds with only using airbrakes for turning and for reaching speeds of up to Mach 2)
- Time trial - get the fastest time on a track
- Speed lap - get the fastest lap
There are more of course like Detonator and Zone battle but the above mentioned are the most basic.
Everything from the menus to the HUD, engine sounds and music in this game is just perfection.
Here are some videos to illustrate why after diving deep into WipEout I'm pretty much unable to play any other racing games now and how amazing it looks.
The game is simply pure. It knows exactly what it wants to do and it does it extremely well.
Here's a review of the original from 1995 (surprise, surprise, it holds up even today).
What is your perfect game and why?
