A steal at its price, Wipeout Pulse is a showpiece game for the PSP on both technological and gameplay fronts.
Still continuing off the winning formula that was Pure, Wipeout Pulse adds in a few changes that makes the single-player experience a much more enjoyable experience. A new "Grid" system is introduced which instead of advancing through an arbitrary set of races, a hexagonal-based progression through events (Akin to that seen in Ridge Racer 6, for those who played it) is used. A set number of events will be unlocked at first entering the Grid and more events are unlocked depending which event you will have previously won. There are multiple grids (Last I remember I counted 16 Grids, the latter ones having about 16 races in them each) so you're definitely going to get a ton of events to complete. However, there is the downside of having so many events and that is track repetition. With 12 tracks and their reverse 'Black' versions, you'll be racing on a lot of the same tracks very often, considering a single track unlocks only during a Grid's completion. To their credit, the tracks are very well designed are varied enough so that they don't feel too monotonous after the 20th race. There are a good number of events to your disposal in Pulse, a total of 7 modes to be exact, with your standards like Time Trial and Single Race. There are the notable ones like Elimination, which is just a giant kill-fest akin to Twisted Metal, and the Zone mode that was originally introduced in Fusion. Zone turns the track into a computer generated world (as shown in the picture above) and your ship starts to go faster every 10 seconds. You move from the slowest speed class (Sub-Venom) and move up to the fastest (Super-Rapier) with your goal trying to stay on the track as long as possible before your shield runs out from hitting the walls. It's a ton of fun and the aesthetic design given to the environments is ridiculously cool looking.
Of course, Wipeout wouldn't really be Wipeout if it weren't for the weapons offered in the game, and Pulse certainly delivers on that end. Despite one or two unbalanced power-ups (Plasma and Repulsor), the game has a fair selection of weapons like missiles and bombs to help you throughout the race. Along with the weapons comes a pretty odd AI system though. The AI is pretty good throughout most of the game, but at times it feels like rubberband-AI is kicking in and you'll get destroyed by mines and bombs to no end. It's only happened a few times, but probably too often for me to dismiss it. That being said, the AI is a good competitor and it doesn't feel like it's always one-step ahead of you which makes the races challenging, but not too much so that you know you'll never have a chance of winning. The most notable addition to game that's worth bringing up though is how well the ships control. You'd expect a racing game (One that has ships going 700kph at that) on the PSP would be pretty difficult to control with just an analog nub and shoulder buttons, but in practice it works quite well. The ships are responsive and the air-brakes (L and R buttons) serve as your tight-turn steering which works really well. Double-tapping a shoulder button will make you do a "Quick-shift" that slides your ship to the left or right for an even quicker countermeasure and it works really well too. However, this won't save you from what is the Rapier class. The fastest class in the game, I've yet to even begin mastering it after 20 hours of play. It's a leap from the standard 500-700kph speed to an excruciating 800-950kph range that makes any sort of precise turn nearly impossible. It's there for the hardcore fans, but even being a seasoned Wipeout player I can't understand why it's still there.
On the term of having impressive PSP features, the game also boasts some of the cleanest graphics on the system. Sharp textures and a smooth 40-60fps range makes for a really enjoyable experience. It never drops into slowdown and the game's performance makes it look really good even when there's **** blowing up left and right. Also impressive is the soundtrack. Artists like Kraftwerk, Aphex Twin and Stanton Warriors make for a really enjoyable audio experience along with the oddly likeable robotic female voice-over. If you're not a fan of electronica or melodic techno like I am though, don't fret: there's a custom soundtracks feature there for you. Allowing you to load up to 30 songs onto your Memory Stick, you can race to your own tunes, which in itself is pretty neat. There is a pretty fun charm to careen down a track slope while listening to Paramore. Wipeout Pulse is a really fantastic PSP game that just goes to show that despite its bad rep over the past few years, the system can really deliver an engaging experience. There's even Infrastructure online play, though I couldn't find a single person to race with on the what-seems-like very stable servers. The really big push for this title though is that it's 30$. You're getting way more value than most full-priced PS2/PS3 games, and it's at a budget price. There's enough there to keep you busy for hours on end and minus its small flaws, it's all delivered in a fantastic looking package. Now if you'll excuse me, I have an Eliminator match on pause.