Wipeout "Love Letter" BallisticNG Is Speeding Onto Switch

I'm a die hard WipEout player and I definitely loving this, just hope that if it does come to Switch that it retains that silky smooth 60fps gameplay.

While I respect WIPEOUT I am more of an F-ZERO AND EXTREME G person. For what it's worth this looks great for fans of WIPEOUT.

I'm staying with good ol' Fast RMX for now.

Was going to say that the trailer looks really below what Fast RMX does (which I suppose its part of the charm, trying the original Wipeout game vibe) but the I saw the VR option.

If the Switch port comes with Labo VR support (almost no chance I know) I would try this no doubt.

Is it bad that I thought that the title was talking about the Activision WipeOut game based off the abc show?

That trailer looks decent.

I have to wonder about the size of the racing game market on Switch. The sheer number of decent titles is not unimpressive. If Nintendo is determined to ignore this niche, then F-Zero will not reappear, as so many here believe. Yet their presence is, to my mind, quite relevant.

You guys are all about some love letters here at Nintendo Life huh? There are other descriptors....you know that right? I realize that the devs described it as that but I think that phrase has been done to death. But maybe that’s just me. Game looks decent though.

Was going to say that the trailer looks really below what Fast RMX does (which I suppose its part of the charm, trying the original Wipeout game vibe)

@Yomerodes I was going to say that the visuals here sorely, sorely lack the polish of Fast RMX, Redout and the like. I found the concepts of the environments pleasant enough, but not the visual execution. But if you do find it charming, I respect your opinion.

The moment I saw the screen cap, I knew the music was going to be trash techno. Clicked the vid and boom, instant disappointment.

Do these devs forget that all the good racing games have actual music, with melodies and catchy tunes?

Wipeout, not to be confused with Wipeout.

@BloodNinja

Some of us enjoy trash techno music in our racing games, even if it's not considered actual music. Everyone has their own preferences.

94% positive Steam reviews, and that from the notoriously fickle futuristic/AG racing crowd. I can vouch for how good it is, and will buy it again on Switch. And don't sleep on the soundtrack just because the trailer disappointed. It is FULL of what-you-would-swear is mid 1990's techno goodness. See: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6fvWG7gv3HE&list=PLC2bnzhMrmPM3QHQl45BCEVChNU3WFttp&index=12&t=2780s

Seems to be too many of these "love letters" to games that have had their time.
Just seems like they want to cash in on fans nostalgia more than actually being creative.

Looks very faithful to Wipeout. Unfortunately, I can't stand the Wipeout games, even though F-Zero X and GX are two of my favorite games ever.
It's crazy how different the feel of these two futuristic racers are.

@TheRealMr_Carpainter That’s good. I just try not to limit myself to sub-par musical experiences.

Hmm. Hmm. This one and Bomb Rush Cyberfunk really unsettles me. They feel like fan-movies. They are SO CLOSE to their idols that it makes you wonder if they should even be allowed to do that. And it honestly just makes me wish to have the real thing.

I have this and it's very good, especially in VR. I'd rather have a port to the Quest 2, but I do hope they offer a Labo VR option.

@Yanina You seem to not like similarities in games or you fail to see that similarities is not the same as carbon copy. You also had to ask yourself are they the real deal anymore when their IP is as dead as disco? You know Call of Duty isn't just a Medal of Honor love letter, it is Medal of Honor now, in fact if a new Medal of Honor is release it'll be seen as a Call of Duty wannabe and that's true because it is. If F-Zero ever return to gaming it'll be seen as a Fast RMX wannabe cause the only reason it return was because of Fast RMX. You know why Brock Lesnar called Goldberg a Brock Lesnar wannabe even though Goldberg wrestled before, that's because he was. Goldberg came back to wrestling because he wants to be the next big thing like Lesnar which he could never be.

@Ghost_of_Hasashi
Fast RMX is not F-Zero, not in the slightest.
If Fast RMX played anything like F-Zero you may have had a point.

What a rip off!

@noutBr It doesn't even needs to play like Fast RMX for it to be a wannabe, just looking similar with similar gameplay and coming back from the dead is enough to make it a wannabe game that is unless F-Zero return in Mode 7 form in this case it got a better chance at redemption.

I cant play wipeout anymore. Was great when it was just lap races and eliminations but i absolutely cant stand the zone racing in it and after playing games like fast and fzero its sooooo slow. Fast is a great game but the rubber banding is awful in it. 1 mistake and its almost certain you will need to restart the race despite seemingly being waaaaay ahead of the competition. Great game and sense of speed tho.
A new F zero (or port of GX) would be more than welcome in my eyes.

Wow. I love the Wipeout games and this looks incredibly close to the feel of the first three games (that I know well). Scary close really. Even the company name is setup to ape Showing results for Psygnosis, and the graphic design is clearly aping The Designers Republic. I'm so in for this. I know there are more F-Zero fans here, but I'm a WipEout boy.

@Ghost_of_Hasashi What you're saying makes no sense. Although fast RMX is a great game, it's a bare bones indie game that wouldn't hold a candle to a full f-zero experience. They could be inspired in the game at certain degree, but call it a wanna be would be stupid. Cod is a consolidated franchise that is much more popular than Moh now, these comparisons are completely different things

Has anybody mentioned they would rather have F-Zero.

@BloodNinja Well, if you call this techno, then you are going to absolutely HATE actual techno.

And I obviously respect that your taste may differ, but calling music you dislike a sub-par experience sounds a little elitist.

I absolutely loathe pure classical music, but I can totally respect that it is intricate music. It's simply that the common chord progressions and whatnot simply do not strike a chord with me personally.

I used to hate a certain genre because I did not understand it. Only when specific bands gave me a slightly easier to understand rendition of the genre that I started to appreciate it more and eventually became a fan.

I can absolutely understand one not liking techno. It is very repetitive, but something being repetetive doesn't make it bad. It just makes it not for you. And you can't listen to a techno song in the same way you listen to a hard rock song or a classical song or ad infinitum. It needs a specific setting.

/end rant

Couldn't go 2 seconds without mentioning dead franchises like Fzero huh?

What happen to the trees? Or ist this like Paper Mario! lol
F-Zero is dead?

I actually thought the trailer was Wipeout! I love this twitch/in the zone racing so I’m in.

Only thing is the ship movement .. it looks like it’s ‘on a stick’ rather than the drifty movement of Wipeout, but I’d give it a go

@HotGoomba Wipeout spin-off Pacer were released last week on consoles.

Released on PC in 2015 and were called Formula Fusion the first years. Ex Psygnosis people made Pacer.

Nobody should complain about the graphics. It's SUPPOSED to look like that. It's pretending to be the original 3 Wipeout games. Now, would HD graphics be nice? Yes, of course.

@Daniel36 I do tend to dislike actual techno. Trance, to be specific. I like melodies, complex music. Things that encourage movement. A lot of techno sounds very stagnant, but hear me out. That tends to only be the case with American made music. When I hear it from other countries, it’s varied and interesting, with melodies and you know, actual song writing.

Repetitive can be good! I agree. But you can take many, many techno pieces, put them side by side and not be able to tell the difference other than their sound fonts and when they insert a cheesy movie quote. Most techno songs tell you what they are going to be within the first 16 bars of the track. It’s a musical genre that, like rap, lacks any sort of personality because it limits itself to just a few musical ideas and as a genre, is extremely stale and stagnant. Other countries do a better job of shaking it up.

I grew up listening to very progressive music, including all the great game music we get to enjoy. So when I discovered techno, I kinda laughed about it because it’s genres are tied to just sound fonts and tempo. Believe me, I gave it a good chance, exploring the genre for years, actually. And yes, I learned that the bland genre devoid of personality is not for me.

Point still stands, though! If you’re going to mimic things like Waverace or F Zero, use actual music! Part of what makes those older games so exciting is the fun and varied music!

@HotGoomba I thought the same thing at first! I was actually kinda hyped for it but oh well

@BloodNinja Writing about music is like dancing about architecture.

@TheUnrestCure Good thing I’m a musician

BallisticNG is honestly the best WipeEout game ever made. All the original content is right up there with the OG track designs, but the custom music, sounds and user generated tracks (on PC) are the icing on the cake.

I've been playing BallisticNG for years now, and it hits a very specific spot. That spot isn't F-Zero, it's most definitely WipEout - the gameplay is not just close, it is identical. Well, maybe even better, because it is a mix of all the best bits of 2097 and Wip3out.

I will be buying this any way I can get it on the Switch - it's my favourite AG racer of all time, and that's because it is exactly the follow-up to WipEout that we never got once the gameplay went all floaty in Pure/Pulse.

If you're after WipEout on your Switch, BallisticNG WILL deliver, no question.

@superderper In the words of this mid-90's raver: #$%^ dance, let's art. Although I imagine the translation is lost to those who were not there! : )

@Primarina No worries! There's unlockable cheats in BallisticNG, and one of them is Ballistic64, which changes the gameplay to control like WipEout 64. I am a big fan of that game too, so I'm feeling you!!!

All the tracks from that game are on the Steam Workshop too.

In fact, I struggle to think of a track (or ship) from a previous WipEout game that I cannot play in BallisticNG, thanks to all the community-created content that is out there.