While the original Wipeout is the only iteration of the Wipeout series that I played extensively, the series has had a long and mostly successful history. Their naming convention (or lack thereof) doesn’t make the order of releases easy to follow though. Wipeout 3 is actually the fourth game in the series. I guess they were only counting PlayStation releases or something.
The original Wipeout was released by Psygnosis for the PlayStation and DOS based computer in 1995 to be followed by a Saturn release the next year. Wipeout 2097, called Wipeout XL in North America was the second game in the series and it was released for the PlayStation in 1996 and the Sega Saturn the following year. You might think Wipeout 3 would be next but you would be wrong. The next game in the series was Wipeout 64 released in 1998. However, while this game was exclusive to the Nintendo 64, it wasn’t a Nintendo 64 version of Wipeout. Instead it was a direct sequel to Wipeout 2097/XL. Finally, we have Wipeout 3 released in 1999, the only iteration of the game to be released exclusively for the PlayStation.
The Wipeout games are futuristic racing games set in the year 2052 and subsequent years. I really wanted the original Wipeout when it was first released as I loved F-Zero and thought this would be a better, more advanced version. In a way that is correct but it was never quite as much fun to me. Don’t get me wrong, these are excellent games, particularly if you like futuristic racers to begin with. Wipeout 3 was well received and generally got very good reviews. The only problem was that it didn’t really bring much of anything new to the table. There wasn’t enough in the way of new content or courses to make it really stand out. However, it was one of the relative few PlayStation games that used that system’s high resolution mode and if you were only going to pick one Wipeout game to play on the original PlayStation, this should probably be the one.
While there would be a number of subsequent Wipeout sequels for later systems, this would be the last to appear on the PlayStation. I am not aware of a re-release for this one so you will have to track down an original. Alternatively, you could give it a try in an emulator. Fortunately, original copies aren’t too hard to come by. Grab the “Special Edition” released a year later for more tracks and content.
