Wipeout XL: The Fastest Anti-Gravity Racing Game on the Original PlayStation

Wipeout XL is a futuristic anti-gravity racing game released for the PlayStation in 1996 by developer Psygnosis, known in Europe as Wipeout 2097. Players pilot hovering ships at extreme speeds across winding sci-fi tracks while using weapons and airbrakes to fight for first place.

The game takes place in the year 2097, roughly fifty years after the original. Racing leagues have gotten faster and more dangerous. Ships can now be destroyed mid-race, which changes how players approach every lap. Going fast matters. Surviving matters more.

What Makes Wipeout XL Different

The first Wipeout was punishing. Clip a wall and your speed died instantly. Wipeout XL softened wall collisions, and the whole game feels better for it. Ships glide instead of bounce, and players can actually recover from mistakes without losing the race outright.

Then there’s the soundtrack. Psygnosis licensed electronic tracks from The Chemical Brothers, The Prodigy, Future Sound of London, and Underworld—a lineup that made the game feel more like a club than a cartridge. Plenty of players discovered those artists through this game. The music isn’t background noise here. It sets the pace.

Racing Classes and Progression

The anti-gravity racing starts in the Vector class, which is manageable for newcomers. Venom and Rapier classes crank the speed up considerably. Clear those and the hidden Phantom class opens, where tracks blur past at speeds that demand near-perfect memorization. Each class reuses the same circuits, but higher speeds make them feel like entirely new layouts.

There are eight tracks in total, ranging from clean cityscapes to twisting canyon runs. A few of them punish hesitation hard—Spilskinanke in particular has a reputation among longtime players.

Weapons and Ship Combat

Weapon pads sit along every track. Run over one and you get a random pickup: rockets, missiles, mines, plasma bolts, or a shield. Since ships have energy that depletes from hits and wall scrapes, a well-timed missile can eliminate a rival completely. Pit lanes restore energy, but stopping costs time. That trade-off drives most of the strategy.

Some players ignore combat and focus on clean racing lines. Both approaches work. The physics reward precision either way, especially the airbrake system, which lets ships drift through corners that seem impossible at full thrust.

Game Controls

• D-Pad – Steer ship
• X – Accelerate / Thrust
• Circle – Fire weapon
• L1 – Left airbrake
• R1 – Right airbrake
• Select – Change view
• Start – Pause

As always, remember to have fun!