For a loose primer on the history of the WipEout series, here’s a quote from James Mielke’s 1up.com review of WipEout HD:

It’s been a long time since the Wipeout series’ 1995 debut, when it supplanted Nintendo’s F-Zero as the antigrav racer to beat. In the intervening years between its inaugural episode and the just-released Wipeout HD on PS3, the series continued to push the concept forward, from 1996’s seminal Wipeout XL (with its timeless soundtrack and finessed, more user-friendly gameplay) to 2002’s underrated Wipeout Fusion (the first in the series besides the N64’s Wipeout 64 to not be Sony-published — and the only PS2 entry) to 2005’s Wipeout Pulse on the PSP, which almost single-handedly reinvigorated interest in the long-running franchise. When Wipeout HD was first revealed, a lot of folks — for better or worse — assumed it’d just be an amalgamation of the two PSP entries, the aforementioned Pulse and Wipeout Pure, but with tweaked, high-definition graphics. After an extensive look under the hood of this magnificent beast, though, it’s apparent that the fruits of SCE Studio Liverpool’s labor equate to so much more.

WHD is a marvelous piece of software engineering, and you can tell that the dudes who made it enjoyed making it. It’s a very thoughtful, user-friendly game. For example, the custom soundtrack feature: it integrates seamlessly with the PS3’s playlist-creation features, and will optionally remember where a track picks up and leaves off between races. It doesn’t feel tacked-on as custom soundtracks usually do, and you get to tweak the game while retaining the game’s unified and polished design.

Also thoughtful: the ability to completely customize the degree to which motion-sensitive controls are used. Considering WipEout is a traditional PlayStation brand, there might have been the temptation for Sony to force the use of motion controls in order to promote that feature in their hardware. Even though the motion control is very well implemented, the developers have not forced it on us. THANK YOU.

Please enjoy this latest character concept, for the Piranha Advancements Racing Team. I have used the WipEout 3 Piranha logo rather than the newer one. Feel free to tell me how much this bothers you over on my Livejournal, where I’ve also posted a bit about the ship designs in the background (long story short: I neither want nor deserve credit for them).