Wipeout 3 - On this day

Futurism from a late 20th-century perspective is often comical, but imagination cannot be disputed. One example of such a vision of the distant future is the Wipeout series of games, whose fourth game came out on this very day 22 years ago.

Contrary to the fact that it is the fourth game in the series, it was Wipeout 3, or Wip3out - that's what young people wrote at the time. Wipeout 3 appeared for the first PlayStation console and was also the last part of the series to be played on it.

The game took us to 2116, and we raced in the F7200 antigravity league. It was a classic Wipeout in which hovercraft with electronic music was collected, collecting items for weapons (mines, rockets) and defense (shields). The difference was that the trio was the first with gaming support using analog joystick controllers, giving players more precise vehicle control.

Wipeout 3 was also a slightly easier game than its predecessors, but in later parts, it increased in weight to hide a relatively small number of tracks. Fans were not thrilled with the game and it failed financially. Sony, therefore, launched Wipeout 3: Special Edition a year later with 10 additional tracks, four-member multiplayer, and other extras.

The Wipeout series successfully lived in the era of the PlayStation 2 console and extended to the PlayStation 3. The last new game was Wipeout 2048 for the PlayStation Vita. After that, Sony closed the studio that created the series, and later we got another Wipeout Omega Collection for PS4 that combined several old games into one package.