Fusion, five+ years later
Hard to believe over five years ago I was overjoyed beyond compare when Wipeout Fusion was released in the United States. At 12, I proclaimed myself the biggest Wipeout fan in the state, having played Wipeout 64 and Wipeout 3 with great enjoyment over the years. Even though I wasn't that great at it...^_^'
I didn't have the internet when the PS2 launched, so I would feverishly look through newsstands reading everything I could on every game. Especially when I saw my first preview of Wipeout Fusion in a December 2000 issue of a magazine whose name has been lost in time. I read that article over and over, so many times, since no one else even bothered to post a single screenshot in the day. The enthusiasm was sidetracked upon the release of Gran Turismo 3, but eventually, Wipeout Fusion would work my way back into my subconsiousness.
At the time I thought it was awesome. Now, I look back, and the overwhelming thoughts of many members are "this is the worst game in the series." So I play it again from time to time, a badly damaged disk (product of my poor maintenance of game disks back then) and then it all comes to me why.
The biggest flaw was the handling, it's the most widely accepted reason why this was a bad game. The previews all talked about a revamped handling mechanic that was supposed to be more accessible to new gamers. In 2000-2001, no one knew exactly what this would be. But what it ended up being was a joke. The floaty feeling, the sensation of flying at certain times, and most importantly - the sensation of speed were all crippled. Lightweight ships like FEISAR and Piranha handled like slot cars, and Heavyweights like Auricom turned like barges. (Speaking of Auricom, don't even get me started on how much of a piece of **** their craft looked like.)
Sure, you could make the speedometer say 4000+ kph, but it only really felt like 200. When I play the other installments, especially Wipeout XL at higher speed classes - the sensation of speed just jumps out at me. I feel like I'm going faster than then 470 kph the Qirex can achieve with a turbo at Phantom class.
But this re-tooling ended up almost killing the series. At least Zone mode feels great with the downforcey handling. But that's Zone mode. In a Single Race, you really question sometimes whether or not you're playing a Wipeout game at all. Pitching down and up means nothing since the "Fusion" of the craft to the track makes it irrelevant. No more turbo-speed flying, no more taking sharp curves by merely pitching the craft down and turning.
And then you could go on. And on. The weapon list almost doubled, and brought back super weapons per team like in Wipeout 64. Only they were mostly crap and didn't fit the team philosophy most of the time. (Except for EG-R's Power Snare, which is still the bee's knees.) So were some of the standard weapons - the mines were all messed up, the proton cannon was weak, and the gravity bomb was an uninspired attempt to bring back XL's thunder bomb. I'm sure there are others.
The ship upgrading system was kind of a bandwagoning idea - Gran Turismo became a worldwide phenomenon because of the customisation of real cars. But it shouldn't happen in Wipeout, because the two series are completely different. And I won't even discuss the performance imbalance it causes. Sure I'm rather young to be considered an 11th year veteran of the series, but it's true - I'd gotten so used to Vector, Venom, Rapier, Phantom - then this? On the sheer basis of tradition it's a shame.
Then there was the teams. Good Technology should NEVER have convinced Fusion Team to replace AG Systems, who in the last installment perhaps vaulted to #1 most popular team simply because of "Let's Be Friends," to be replaced by a team named after themselves. It was self-serving, low, and oh yeah, that was the worst ship in Wipeout Fusion. Qirex was gone too, but Tigron had it's own special charm, which may be what allowed it to stay for another installment. EG-R and Xios were great, even if the team concepts seemed a little boring, they were great ships to pilot, and it's great to see that EG-X will carry on their spirit in Wipeout Pulse and HD. As for "Of Over" Racing Developments...meh.
But Fusion wasn't a total failure. The consistent gold standard of Wipeout games is the music, and it's no different here. I was sold on this the first time I heard the instrumental for "Sick" by Utah Saints, or the exclusive remix of "Papua New Guinea" by FSOL. Fusion gave us the Zone mode, which opened the door for more mind-blowing feats - Oggob's Zone 151 is an example.
Even if terrain sections and various track layouts didn't sell, the venues themselves were really cool, and the loops, spirals and gravity flip sections were a welcome addition (blah blah not in tradtion with the series, I know.) And it brought back the individual pilots, missing since Wipeout 1, and I always feel that they could return in a future installment, I sure hope they will. Because it does feel nice to know there's a person in the cockpit, am I right?
In the end, many of the things Fusion Team wanted to do seemed like really great ideas in development. But now they're deemed "mistakes" simply because they were poorly executed. Odds are, given another chance to re-make this game via time travel, they could have made the handling floaty, while still being more accessible to newcomers. They could have made new weapons, but made sure they were sensible. But we must accept that a lot of us have either sold Fusion, never bought it, or currently watch it collect dust, and move forward.
And this has been your daily two cents. Too bad you can't buy a stick of gum with it.
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Originally Posted by FurryKing
) A weapon of such ridiculous power like the Power Swarm should not be so easy to use theres a 99& chance it will hit the ship you lock onto with maximum impact, a guaranteed death sentence and not just for Van Uber.
![HISHO[JP]'s Avatar](images/avatars/wipeout_hd_fury/FAagsissy.png)
The jump bug was a bit annoying though; normally I don't brake before a jump.
