Rapier Racer: Assegai/Qirex, WeedJunky: Mirage, lizEth17: Feisar, MurcielgaoMLRZ: Feisar, Knux_Chaotix: Goteki 45, theconzio: Harimau/AG Systems, SKRUFFEM: Piranha, Apple-Guy-Cipher: Feisar/Harimau, Pixiewonders: Triakis... Just to name a few. I have no problem finding skilled pilots that aren't Icaras. I do see a lot of "n00b" pilots in Icaras and Feisar but that doesn't mean there is an imbalance. It just merely means that most people view the handling and speed stats as more important for whatever reason they pick up the game. I stand by my point: if you find the game unbalanced, you are either not that good, or you don't play with equally skilled pilots. Given the current state of the online play these days, the latter is probably the most common reason people may find it unbalanced.

Is there an over-saturation of Icaras pilots? Yes. Does this mean WOHD is unbalanced? No. I chose Icaras for one reason: I hate Elimination, I hate using weapons, and I barrel roll whenever I can every time I can. That is what Icaras excels at. Since you only need ship energy to roll if you can get away, this is the ideal strategy for Icaras. Obviously other ship don't share the same ideal tactic, and require the use of weapons to excel. Thing is, when used correctly, the Icaras is a very fragile ship, often one missile assault away from elimination. As I said earlier, I win or I get eliminated. Now using the Triakis for example, you still take 15 energy for a barrel roll, but when you get into one-shot missile range for an Icaras, you would easily withstand it in a Triakis. Triakis rolls about as fast as Fury Icaras does and has more rear end thrust which helps on uphill turns where as Icaras has more of a central-back center of gravity making hill climbing more tedious.

The hidden stats aren't just related to traction either. It often deals with a ship's sense of gravity and mass as well as collision physics. Ever tried ramming a Triakis in an Icaras? Ever notice how the Auricom handles more like an American muscle car than a Ferrari? Some of the hidden stats are not as easily noticed while others are. One thing I have noticed about the ships with better shields is that they also recover faster from impacts and weapon impacts. While they don't outright tell you this in the stats, it is implied with the shield strength stat.

True enough that Wipeout isn't just a racing game, but it is still a racing game first and foremost. The dev's didn't intend for weapons to specifically be used to eliminate each other rather change the tide of a race by slowing down and disabling opponents. This is why the shield stat IS important and why I feel there is a balance. Once again though, what makes a game like this balanced is when people play to the ships respected strengths that are all equally matched. Just because you have a lobby full of Icaras ships with one Triakis doesn't make the game unbalanced. It just means that there is a better chance an Icaras will win due to sheer numbers (if everyone is equally matched).

The only unbalanced thing I might can say is that Auricom handles and feels like an inferior version of the Qirex and the EGX feels like a complete failure of a ship that doesn't really excel at any one thing in particular. However I will say that I don't have much experience with either of these ships so it isn't an unbiased opinion.

Fusion makes no attempt at balance, but the way you proceed through the various leagues and upgrade your ship it doesn't matter and since there is no online play, balance likely wasn't the focus for the game. This may in fact be the reason some dislike it actually no that I think about it. The end game Piranha essentially has a max stat at everything, and is clearly the best ship to use.

As far as the speed is concerned, it does appear faster maybe in videos, but you'll also notice considerably wider tracks. It feels a lot like F-Zero did, where the speed was outweighed by wider tracks and far less punishing technical tracks. Some find this appealing. I personally am indifferent. There are not speed classes in Fusion, rather upgrades you make scale the other ship's ai to match. So you might be going faster, but the tracks are so much wider that it doesn't really feel like it. Additionally, F-Zero had almost no technical tracks. Fusion sort of follow this pattern in that most of the tracks are more open feeling.

When max upgraded, I find the game feels similar to a Rapier race with skilled Ai.