Nothing Better Than Wipeout--Until Now

Few games have moved me the way last year’s Wipeout did on Sony PlayStation. True to form, the gaming gurus at Psygnosis have followed their original masterpiece with a sequel that’s about as tasty as my grandma’s holiday gravy.

Wipeout XL is everything good about Wipeout taken to new levels. Call it Wipeout squared. The techno-funk music is back, along with dreamy courses that unfold as gracefully as a midnight drive up the Pasadena Freeway.

Although some of the minimalism that characterized the original Wipeout has been forsaken, the sequel still does only what’s necessary to keep the game on track and in line with its poetic vision of the future. Nice touches include steam vents that cast lingering clouds over the courses and new audio cues to warn of danger.

As in the original, the glue of gravity has been dissolved and the big sport of the next century is anti-gravity racing. Wipeout XL resurrects all the old racers, but outfits them with a load of new weaponry that’s perfect for knocking opponents off the track.

Scenery screams by on silent tracks that are as tough to master as those on any traditional racer--maybe even tougher. Scads of anti-grav imitators followed Wipeout last year, hoping to imitate its success. Don’t be fooled.

There was only one.

Now, there are only two.

MR. BONES: A blues-singing skeleton named Mr. Bones was supposed to be one of Sega’s big stars, but instead ends up a two-disc dud that harks back to old 16-bit side-scrollers.

Maybe I didn’t give Mr. Bones much of a chance, but a good game should deliver fun right out of the box. After a few frustrating hours of pointless play, I gave up. Too familiar. Too boring. Too hokey.

Mr. Bones and his long-dead chums have been resurrected through the power of skeletism by the evil DaGoulian, who, of course, wants to take over the world with his new undead Army of Darkness. I’m no power-hungry fiend, but taking over the world with an army of skeletons sounds like a lot more fun than trying to prevent it, which is the goal of the game.

Along the way, players guide Mr. Bones through a range of jump-and-duck levels that are nicely rendered, but pretty redundant. The only gimmick in this game that works is the way Mr. Bones gets hurt: As he’s hit by enemies, he falls apart piece by piece. It’s pretty funny to bounce through a level as nothing more than a skull and spinal cord.

All in all, the game could use a little more skeletism to hold it together. Lots of nice ideas seem thrown together in a hodgepodge that could have worked, but doesn’t.

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Staff writer Aaron Curtiss reviews video games every Thursday. To comment on a column or to suggest games for review, send letters to The Times, 20000 Prairie St., Chatsworth, CA 91311. Or send e-mail to Aaron.C[email protected]