Wipeout 2097 (Wipeout XL in North America) is an anti-gravity first-person racing game set 100 years into the future (at the time of its development). It’s the sequel to the original Wipeout game but features the faster, more competitive and more deadly F5000 League. The sequel introduces new tracks, weapons, and hovercraft vehicles—which can be turned into animal shapes through a hidden cheat. While weapons could delay racers in the original game, players and competitors can now be destroyed in the F5000 League. A feature to recharge and repair damaged shields was added to the sequel.  

Originally released on PlayStation in 1996, the game was ported to the Sega Saturn the following year by Tantalus. The studio had also worked on porting the original Wipeout game to the Saturn. While playing Wipeout 2097, players will zoom past billboards featuring the Tantalus logo. Other billboards feature Tantalus’ part-owner Perfect Entertainment and original developer Psygnosis.

Version Information

Aside from minor differences based on hardware capabilities like graphics and loading times, Wipeout 2097 on the Sega Saturn is near identical to the original Playstation version. Sony, however, held the rights to the licensed soundtracks featured on the PlayStation game, which included tracks from English electronic bands like The Prodigy and The Chemical Brothers. The Saturn soundtrack was entirely made up of music by Cold Storage, an in-house band for the original development studio Psygnosis. Cold Storage had also contributed a couple of tracks to the PlayStation OST. 

Wipeout 2097 was also ported to Windows (1997), Amiga (1999) and Macintosh (2002).

Game Meta

Other Names
Wipeout XL
Release Year
Genre
Creators
Lead Programmer
System and Additional Programming
Lead Artist
Additional Artwork
QA Manager
Technical Director
Executive Producer
Additional Creators
PSYGNOSIS: Christopher Gomez (Senior Producer); David Williams (Associate Producer); Cold Storage (Music); Kevin Turner (QA Manager); Paul Tweedle, Alan Mc Ardle, Marvin James, Lee O Conner (Alpha Team); Dave Parkinson, Lee Derbyshire, Andy Santos, Rob Wolf, Tracy Tweedle (Beta Team). PERFECT ENTERTAINMENT: Matt Stamps (Producer); Paul Weir (Quality Assurance); Dave Hirst, David Swan, Steve Packer (Additional Graphics)
Company
Developer (Sega Saturn port)
Publisher (Japan)
Original Developer, Publisher (Europe)
Executive Production
Platform
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Value Chain

Screenshots

Screenshots via YouTube – World of Longplays “Saturn Longplay [119] Wipeout XL”

Box Art

Media

Manuals & Walkthroughs

Video