As many of you know, I really can't abide racing games. I can't stand the lack of imagination, the endless variety of on-the-road cars paraded in front of you and quite often the complete and utter lack of gameplay, instead replaced by options to customise your paint job! Instead I prefer games where there are big explosions and I can hack away at stuff with glee. However, there has been one notable exception in the past (see my Burnout 3 review) and now there are two. The first title I picked up for my beautiful new PSP was bought purely on the basis of some memory of big explosions in the original PlayStation version! I was ecstatic to find that not only has this got explosions beyond my wildest dreams, it also excels on just about every other level.

There really isn't much a of a story, other than a group of companies coming together to make money out of an incredibly dangerous, yet popular sport. The FX300 Anti-Gravity Race League is supposed to be the crème de la crème of the anti-gravity vehicle racers and each company has their own particular vehicle to promote. For example, the Triakis Team have a ship that can't be matched for shielding and is also pretty fast, but it handles like a brick. The Feisar team, on the other hand, excels in handling, has superb thrust capabilities but is more like a carthorse than a racing horse when it comes to the power.

One of the joys of this game is exploring what each craft is capable of as you make your way through the various game options, of which there are so many! Initially, until you find out if any of your pals have also been able to get their hands on a PSP, you're going to be playing through the single player options, which include Single Race, Time Trial, Zone and Tournament. I like to dive straight into my games so went immediately for the Tournament, albeit on the easiest setting. It was a bit of a shock to find it was not easy at all and this setting provided a challenge that took me a good couple of hours of solid gameplay to work my way through. Getting gold in Alpha and Beta tracks (4 tracks in each) then opens up the Ascension, where you have to fly and fight your way through the combined tracks of the previous two. Getting gold in all is essential to not only progress through the ranks but also open up some rather splendid goodies. I'm not going to discuss the goodies, as I'll spoil the surprise, but needless to say, fans of previous Wipeout incarnations will be delighted.

Anyway, coming back to the races themselves, after choosing a craft based on your preferences for thrust, speed, shield and handling, you are thrown straight into the game. No fiddling with custom colours or choosing logos or any of that nonsense - just straight into the thick of it! I found that no matter how I did in the previous race, I was always placed right at the back for the start of the next one, but like Mario Kart and other racers of it's ilk, if you time it right you can hit the accelerate button right at the start and get a lovely boost that takes you almost to the front. Keeping yourself there is a hell of a job though; besides the massive winding tracks you have to work through, you're up against some incredibly aggressive computer controlled players, who all have the same options for speed boosts and weapons as you. You obtain these by flying over certain sections of tracks, white neon arrows for speed boosts and multicoloured squares for weapons and other upgrades.

The armaments you can pick up are absolutely delicious, varying between single shot rockets that you have to shoot into the back of anyone foolish enough to overtake you, homing missiles for when you just have to take out the leader of the pack and even massive bombs, which are so destructive they make the track in front of you ripple and can take out three ships in one go. You've constantly got to be concerned about who is coming up behind you too, which is why you have the added benefits of mine laying and massive stationary bombs to leave lying in your wake. There are non-weapon pickups too, such as shields, extra speed boosts for that essential last second dash to the finish line and even an autopilot, handy for those curves where you just know you're going to go skidding into a wall.

The only problem is, these are all available to the other players and they're not scared to use them, in the most awkward places too. It's galling to find that the speed boost arrow on the track just around the corner, needed to close the gap on the guy in front, has mines laid all over it by the leader. Mines will not only wipe your shields out, but slow you down severely too. The opposition isn't afraid to use the disruptor beam either, which makes your craft wobble and shake, becoming completely unresponsive to your efforts to coax it round hairpin bends. To say the competitors provide a challenge is an understatement.

Then you have the tracks themselves, all beautifully crafted and well thought out. The Alpha tracks have loads of nice straights for some speed boosts and battling, while the Beta tracks are filled with curves and bends that tax your reflexes to the limit. Both are replete with traps and surprises, such as a massive pit right in the middle of one track, or a series of curved bridges without walls, just begging you to go flying over the edge into oblivion. One track, which I particularly like as I've sussed out how to do it perfectly each time, has a bend so sharp you have to practically brake to a stop while turning almost 180 degrees to go speeding off in virtually the opposite direction. All of these twists and turns have carefully spaced boost arrows and it's essential you fly over them to gain on your opponents. In later stages of the game if you don't hit every single one it's a safe bet you're either not going to place in the top three or may even come last!

When I cleared the first tournament, narrowly scraping a gold, I breathed a sigh of relief and looked forward to the next level up, the same tracks but with faster vehicles. Having gotten used to the track layout I thought I would have a distinct advantage. How wrong I was! Doing the same tracks with a radical difference in speed is like playing new tracks altogether and I think the designers are well aware of this. You have to come up with completely new tactics for dealing with corners you previously sneered at and it's in these races that you really examine the controls of the PSP. The left and right shoulder buttons are air brakes and if you don't use these to negotiate the tight bends you've lost before you started. Similarly, when you hit high ramps that launch you into the air you learn the advantages of the barrel roll, a quick tap left, right, then left again; this grants you an added speed boost when you hit the ground and is an essential trick to learn if you want to move up to the even faster third level.

This is where it gets insanely fast and you goggle at the sheer power of the PSP. How can it perform at such speeds? It's remarkable! Needless to say, I've not gotten past the third level yet, as my numbed fingers throb from hammering the buttons and I need to give my poor heart a break from the constant adrenaline rushes. I will do it though, dammit, and that's one of the bonuses of this game; the replayabilty and addictiveness is a constant.

Other modes in the single player options give you a chance to rest up from Tournament mode and really hone your skills. The Time Trial is nice and provides you with a ghost ship to race against, a craft usually generated by your previous time trial performance. There is also a Free mode where you can explore any of the tracks you've opened on your own just to make yourself familiar with the twists and turns of each. There is also Zone, a nice new touch where you fly the same section of racetrack over and over. Each time you do one circuit you enter a new speed zone, until by about the 10th zone you're flying at insane speeds and it's nigh on impossible to avoid ricocheting off the walls. The object here is to get to the highest speed zone before your shields give out and you crash and burn. It sounds simple, but is almost as exhilarating as flying in a Tournament.

Considering that this is just a release title, I'll be amazed if game developers can come up with better visuals in any upcoming games. They are spectacular, yet at the same time complement the gameplay perfectly. Before you even race you see some fantastic designs just in the game selection and vehicle choice areas, on a stark white background with text in a futuristic but quite readable font. The lined edges have come right from a top draughtsman's table, as have the simple representations of each craft. Pleasantly surprised by the appealing layout as I was, my jaw simply dropped to the floor when I played my first race and took my first look at the landscape I'd be steaming through. The three dimensions of the stadium are so crammed with detail, from banners on the buildings to the audience themselves. These buildings are made all the more dynamic by the lighting effects, which include massive stadium lights and scrolling text on space age banners, let alone their reflections off the carapace of your gleaming anti-grav racer.

Then the race started and my eyes quite simply bugged out of my head and joined my jaw on the floor! I couldn't believe what I was seeing. How can a portable console be capable of such speed, such detail, such dynamism and obvious raw power in its graphic chip? The winding track and rolling sky blew past at an incredible rate of knots, the frame rate remaining at a constant that tied in with the speed of the action and the ever-present detail, yet at the same time never detracting from the action on track. The racers themselves burned by, leaving me stunned in their wake, watching their super-thrust afterglow leave a trail behind them, soon itself to fade into the distance.

I couldn't help but admire their sleek streamlined neo-formula one look. It's as if the designers had taken the best car ever driven by Nigel Mansell, added wings, lasers and a glowing engine port, then tweaked the aerodynamic look for each one. Thankfully the paint jobs are taken care of for us and I was able to recognise each blurred vehicle by its hue as it passed me in a blink of an eye. Then the combat started and I was surrounded with spiky mines, pulsating bombs, massive bursts of deadly rocket power and showers of burning metal, as racers met their doom. I longed to slow down and soak in the scenery but the moment I tried to do that I got a disruptor beam up the backside and my craft turned into yet another pile of vivid orange and stark black flaming wreckage.

However, the assault on your senses doesn't end with the graphics. The sound accompanying all this action is also absolutely remarkable and really puts competing handheld consoles to shame. Even over the slightly tinny speakers, everything sounds great, but as with all handhelds I recommend using the headphones to get the most from it. When you do, you're going to be hit by a ton of laser fire, exploding rockets, destabilising pulse beams and the sound of screeching metal against metal. Not only that but just hearing the massive 'WHOOMPF' of your afterburners igniting gives you as much sensation of the raw power of your vehicle as the on-screen action. Add to this a pulse-pounding soundtrack in true Wipeout style, a blistering series of techno tracks with a futuristic tint. Ok, techno is incredibly passé on high-octane games these days, but Wipeout Pure still manages to keep it fresh, lively and perfectly in keeping with the action on-screen. So good is the soundtrack you may well be tempted to order the CD of the music, advertised on a leaflet that came with the instruction manual.

It doesn't end there! Oh no, Wipeout still has plenty of extra surprises in store. There are so many Wireless Lan multiplayer options, the Tournament probably the favourite and eight players at a time can compete. Added to this, the other seven players don't necessarily have to own their own copy of Wipeout Pure either, which is such a bonus! You can only imagine the thrill of sitting down with seven of your mates to compete head to head on some of the fastest tracks portable gaming has ever been able to offer. That's not all! There's also exclusive online content to be downloaded if you have Wi-Fi on your computer. You can visit Wipeoutpure.com and get new tracks, new skins, experimental ships and more. To say that this game will have you coming back for more is an understatement; it just keeps giving and giving.

Well, I'm flabbergasted. What more can I say? Wipeout Pure has it all; edge of your seat racing, big explosions, challenging tracks, aggressive competitors, superb graphics, exemplary cutting edge sound and is altogether one of the most well thought out and brilliantly conceived titles that it has ever been my joy to come across. If you don't buy this game after forking out megabucks for your console then you're a fool - makers of the PSP and developers of Wipeout Pure, I salute you!

Reviewed by Dave Wynn for AceGamez (All Rights Reserved).