In what will surely prove to be a Monkey’s Paw moment for the vast majority of you, WipEout Rush is an all-new entry in Liverpool Studio’s legendary sci-fi racing series – for smartphones. Due out next year for iOS and Android devices, the spin-off is almost certainly the first instalment in Sony’s fledgling mobile initiative, which boss Jim Ryan discussed recently.

The release, being tackled by mobile developer Rogue Games, has a comic book aesthetic, will feature 60 ships from the original series, and boasts a single player campaign spanning 12 championship cup races across “five distinct environments”. That’s per an IGN post, although there’s no mention of the “card collecting” aspect introduced in the trailer.

Rogue Games’ CEO Matt Casamassina stresses that this isn’t a replacement for traditional WipEout games on console – and is instead a different take on the iconic series: “If I want that visceral, immersive, intense racing experience, I’ll find it waiting on PlayStation,” he said, presumably anticipating a backlash from enthusiasts. “We’re delighted that we could rethink WipEout for mobile with some fun new play mechanics.”

He added: “We hope fans will come to it with an open mind because – although different – we’re proud to bring the WipEout franchise back into focus with a fresh take on the formula. And we’ve poured a lot of love into the presentation, which includes loads of iconic ships and tracks, a new comic book-inspired narrative, a fitting electronica soundtrack, and gorgeous visuals that run at 60 frames-per-second on modern hardware.”

We’ll need to await more information to get a better feel for how it plays, but the trailer certainly has plenty of futuristic circuits and lightning fast aircrafts in it. There had been rumours about a new WipEout game being in development for PS5, but we can’t help but wonder whether “insiders” were mistaken, and were actually referring to this instead.

[source ign.com]