For anyone who spent time gaming during the PlayStation era, the name WipeOut probably brings back fond memories. While later games diluted some of what made the series great, Wipeout and its sequel Wipeout 2097 provided futuristic racing that arguably couldn’t be matched by any games that came after them.
In 2012 Sony closed its Liverpool studio (formerly known as Psygnosis) and it seemed that any chance for a return of the series was gone forever. Fortunately for fans of the series, developers from the closed studio banded together to form R8 Games, and then launched a spiritual successor to the Wipeout games, titled Formula Fusion, on Kickstarter.
One look at the screenshots reveals that this is very closely modeled on the games its developers once created. The studio has even recruited The Designers Republic, who did much of the logo design for the WipeOut games.
R8 games was only looking to raise a modest £35,000 (just over $50,000) but so far has made almost twice that. While the project has been successfully funded, many of its stretch goals are left with only hours to go until the end of the campaign.
At the time of this writing, Formula Fusion has raised just over £66,000. The closest stretch goal is £75,00, which will see the game adding eSports integration — fitting, given the futuristic sport feel of the WipeOut games. If the campaign manages to reach £100,000 before its end, R8 games plans to add console support.
Even if Formula Fusion doesn’t hit its console port stretch goal, R8 plans to send out a survey to ask backers what platform they’d like to see the game on. “If you want the console version of the game — regardless if we reach the stretch goal — it will just take longer if we don’t reach it, then please select that option in the survey,” R8 games writes on the Kickstarter page.
While there are only hours to go, if you’re interested, head over to the Kickstarter page to back the campaign.
