I used to be a Playstation gamer. The PS1 and PS2 days were a good times for gaming. Sony ruled the roost and never looked back. We all know that changed when the Xbox 360 and then PS3 was released. The PS3 had everything going for it - except a decent price. All but hardest core gamer just wouldn’t pony up the bucks, making access the Sony-exclusive library a pipe dream for gamers like me.

Leaving old friends behind

If you own a PS3, I’m going to guess you probably use the build-in Blu-Ray DVD player more than you use the console to play actual games. The number of retail-worthy games on the PS3 is limited pretty much to Sony exclusives. It sounds like a play from the Nintendo Handbook. First-party games are great, but they won’t carry a console very far. You may point at the Wii as the exception to that rule, but I’ll argue that the games did very little to make that console a success. But I digress…

This is Wipeout HD. Pure beauty. Pure speed.

When the PS3 became the current gen leaving the PS2 behind, I lost access to several of my favorite Sony-exclusive titles. One being Metal Gear, the other being Wipeout. Really? Wipeout? Yes, Wipeout. I love me some arcade racing and Wipeout delivered that to a tee. Wipeout was beautiful, fast, fun…it fired on all cylinders. With the PS3, Sony released Wipeout HD, by far the best looking interation of the game yet (and why shouldn’t it be?).

Make sure you watch that video in 720p.

I sat drooling over Wipeout and Metal Gear knowing I’d never play them regularly. The Xbox 360 is my console of choice, even though I swore the Wii would be awesome (and it was for about nine months). While the Xbox 360 has less power than the PS3, I’m always reading that Xbox games look and perform better than PS3 games. How can this be? My assumption has always been that game makers build games for the 360 console then just port them to PS3. This means that unless the game is a Sony-exclusive, it’s not really being made to take advantage of the PS3 hardware. But even with less power, the 360 is certainly capable of a Wipeout-like game, right?

Is space racing that uncool?

I looked and looked. Apparently spaceship racing games aren’t quite the draw they used to be (if they ever were) and so you won’t find any on the shelves. I was bummed. Knowing I’d never play the real Wipeout on the 360, I had to settle for clone, but there weren’t even any of those to play! Then when I was grabbing links and screen shots for my review of MotorHEAT, I saw an Indie game that was a no-excuses Wipeout clone - Antigrav Championship Racing.

Despite the lame name, Antigrav Championship Racing (ACR) does really well and bringing Wipeout fun to the Xbox 360. Being an Indie game it’s not quite a polished or as fine tuned as Wipeout, naturally, but that’s okay because for one, it’s the first Wipeout I’ve seen on the 360, and two, it’s a Indie game…and it’s a $3 Indie game. Yes, another $3 game that puts a lot of gameplay in your library.

It’s not Wipeout, but close

For the price of admission, ACR brings you dozens of tracks and a good selection of racers. For the most part the tracks are well designed and a lot of fun to play. The graphics are crisp and sharp despite not being able to pump out the power of the original Sony title. I can appreciate an developer that is not ashamed to clone one of their favorite games, and I’ll gladly give them my money.

This is ACR. Clearly not Wipeout, but close enough

You feel kind of bad picking on Indie games that only set you back $3, but because I love Wipeout-style games so much, I feel I have to point some things out. But remember, it’s a $3 game and one you should buy. Period. You get a lot of game for the price, but you will notice the following things that stop it from being a $5 or even $10 game.

• The collisions and crash handling is pretty bad. The camera goes crazy, you experience clipping problems, and things just behaves poorly. So the lesson, don’t run in to anything!
• There’s not always a reaction for every action. Your spaceships come with air brakes and other things but activating them doesn’t trigger any visual response from your racer. The buttons are working fine but sometimes it’s hard to tell if you crashed because you didn’t use your brakes or if you over-braked.
• No on-line play. Having only a few Indie games, I’m not sure how standard Xbox Live play is for these games, if at all, but having on-line play would be freaking sweet.
• No local multiplayer. I can forgive on-line play if I had a local 2-player option. However, seeing how the 360 sometimes chokes on graphics during a single player track makes me think it wouldn’t be able to handle two at once.
• The menus are slow. They’re also not designed well, but I can let that slide. The time between pressing the button to continue and getting a response on screen is way too long, several seconds, so you end up pressing the button a couple more times. There’s just not a lot to say about the interface.
• The music is so-so. The game comes with your standard issue techno racing music, but you can do without it. I turned mine off and just played my own music while racing. Much better.
• Where are the guns? Wipeout isn’t all about shooting your opponents, but some limited power-ups to spice things up would have been nice.

Worth every penny until we someone does it better

Again, keep in mind this game is only $3, so a lot those problems can be forgiven. BUT, if some of these things would have been minded then this title could have easily been a $5, $10 or even $15 game without anyone bitching. If nothing else, ACR tells me that one of the big boys needs to step up and make a Wipeout-clone with a budget. Make use of XBL and sell it for $15 and people will play. I look at Battlefield: 1943 as an example, it will work (I know FPS games are slightly more popular than space racing, but still).

Antigrav Championship Racing

But until that day comes, Antigrav Championship Racing might be the best we get, which is nothing to sneeze at, especially for $3. If you’re like me and love some good arcade racing and loved Sony’s Wipeout, ACR is a definite buy. Lots of game, not a lot of bills.

And if the PS3 hadn’t been so expensive and the Xbox 360 not such a hot console, I would have bought a PS3 just for Wipeout and Metal Gear alone. But thank goodness I didn’t.