Once again there's some timing at work here, with the game's touted 1080p imagery and 5.1 surround sound a good fit for increasingly common home theaters. More than 10 years later, Wipeout HD is the first sequel that can rightfully claim the mantle from Wipeout XL as the definitive futuristic racer. And the environments themselves were full of enough shiny neon-tinged details to suggest a world beyond its boundaries, all polished and branded within an inch of its life by design firm the Designer's Republic. The soundtrack managed to seem both aggressive and detached, and complemented the feeling of launching a missile at an opponent while immediately thinking only of the next curve in the track. Licensed tracks are standard fare these days, but back then it was no small thrill to hear actual songs by the Chemical Brothers or Underworld play an integral role in the overall feel of a game.

This first sequel was also aided in no small part by a rousing electronica soundtrack back when electronica was supposed to signal the end of rock. The game was lightning in a bottle, coming out in 1996 when the PlayStation's growing popularity signaled the beginning of a growing maturity (or least angry adolescence) for the industry.

Part of Wipeout XL's success can be attributed to timing.

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