WipEout Pure launched alongside the PSP in 2005 and did an excellent job in showing off the audio/visual capabilities of the platform. I can remember booting up the game on launch day and being suitably impressed, not only with what I saw and heard, but also with what I played. Before Pure, many fans of the series, myself included, believed WipEout XL on the PS One to be the absolute pinnacle of the series. A few installments (3, 64 and Fusion) hit an assortment of consoles at various times and none could live up to XL's mesmerizing mix of music, art and craft/track design. With Pure, and now WipEout Pulse especially, the reinvention is nearly complete.

WipEout Pulse, as a handheld game, very nearly puts most next-generation racing titles to shame. Not specifically in one area, but in terms of the whole package. Pulse is loaded with everything from modern style special effects and graphical flourishes, to custom soundtrack support and internet play and functionality. There's even the option for downloadable, fee-based expansion content, much to the chagrin of the anti-DLC crowd. There's even a photo mode.

The game builds heavily on Pure's style, in regards to the general style of game, weapons, ships and classes. The menus and on-screen interface have been redesigned and are slicker than ever - in particular the new dynamic heads-up display. The designs are simple and unique like The Designers Republic-created art found in the original WipEout titles, although maybe a little more contemporary. Graphically, Pulse is extremely polished and detailed. Studio Liverpool made the decision to pack much more detail, effects and action into a game with a 30fps framerate in lieu of a simpler looking title running at 60fps. The tradeoff (as nearly always) is worth it. Large, nicely designed tracks and surrounding environments with an insane draw distance and features such as loops, drops, jumps, shortcuts, inverted racing sections and more. On top of that a layer of next-gen-ish special effects and lighting that rivals mostly anything else out there on the system. In fact, this latest generation of PSP games is really starting to push past the PS2 in certain respects. While the visuals are of a lower native resolution obviously, the rendering looks more advanced. There's plenty of eye-candy to be found within.

The music as, you'd expect from a WipEout title, is techno/trance heavy and completely licensed. There's not much of anything mainstream in the soundtrack and techno fans will likely recognize (and more fully appreciate) the mixes and artists. Even if you aren't familiar with the tracks it doesn't take much effort to hear/feel that the soundtrack fits the Pulse perfectly. If for whatever bizarre reason you're not feeling the music selection, there's always the option to import your own custom soundtracks in .mp3 format.

The game is filled to the brim with options and mode, although most players will likely play WipEout Pulse for the Race Campaign mode. Up until this point, most of the career-type modes in the series were organized pretty similarly with a simple linear progression system. Pulse mixes it up with tiered grids that encompass multiple gameplay styles throughout. Along with single race and multi-race tournaments of increasing difficulty to take on, Studio Liverpool has mixed in timed trials, speed laps and the always intense "zone" races into the grids. You can usually make it through a tier without playing the types you really suck at... in the beginning. After a while you'll have no choice but to complete a few in order to progress to the next batch of races and event. Along the way, you will unlock more and more tracks/skins/crafts/extras, based on your performance, your overall progress and even your team loyalty. The Career Mode is exceptionally long with almost way too many events. Even the best of racers will need to put in many hours to get through the entire season. There's a lot going on in Pulse and the game keeps track of nearly every stat you could think of, and then some. While navigating the menus these achievements (not that kind) are displayed in the form of a ticker at the bottom of the screen to keep you up to date.

Along with the Race Campaign, Pulse has several a la carte racing modes wrapped up in a master "Racebox" as well as a training section. The deep multiplayer and online functionality however, is obviously the most interesting of it all. WipEout Pulse has an extremely well put together online component that supports online play (ad-hoc and infrastructure), downloadable content, leaderboards and rankings, community features (accessible within the game or on wipeout-game.com), a skin editor and others. The game even uses your already existing PlayStation Network login if you have one. It's actually hard to believe that a $30 handheld PSP game could have more online features than many full-priced console titles, but it does. For an already lengthy game, the online play adds even more replay value.

Pulse does play very much like Pure with a few tweaks and additions. The high speed anti-gravity racing we have all grown to love is there, as are the assortment of special offensive and defensive weapons and items and gadgets including a few new ones. As compared to Pure, Pulse seems to emphasize racing over blowing each other up somewhat. That's not to say you won't be destroyed (or do the destroying) during your playtime, because strategic item usage is still an important gameplay element; it's just better balanced. The A.I. definitely becomes more trigger happy at higher classes and in certain races. The courses definitely have more vertical sections and elevation changes than some of the previous installments, and new to Pulse is the "mag-strip" sections which magnetically stabilize your ship during the ridiculous (as in awesome) inverted and vertical track segments.

The PSP is really hitting it's stride lately. Along with the refreshed hardware design has come a nice software push, new and interesting online and PS3-linked features and even digital downloads. Now it's time to start buying those games... and of course make sure WipEout Pulse is on the top of that list.