There's a new book out called WipeOut Futurism: The Visual Archives, and having recently made my way through it I'm here to tell you it is one of the finest video game books I've ever read. And I've been collecting books like this for a very, very long time.
Now shipping to the homes of its first online customers--and releasing everywhere else in early 2025 (though very early customers got a fancier edition a while back)--it's a thick, hardcover art book that covers the entire WipeOut series, with particular emphasis on the first few games, since that's where so much of the most important design work was first done.
In terms of traditional art book stuff, it's great. There are loads of examples of early ship designs and sketches of WipeOut's stages; even more importantly, there are as many glorious, double-page spreads of the game's iconic branding (famously done in collaboration with Designer's Republic) as you could hope for.
As someone who, as a teen in the 90s, once dragged his dad into his office on a weekend just to download a Feisar wallpaper for my old desktop--and who now has a website with a heavy WipeOut inspiration behind its own logo--I was in heaven flipping through every page of this compendium.
It's so much more than just an art book, though. In addition to all the logos and storyboards there's a ton of genuine history behind the series, not just told by those who were there, but shown to us in the form of letters, faxes and scribbled notes detailing the creative process behind the game's creation, Designer Republic's involvement and even the process of putting WipeOut's famous soundtrack together.
If there was ONE GAME in the history of this entire medium I would want this kind of access to, this kind of peek behind the curtains, it's this one, so to actually get to hold this book in my hands felt wild. As a WipeOut fan it doesn't just indulge my love of the series; it elevates it and takes it to new places by teaching me things I'd never known until now.
I'm grateful for all the work put in here by author Duncan Harris: for the collection of images, yeah, but also the history. That’s something too few video game art books are ever interested in, and which is thankfully immortalised here in print for this generation--and future generations--to enjoy.
