Wipeout (2097) was like a grown up, futuristic version of Mario Kart. It had funky hover cars, a thumping soundtrack with lots of dirty electronica (including The Prodigy), and this Blade Runner type grungy-neon-future feel. Great game!

Wipeout series is one of my favorite game series out there. It's like F-Zero on steroids + the awesome magic of The Designers Republic http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Designers_Republic which made it look and feel like it does.

I agree, the stylism that The Designers Republic brought to the table definitely was a cornerstone of the Wipeout series for me. The other part of the equation that got me hooked was the soundtrack Messij by Cold Storage and every other track by this Artist for that matter. For the nostalgic, the tracks can be found here: http://www.coldstorage.org.uk/music.html

They need to make a few more cars. Even a 1 vs 1 race would be awesome.

What would be awesome is if they put a camera on the bottom that somehow read symbols on the track that for example gave the car a boost or activated weapons like in the game.

You could add a spring-loaded rod on the bottom of the car that would be triggered during a wreck. The rod would fire down and flip the car over.

This is a video.

Definitely worth checking out for fans of the Wipeout games. For the unfamiliar: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tK1WSxNN4aU

Where's my powerslide? (joking)

It would be really cool if they mounted the camera above the car to give a 3rd person perspective, just like the game. Or could somehow use magnets to make a hovercraft ;-)

Why joking? Powersliding is possible. Tape up the tires or otherwise reduce their frictional coefficient. See: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0TraYbBVRH4

Now this is Hacker News. Made my day!

I'm very happy now.