WipEout Pulse is a game that doesn't try to fix what isn't broken. This is to say that it takes the formula laid down by its futuristic racing forebears, tweaks it ever so slightly, and wraps it in a package of new features over which any fan of WipEout is sure to salivate. Customizable ship skins, custom soundtrack features, a new open-ended single-player progression and full online play features are the highlights of the aforementioned package, and they're more than enough to make Pulse a worthy purchase for almost any PSP owner.

Fans of WipEout Pure for the PSP won't have much trouble jumping into this sequel. Pulse features precisely the same brand of tough yet exciting futuristic racing as the earlier entries in the WipEout series. Races play out like a combination of F-Zero and Mario Kart, with lightning-quick ships zooming around highly dangerous tracks, all while launching various weapons of varying degrees of obliterative power at one another. Machine guns, missiles, bombs, speed boosts, shields, shurikens, quakes ... they're all at your disposal and a blast to use.

Using your weapons carefully and navigating each track's twists and turns are paramount to success. One accidental bump against the railing or a missed boost pad often spells the difference between victory and defeat. Fortunately, the controls are tight enough to make the precise turns and movements required with minimal frustration, though your opponents are bound to cause a bit of that.

Artificial-intelligence-controlled opponents are relentless, coming at you time and time again with tough driving that's guaranteed to keep you gripping your PSP with white-knuckled tension. On the plus side, the AI challenge never comes across as needlessly cheesy. If you get a big lead and manage to drive well for the rest of the race, opponents won't just randomly catch up with you, but the second you slip up, they'll be there ready to overtake.

One thing that has changed rather radically in Pulse is the progression of the single-player mode. Gone is the linear progression of old, and in its place is a grid-based methodology that provides you with a variety of events from which to choose. The system is tiered, and as you earn points in each tier (medals won in races earn points), you unlock new tiers.

Each tier offers a variety of events, from standard races to time trials, speed laps, elimination races and zone races. The latter of those two are arguably the best action the game has to offer, though both also bear a bit of explanation. Elimination races are purely combat-oriented affairs, where you and opponent drivers simply work toward a set number of destroyed ships as you race around the track. Zone races put you in an ever-accelerating ship, one that won't stop until it has run out of shield power and explodes. As you race, you're working your way through set zones, which are essentially 10-second periods. Your goal is to clear a set number of zones before you inevitably 'splode.

If there's any real flaw with WipEout Pulse, it's that given how lengthy its single-player mode is, it doesn't have a great deal of variety. Ships are suitably varied, but there simply aren't enough tracks, with only 12 (each with a reversible version of itself) available, and given the number of grids through which you'll have to play, the repetition does start to wear thin.

Of course, at some point this is likely to be remedied with downloadable content, which the game touts heavily. Said content is actually available to the European audience, but North American players are currently still waiting for it. The only bummer about the downloaded content is that it won't be free. One of the big draws of WipEout Pure was the free post-release content, and this time around you'll be dropping a few bucks for additional expansions. Kind of a predictable move, but a disappointing one nonetheless.

Granted, that just goes for the developer-provided content, and doesn't include the stuff you can make yourself. One of the niftier features of Pulse is the addition of customizable ship skins, which you can design using the game's Web site. The paint tools used on the site are pretty solid and allow you to make some genuinely cool designs to show off when you're racing online.

Online play is inarguably the best addition to this already deep game. Though you can simply play via ad-hoc, infrastructure mode is the real draw. It appears to work nearly flawlessly, as all the games I played online were basically lag-free, and jumping into a game is quite easy. As good as the AI in the single-player mode is, there's no substitute for racing against real live opponents, and now that's easier than ever.

Things get nuttier when you start digging into all the other little stuff you can do. You can use the Web site to download other players' created skins, and leaderboards for all race types and tracks. Stats for practically everything you do in the game are tracked in-game, so if you want to know how many laps you've run on a specific track or how many times you've launched missiles versus bombs, it's all at your disposal. There's even a screenshot tool in the game you can use to snap shots of your replays from a variety of camera angles. They save to the PSP's memory stick, and you can upload them to your PC from there.

In most games a screenshot tool like this might seem pretentious and pointless, but WipEout Pulse is such a gorgeous-looking game that those screenshots are actually a nice thing to have around. From the stylish and colorfully designed ships, to the out-and-out phenomenal-looking tracks, Pulse is a class act in every regard when it comes to graphical fidelity. It's not exactly light years ahead of what Pure did, but the little refinements made across the board create a top-flight visual experience. Even better, the frame rate holds steady throughout each race, and the load times aren't insufferable, either.

One element that doesn't quite match up to previous entries in the WipEout series is the soundtrack. Of course the game features an electronic soundtrack including some big names like Aphex Twin and Kraftwerk, but the music itself isn't nearly as dynamic or emotive as previous soundtracks have been. Games like WipEout, WipEout 3 and WipEout Pure trump this one by a fair margin when it comes to soundtrack selection. Fortunately, if so inclined, you could just go track down the music for those games, or pick out any other music you might like for that matter, and transfer it to the memory stick for use in the game. It's the same slightly convoluted process other PSP titles have used for custom soundtracks, but having up to 30 additional songs of your choosing in the game is a big bonus any way you slice it.

Ultimately, WipEout Pulse is precisely what fans of Sony's futuristic racing franchise will want from a follow-up to Pure. The racing is as pulse-pounding and terrifically addictive as ever, and the many, many content additions are sure to keep you busy until WipEout HD hits the PlayStation 3, and likely well beyond.

This review was based on a retail copy of the game provided by the publisher.