Meet the Dark Souls of Racing Games: BallisticNG

Red-Bull-chargedI love the original Wipeout games in a way that probably isn’t healthy. 1996's Wipeout 2097 was literally the first PlayStation game I ever played, and I played it to death. As a life-long electronic music fan, this was less a video game and more a way of life, a manifesto in digital form. It was speed, attitude, sound and sweat all fused into a Red Bull-charged fever dream.

When Wipeout 3 arrived in 1999, I can clearly remember the hype. For anyone whose interests were at the crossroads of gaming and club music, this was a cultural event, forever linked with Sasha’s hugely influential Xpander EP. I remember descending the staircase into Sydney’s legendary Central Station Records, seeing Wipeout 3 running on TVs in the store, and playing the opening race while drinking my first ever can of Red Bull. As an icon of underground culture, Wipeout was a bridge between the worlds of gaming and music.

After picking up Wipeout 3: Special Edition during a trip to Asia in 2000, I sunk 100+ hours into it. I unlocked everything, chased those gold medals, and only hit a wall at the highest speed classes. I never loved the later entries like Fusion, Pulse or HD as much. Even though the Wipeout Omega Collection on PS4 was excellent, it never captured that gritty magic of Wipeout 3, with the floaty handling and angular, industrial courses that felt like rainy, moody glimpses of the future.

A lot of it came down to the raw gameplay, too; I've always loved the turbo boost mechanic of Wipeout 3 (sacrificing shields for speed) over the barrel roll boosts of the later games. And while Wipeout 2097 kicked off the hysteria and was a much larger commercial success, true fans know that Wipeout 3: Special Edition was the refinement of the original formula into something close to perfection.

So when I tell you that 2018's BallisticNG is a lovingly crafted homage to classic Wipeout, I’m saying it with deep affection and slightly unreasonable levels of nostalgia and expectation.

Old-School Heart, Modern Muscle

While BallisticNG accurately captures the vibe, handling, art style, and track philosophy of Wipeout 3, it also folds in modern flourishes that broaden the experience. Some new-era weapons are included, like the machine-gun cannons, and the mode variety is enormous, vastly outstripping the 90's series' offerings. The huge single-player campaign features a deep variety of events with ever-increasing difficulty, moving far beyond the standard combat racing formula.

The most interesting inclusions are two distinct physics modes that lean toward both the classic and modern. The base handling, called 2159, is rooted in that classic floaty feel, with pitch control being a big part of the dance. Keep the nose up by holding back as you air-brake through tight corners and land on ramps, then push the nose down on straights to squeeze out extra speed. Then there's 2280 mode, which leans more towards the Wipeout HD/Fury feel, bringing the camera closer to the vehicle and generally being more forgiving in the corners.

BallisticNG’s 1.4 update in May 2025 was centred on the expanded 2280 mode, bringing redesigned menus, quality-of-life improvements, and beefed-up modding tools. I still prefer the classic 2159 feel because I was raised on the original trilogy, but I’m genuinely glad 2280 exists. It opens the door for a whole new wave of players who grew up with the modern Wipeout titles.

A Team On a Mission

BallisticNG’s developers are a tiny, independent, remote team called Neognosis, whose name feels like a cheeky nod to Psygnosis (later Studio Liverpool), the legendary British studio behind the original Wipeout series. Their wider presence is pretty low-key, but the core of Neognosis appears to be two key people: Adam Chivers as lead developer and Aidan Lee handling support and Linux/Mac porting.

As far as public info shows, their only publicly released game so far is BallisticNG, but they’ve backed it up with custom tools and strong mod support, so it feels alive and evolving rather than a one-and-done. In 2025, Steam reviews keep flowing, and the game's Discord is still very active. That long-term care is a big part of why BallisticNG comes across as a passion project that grew into a genuinely polished and community-adored indie success story.

Nowhere is this love and reverence for the source material more evident than the absurd amount of content on offer in the stellar campaign. For starters, there are modes galore: Racing, Team Racing, Tournaments, Time Trials, Speed Laps, Eliminator, Knockout, Survival, Upsurge, Rush Hour, and Stunt modes are all here, with Custom Race options too if you want to get tweaking. You also get two-player split-screen, online play, and even VR compatibility, which, looking at the upcoming Steam Frame, could be very interesting.

All these expansions are included in the base game too, with no extra DLC to buy. Everything comes bundled, which helps the whole package feel huge. It expands the world and adds even more event variety, with over 50 courses available once you factor in mirror modes and other variants.

Along with the staggering amount on offer, the excellent course design deserves its own spotlight. These are hands-down some of the greatest anti-gravity racing tracks ever made. You’ll be racing through everything from busy sci-fi mega-cities and seaside industrial zones to snowy mountain circuits, cavernous canyons, huge smoggy factories, glistening speedways, and ancient forests. For an indie project, the range and artistry are truly impressive.

It’s the kind of game that makes you quietly furious Sony isn’t doing more with the Wipeout franchise, because a small dev team just walked up and built a whole parallel universe for the genre.

The Anti-Gravity Gauntlet

I’m more of an offline-mode person these days, and BallisticNG is perfect for that. In my region, I haven’t had much luck finding online matches, and as a Mac user, my mod compatibility is limited. So I’ve been living inside the single-player campaign, which is massive. And here's where the “Dark Souls of racing games” label stops being a joke and starts feeling like a warning.

BallisticNG starts pleasantly enough. You get into a rhythm. You start thinking, “Okay, I’m still good at this, I still have it.” And then about halfway through the campaign, the game calmly removes the floor and lets you fall. Suddenly, you’re staring at a level of difficulty that feels almost pathological. It shifts from exhilarating to intimidating in a heartbeat, like the game quietly deciding it’s done being friendly.

One bad corner and suddenly you drop from first to eighth, with the entire pack flashing past your eyes. I can see how this could be discouraging if you’re not fully locked into the anti-gravity mindset, but I also get why the game is built this way. There’s a certain purity to it. The challenge is the point, and mastery is the reward.

At its best, BallisticNG creates that intense patience-and-focus loop where every failed run teaches you something tangible. You warm up. You lock in. You sharpen your line. You learn the track’s secret language. You stop fighting the ever-increasing speed and start dancing with it. Much like a Souls game, there are no compromises here. You just have to put in the time and rise to the challenge.

Into the Groove

The original Wipeout series' soundtrack was a landmark in video games, being among the first video games to license underground music artists and make full use of Sony’s new CD-ROM technology in the original PlayStation.

The in-game soundtrack for BallisticNG is certainly strong, but to really fall into the trance, I’ve found the perfect move is building a custom playlist of classic and modern electronic music (think The Prodigy, Underworld, Paul Van Dyk, Sasha, Metrik, Fred V & Grafix) and playing it alongside the game's stellar sound effects on a high-end pair of headphones. This is the fuel you'll need to lock in, find flow, and push through the tougher tiers.

At a certain point, something magical happens. After repeated plays, you memorise a course so deeply that the speed melts away. You anticipate each corner. You feel the air-brake timing deep in your bones. The game demands near-flawless execution for gold and platinum, and that can be brutal. But if you love the vibe, the style, the music, and the combat racing chaos, these are hours well spent.

Commit or Crash Out

BallisticNG is a ridiculous package. It's a love letter to PS1-era Wipeout with modern flourishes, a huge range of modes, loads of tracks, expansions, split-screen, VR, modding and multiplayer. It's got an active, passionate community. But it’s also unapologetically demanding and merciless. You simply have to put in the time, or get left in the dust.

So yes, BallisticNG is the Dark Souls of racing games. Not because it’s grim or punishing for the sake of it, but because it respects your potential to improve. It’s a game that asks you to commit, and if you do, it rewards you with some of the purest anti-gravity racing highs you can get. If you’re a Wipeout fan and you haven’t played it yet, you genuinely need to fix that.