If you spent any time in front of a TV in the late 2000s, you know the vibe. Red balls. Big splashes. John Anderson’s deadpan commentary. It was the peak of physical comedy on network television. But while the show was a massive hit for ABC, the transition to consoles was... interesting. Wipeout Create and Crash represents a very specific moment in gaming history where the "party game" genre was desperately trying to evolve beyond just shaking a Wii Remote.
Most people remember the show. Few remember how weirdly deep the level editor in this specific game actually was. Honestly, it's one of those titles that sits in a bargain bin at GameStop but holds a weirdly nostalgic power over anyone who actually bothered to play it. It wasn't just about running the course; it was about the "Create" part of the title. That changed the math.
The Weird Logic of Wipeout Create and Crash
Usually, licensed games are cheap cash-ins. You know the type. They're buggy, short, and feel like they were made in a weekend. Wipeout Create and Crash—released by Activision back in 2013—definitely had some of that budget "jank," but it also gave players the keys to the kingdom.
Think about it. The show is essentially a Rube Goldberg machine made of foam and sadness. By letting players build their own courses, Activision (and developer Behaviour Interactive) tapped into that Super Mario Maker energy before Mario Maker was even a thing. You weren't just a contestant; you were the sadistic producer putting the Big Balls exactly where they’d do the most damage.
The physics were floaty. The graphics weren't exactly Crysis. But man, seeing your custom-built "Mega-Sucker Punch" wall actually knock a character into the drink was satisfying. It captured the slapstick essence of the show better than the previous iterations did, mostly because the "Crash" part of the title was finally backed up by player agency.
Why the Wii U and 3DS Versions Felt So Different
It’s easy to forget this game landed on the Wii, Wii U, 3DS, and Xbox 360 (with Kinect support). That’s a wild spread of hardware. If you played it on the Wii U, you used the GamePad to drag and drop obstacles. It felt tactile. It made sense.
On the Xbox 360, however, things got chaotic. Kinect tracking was always a bit of a gamble. Trying to simulate a "Big Ball" jump in your living room without kicking your coffee table was the actual Wipeout experience. It was physical. It was sweaty. It was often frustrating because the sensor would lose your legs right as you tried to dodge a swinging sweeper. But that frustration was sort of the point. The show is about failure. The game, through its sometimes-wonky controls, made you fail just as spectacularly as the people on TV.
Breaking Down the "Create" Mode
The heart of the game—and the reason it’s still talked about in niche speedrunning or retro circles—is the course creator. You had a budget. You had a linear path. You had a bunch of "themed" obstacles like the prehistoric set or the futuristic stuff.
The "Create" mode didn't just give you the standard obstacles. It gave you variations. You could change the speed of the sweepers. You could adjust the timing of the pistons. For a game aimed at kids, there was a surprising amount of "if-this-then-that" logic you could bake into a course. You’d spend forty minutes perfecting a sequence of jumps only to realize it was physically impossible to clear. Then you’d go back and nerf it just enough to be "fair."
Actually, "fair" is a strong word. Most people just built gauntlets of pure misery.
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The Character Roster and the "Crash" Factor
Let’s be real: nobody played this for the deep lore. You played it to see "John" or "Jill" get launched into the stratosphere. The game featured a variety of character archetypes, each with slightly different stats, though the differences felt marginal at best. What mattered was the ragdoll physics.
When you hit a wall in Wipeout Create and Crash, your character didn't just fall. They crumpled. They bounced. They did that weird, floppy animation that defined 7th-generation gaming physics. It was the "Crash" part of the title in its purest form. The game leaned into the "Wipeout Wall"—that iconic moment where a contestant gets absolutely leveled by a moving part.
What Most People Get Wrong About Licensed Games
There's this assumption that every licensed game is "shovelware." While Wipeout Create and Crash isn't a masterpiece on par with The Last of Us, it served a specific purpose. It was a creative tool for fans of the show.
In the 2010s, "User Generated Content" (UGC) was the big buzzword. Every developer wanted to be the next LittleBigPlanet. Activision saw that and realized the Wipeout brand was the perfect vehicle for it. Why? Because the show is modular. It’s literally a series of blocks moved around a pool in Santa Clarita.
The limitation, of course, was the sharing. Today, you’d upload your map to a cloud and get 10,000 downloads. In 2013, on the Wii, you were mostly showing your maps to the person sitting next to you on the couch. That local-only focus is probably why the game didn't have the "forever life" that other builder games enjoyed. It was a sandbox with a very small fence.
Technical Hurdles and the Kinect Legacy
We have to talk about the Xbox 360 version specifically. It used Kinect 2.0 (if you were on the newer hardware) or the original sensor. This was the era where Microsoft was convinced we all wanted to stand up while gaming.
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In Wipeout Create and Crash, the Kinect was used to map your body to the character. If you ducked, they ducked. If you jumped, they jumped. The latency was... present. You had to time your jumps about half a second before you actually needed to clear the obstacle. It turned the game into a rhythm-based exercise. If you mastered the "Kinect lag," you were a god. If you didn't, you were just a guy jumping in his basement while a virtual avatar hit a wall.
The Legacy of the Wipeout Series in Gaming
After Create and Crash, the series sort of faded. The show went on hiatus, then got a reboot on TBS with John Cena and Nicole Byer. But the games didn't really follow. We moved into the era of Fall Guys.
If you look at Fall Guys, you can see the DNA of Wipeout Create and Crash everywhere. The colorful obstacles, the physics-based platforming, the hilarity of watching twenty people fail at a single jump—it’s the same energy. But Fall Guys added the battle royale element. It took the "Create" spirit and turned it into a massive social experiment.
Wipeout was the blueprint. It showed that players didn't just want to watch people fall; they wanted to control the falling. They wanted to design the traps.
How to Play It Today
If you’re looking to revisit this, your best bet is finding an old Wii U disc or a 3DS cartridge. Because of licensing issues—music, brands, and the show itself—these games almost never get digital re-releases. They are "ghost games." They exist only in physical form or on the secondary market.
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- Check local retro shops. This isn't a "high-value" collectible like Earthbound. You can usually find it for under twenty bucks.
- The Wii U version is the definitive one. The touch screen makes the "Create" mode infinitely more usable than the 360’s controller-based menus.
- Manage your expectations. The frame rate will dip. The textures are blurry. It’s a 2013 mid-budget title. Embrace the jank.
Making the Most of the Level Editor
If you actually boot this up, don't just jump into the pre-made campaigns. Go straight to the editor. Here’s how you actually make a "good" (meaning "terrible") course:
- Spacing is everything. Don't put two "big" obstacles right next to each other. The game engine handles physics better when it only has to calculate one major collision at a time.
- The "Sucker Punch" is your best friend. Use it at the end of a long platforming section to catch players off guard.
- Vary the heights. Most players forget the Y-axis. Making someone jump high then immediately drop low messes with their depth perception.
The game is a time capsule. It’s a reminder of a time when TV shows were big enough to warrant multi-platform game releases and when "motion controls" were the future. It’s not perfect. It’s often clunky. But Wipeout Create and Crash offered a level of creativity that most licensed properties wouldn't touch with a ten-foot pole.
It wasn't just a game about crashing; it was a game about the art of the crash. And honestly? That's still pretty fun today.
Actionable Next Steps
If you're looking to dive back into the world of physics-based obstacle courses, start by checking your local used game listings for the Wii U version of Wipeout Create and Crash to get the best creation experience. If you no longer have the hardware, look into modern successors like Fall Guys or Roblox "Obby" creators, which carry the spiritual torch of this era's DIY level design. For those interested in the history of licensed games, researching the developer Behaviour Interactive—who went on to create Dead by Daylight—provides a fascinating look at how studio expertise evolves from slapstick sports games to high-stakes horror.