The Digest: Bring back the allure of the original arcade classic with fun multiplayer, robust single player and tons of unique ships that will have you screaming 3…2…1…GO!!!

THE FACT SHEET

RELEASE DATE: July 28th, 2010
PUBLISHER: Xbox Live Arcade
DEVELOPER: Vector Unit
PRICE: 1200 Microsoft Points
GENRE: Racing Games

PRODUCT OVERVIEW:
This all-new sequel to the legendary arcade hit features amazing dynamic water physics, transformable rocket-powered boats, gorgeous visuals and over-the-top interactive environments. Single player games include Race and Championship, and two brand new modes: Ring Master and the explosive Gauntlet. Combine local 4-player split-screen and online multiplayer games with 8 players over Xbox LIVE

PRODUCT FEATURES:

• Fun Multiplayer
• Lovely Visuals
• Enjoyable Music
• Robust Singleplayer
  

There’s always something in older games that gives you that warm feeling. Something that the newer generation may not completely understand, but knowing exactly why it’s such a big deal makes it feel as though they made the game for you. Often the term nostalgia is used for a game that is older and brought back to the current generation, but Hydro Thunder Hurricane is different than the others.

The fact that the Hydro Thunder series is part of dying and almost forgotten form of entertainment, the arcade, makes it a bit sweeter. That’s what separates this game from older re-releases. The feeling of wanting to go to an arcade and have five friends around you cheering is something that a lot of gamers don’t really experience anymore. Hydro Thunder Hurricane is one of those fun, party games that will have you playing for hours on end.

Hydro Thunder is the arcade game that we have been waiting for. Instead of merely porting the game over, it feels like they really put a lot of effort into making this a complete game that will act more than just a short term form of entertainment.

When you start up Hydro Thunder’s single player, you’ll be greeted with several game modes: Race, Championship Race, Gauntlet, and Ring Master. Gauntlet and Ring Master are modified versions of the original race setting. The Gauntlet courses have been covered with explosive barrels and you have to try and finish the race in the shortest time with these obstacles. Ring Master has you travel through rings that are floating in the water. Traveling through these rings will keep your turbo going and assist you in getting the race done in ample time. Missing these rings will cost you precious seconds, and will drain your turbo. Using the turbo correctly is the most important thing in these Ring Master races. Championship race is a combination of the various race modes. You’ll have to compete in three to five races for a large amount of credits.

The race mode is just that. You have three different difficulty levels, Novice, Pro, or Expert, that you can attempt to grab the gold in. You start with Novice and as you progress, you will unlock the later difficulties.

With all these modes novice isn’t ridiculously simple and does provide a fairly decent challenge. For the traditional races, once you reach first place however, it almost seems like the AI controlled racers just give up. It’s the complete opposite for the expert races though. A lot of the time, you will not even be able to see the racer in first place. The expert races require you to essentially be perfect and even that may not be good enough. With the races in this game, your ship starts off in last and you have to work your way back up. With the AI racers not making a single mistake, it’s unbelievably difficult to win these races.

Placing in the top 3 will reward you with credits. These credits are used to unlock more levels to race on as well as more ships to race with. You don’t go to a section to buy these things with the credits, they just simply build up and you unlock things automatically. What the game does in order for you to unlock other races is force you to try the other modes. For example, if you play through the race section, you will be stopped because you won’t have enough credits to proceed to the next race.  So, in order to proceed you have to play the other modes and earn credits that way. It’s a great idea that would work flawlessly, however, if you and a group of friends just play the multiplayer modes then you’ll be able to unlock everything that way.

The locations of where you race are also something to be admired. There are a total of eight different maps to race on. They are all completely different from one another, all of which have a high attention to detail. The levels range from desert canyons, icy caverns, and Area 51. Like with the arcade version, these levels have an unbelievable amount of hidden and hard to reach short cuts. Hidden behind waterfalls, through broken walls, and anywhere else you can think of. These shortcuts are the key to winning these races.

During these races, on these beautiful locales, the game even has 80 collectibles scattered throughout the maps. There are ten floating Hydro Thunder Hurricane logos floating in each level. Some are easy to find, while others will take you quite a while to even notice. With all the high octane racing, it’s easy to drive right past these. The game provides you with a solid single player experience if you’re unfortunate enough to have a silver account. A nice touch to the game is the ranking of your Xbox Live friends list for the races you complete in single player. This keeps it competitive and really makes you replay the same race several times in order to beat your friend’s time. It’s the most simple addition, that makes the game that much more fun.

Multiplayer is a fun part of the game, but is a bit dry. Local split screen allows for three other friends to play, but some of the other modes like Championship Race, Gauntlet, and Ring Master are noticeably absent which is unfortunate. You still start off with 11 other AI racers and you still have to work from the back, but you always wonder how fun it would be to play Gauntlet with three other boats. The cool part about playing split-screen is that your friends can help you find the 80 collectibles. This makes things a lot easier and gives you multiple chances in each race to get them. As nice as it is to play with three friends, there is an awful lot of clutter when there are four screens racing at once. The speedometer, map, race position, and time are all on the screen and really makes the race hard to see, especially with the speeds that you’re going at.

The game doesn’t seem to add anything to the multiplayer aside from the ability to race online with seven other players. You can unlock new skins for your boats by getting first place on certain races online, but other than that there’s nothing shown.

Conclusion: Hydro Thunder is definitely a game you want to pick up. It’s a fun arcade game that will have you playing it for hours. Great single player experience and a fun multiplayer experience all add up to a great racing game.

Single Player: 4/5 | Multi-Player: 4/5