I can’t say anyone was expecting a sequel to a boat racing series released back in dawn of the Millennium for the Dreamcast and Playstation. Now for the Summer of Arcade season for Xbox Live we have a full blown sequel to Midway’s crazy arcade racer and element whore, Hydro Thunder Hurricane. Does Vector Unit do the original justice? Does it help revive the now dead genre? Hydro Thunder Hurricane
Developer: Vector Unit
Price: 1200 MSP
Platform: Xbox 360 (reviewed)
You race really fast in a boat, what more do you need to know? Well with this being a review I should go into more deal than that Everything about this game has old school arcade written all over it, even down the start screen shouting “HYDRO THUNDER…HURRICANE”. As a single player experience you are given 4 different play modes. A standard race against 15 AI controlled players. Ring Master where you have to go through rings and missing a ring will land you with time penalties. Gauntlet which is a time trail mode with the catch being the course is cluttered with exploding barrels to keep things interesting. Finally there is a championship mode which is a competition with those 3 game modes. I just wish you were given at least 1 more game type and one that was more varied than the ones we were given. They all come down to getting to the end the fastest. The game is obviously a wacky arcade style racer. So why do things have to be so bare bones? There is also the option to collect 10 collectable logo’s hidden around each track.
You gain credits for coming 1st, 2nd or 3rd which in turn helps you unlock more tracks and boats. There are 3 boats per difficulty level, adding up to a total of 9. (10 if you include the rubber duck) If you decide to go for a Pro boat the difficulty will take it up a notch, the AI will be smarter, times requirements will be shorter and for Ring Master the ring will get smaller and penalties are higher. Things start off comfortably you will be unlocking medels with ease on the Novice difficutly, but once you hit Expert the game becomes brutal. The only way to get a medal is to complete the course almost perfectly with very little mistake. Now that isn’t to bad if Expert boats weren’t so hard to control. In lower difficulties you can easily handle them but once it gets harder you start to notice how light and floaty the vehicles are. As you reach top speeds the slightest nudge and send them flying in that direction. During Multiplayer matches if you get bashed by other players you never know if you were only to move slightly or end up on the other side of the track facing the other way.
While I was slightly disappointed with the amount of modes in the single player, for multiplayer your choices are even worse. Online you are given 2 modes a standard race against 7 other players or the rubber duck mode. This game is a nice spin on team racing formula. Players are split into 2 teams and one person is designated to play the rubber duck. The goal is to help your rubber duck to win the race. A small part of strategy is in play here as you try and sabotage the other team to stop their duck from finishing first. I had no problems connecting to races with little to no lag, only the odd disconnect. You can also bring 3 players along with you online. Unfortunately local multiplayer is lacking with only one mode, a standard race.
Where Hydro Thunder Hurricane really excels is in it’s race tracks. Each of the 8 tracks vary a lot with many hidden paths waiting to be found either by switch icons or well time boosts. Using these short cuts are almost vital on the Expert difficulty. Tracks vary from the Paris Sewers all the way to Area 51 and each are filled with life. Giant Viking gods looming in the background or sea beasts suddenly appearing on the track while these events don’t happen that often they do add some nice variety to each track helping them feel unique.
If you love your arcade racers this game is probably for you. Just don’t expect too much life from it. It’s designed for quick pick up and play sessions rather than continuous play. Fun can be had as you unlock all the modes and tracks but once you have done it all you don’t have much need to come back to it. Same goes for the multiplayer, races can be a lot of fun but there are even less modes to have a go with makes it very short lived.
The Final Word
Hydro Thunder Hurricane does what it does well, but it’s lack of gameplay modes both offline and online brings down what could be a great return to old school style racers.
– MonsterVine Rating: 3/5 – Average
