Hydro Thunder Hurricane
Platform: Xbox Live Arcade (Xbox 360)
Price: 1200 MSP / $15 US

Strangely, there were no hurricanes…

Gameplay:
Like all of your favorite cartoons you watched while growing up (Thundercats, Voltron, G.I. Joe, etc. for me), Hydro Thunder sucks. I am referring to the original Hydro Thunder by Midway, the one that everyone (including you) seemed to love so much. Hydro Thunder Hurricane is an entirely different story…

Hydro Thunder Hurricane features all the “same” boats from the original game (not sure about the bonus boats however), albeit slightly re-imagined and dramatically improved graphically. Aptly, the “Midway” boat has been renamed to “Vector” to match the name of the new developer. The boats have been classed as Novice, Pro, and Expert, and track difficulty classifications have been dropped altogether. For Race Mode, the class of boat you choose will determine the class of AI opponents you will face, and the Time Limits for achieving Gold, Silver or Bronze medals.

In Ring Master, you choose a track, your boat and face increasingly difficult slalom courses based on the class of your boat. Ring Master is a great way to discover each level’s shortcuts and secrets, at least on Pro and Expert. Unfortunately, if you haven’t already discovered most of these shortcuts, it could take you a long time to actually unlock Expert for Ring Master on each track. Finally, in Gauntlet Mode, you will run solo time trials against the courses, which are littered with explosive barrels, in addition to the built-in environmental hazards.


Belly Flop!

Unlike the ambiguous boat descriptions from the original game, Hurricane has exact quantifications for each boat in the areas of Acceleration, Top Speed, Handling, and Air Control. This makes choosing the boat that fits your style easy, as each boat handles distinctly based on these stats. Another big improvement over the 1999 original is the Boost Jump. Instead of being a difficult process of laying-off the boost, grabbing the brake, and hitting the boost again, boost jumping has been simplified to a one-button operation. This is important as the tracks in Hydro Thunder Hurricane are much more complex and fast paced.

Speaking of tracks, they are epic. A couple ideas from the original show their influence on Hurricane (including the totally redesigned carryover, “Lake Powell”), but each level is themed and fairly unique from the others. Every level features multiple shortcuts throughout, sometimes even offering up more than one at the same time (decisions, decisions!). “La Isla de los Monstrous” is one of the most impressive of all, featuring multiple paths and water levels that change each lap. While you are enjoying the scenery and looking for shortcuts, you will also come across floating Hydro Thunder Hurricane logos. These “Hidden Packages” are found in some of the hardest places to reach and will give you a reason to explore each level to the fullest. Collecting all 10 from each of the tracks will even net you an achievement and some gamerscore.


You can’t get much more interactive than this…

Graphics & Audio:
Aesthetically, each stage is amazing. The graphics aren’t over the top, but the overall style is impressive, with massive amounts of activity from the interactive environments and rock solid frame rates. The boats are highly detailed, with bright graphic designs and nicely animated “transformations” as your boost activates and deactivates. I was disappointed with the resolution of the water effects and wave physics though, would like to have seen more surface variation and more realistic wake and spray.

I did not like most of the audio in the game. The music and sound effects are on the borderline for me, although I do like the team chatter and a few other things. Area 51 is probably my favorite level for sounds/music. Each boat has a slightly different engine sound, although I think this is done with filters, instead of having unique soundtracks.

Replay value:
As epic as they are, there are only 8 tracks in Hydro Thunder Hurricane (I don’t know if there are any bonus tracks to unlock, as my save got corrupted (using USB drive) and I had to start over after I was half-way through all the events). Thankfully, there are two other game modes, plus 10 Championship events that will keep you interested. Not to mention challenges to unlock alternate skins for each boat. The game also features up to 4-player local split-screen, with the ability to race online while in split-screen as well.

Overall:
Vector Unit has managed to take a beloved, but for some reason abandoned franchise and turn it into the great game you mistakenly thought you remembered. With greatly improved visuals and insanely improved playability, Hydro Thunder Hurricane is an amazing half-sequel. The limited track and boat selection is a bit disappointing and the water effects are far from cutting edge, but they get the job done.

Pros:
+Addicting
+Epic levels
+Multiple Game Modes
+4-Player split-screen

Cons:
-Achievements fall short
-Limited boat/track selection
-Music and sound effects

Hydro Thunder Hurricane boosts an 8.5/10 for being a visceral, velocitous experience

A review copy was used to evaluate the game.

I had fun with the trial, definitely brought back the old arcade racer days. Also, I wasn't aware of the split-screen online play you mentioned which is a nice addition that many games lack IMO.

(07-28-2010 06:56 PM)GaMeR Wrote:  I had fun with the trial, definitely brought back the old arcade racer days. Also, I wasn't aware of the split-screen online play you mentioned which is a nice addition that many games lack IMO.

It supports up to 4-player splitscreen even on Live, although each person probably needs Gold to play. Wish they had ranked matches, I've been owning, even pulled out some wins vs Expert boats using the Pro Banshee.

I have become a bit disillusioned with the multiplayer. The bigger the lead you have, the more boost it gives the people behind you (Up to 7x boost from a gray bottle, and I think it may actually starve you of boost too), so there is no point in being good and knowing all the shortcuts. Someone always catches up with you in the last leg of the race (even if they haven't taken the shortcuts) so you have to actually save up your boost for the finish.

It sounds like a balancing issue gone wrong although I'm sure if they reduced the amount of boost it might have worked out a bit better as it kind of keeps the leader in check otherwise if you're constantly dominating, the game would become too easy I would think.