Released on Wednesday as part of Microsoft’s now annual “Summer of Arcade” feature, Hydro Thunder Hurricane is a direct sequel to the original Hydro Thunder which was released on Sega’s Dreamcast some 11 years ago, and was a game that I absolutely adored. The game has been developed by Vector Unit, a small 6 person studio, and is published by Microsoft Game Studios.
To put it simply, you drive a number of high tech speedboats through 8 different water based environments, in a series of different challenges.
Hydro Thunder Hurricane, especially for a downloadable title has wonderful art direction, and looks phenomenal at full flight. There are 8 tracks in all, from Lake Powell – a hark back to the original game – to the infamous Area 51. The water effects and physics in the game, alongside the chaotic environments consistently impress, with the explosions, whirlpools, secret passageways and even an angry fisherman boat, its captain yelling at me in Dutch.
For fans of the original, Hydro Thunder Hurricane retains the much loved arcade-style gameplay, with simple, loose controls, which are nevertheless hugely enjoyable. The learning curve that Vector Unit have placed into the game is nigh-on perfect, the controls are immediately accessible to first time players, so that anyone can literally pick up and play, but when mastered, they are immensely satisfying. There are few things more gratifying than powersliding you speedboat round a corner using boost, whilst overtaking two or three opponents.
As in the original, blue and rarer red boost icons are scattered about the tracks and award varying amounts of boost power and the “hydro jump” ability, which is crucial for propelling your boat up into secret tunnels, grabbing rarer boost items or secret ‘packages’ or simply overtaking slower opponents.
There are several different game modes included in the game, the first being the obligatory race mode, then Ring Master, which is a slalom-esque game mode (similar to Fan Runs in Blur, for those who have played it), Gauntlet, which is a time trial game mode, but with bombs on the water than when hit critically slow you down, and tournament mode, which combines all of these events.
Racing in any mode, including the very enjoyable 4-player split-screen or 8-player online, earns credits, which unlock new content, such as, tracks, game modes, boats and boat skins. Whilst the game encourages you to try all the game modes by unlocking specific ones at specific times, so you cannot, for example, do all the races, then all the gauntlets and so on (you instead have do some of each to unlock more), this can be overcome, as the game allows you to replay the same event, and earn the credits over and over again. For those who may not enjoy a certain game type, this is a well thought out feature, as it means you can’t really get stuck in the game.
Boats, as well as the AI opponents are sorted into three classes, with the higher class boats capable of the fastest speeds and far superior mid-air maneuvering.
The wealth of unlockable content in Hydro Thunder Hurricane doubles as incentive to explore and master each race course, especially when several achievements are awarded based on you finding a certain number of hidden packages for example.
Another example of Vector Unit’s intelligence when thinking about their game design is apparent in the way that they have incorporated friend lists into the game. Vector Unit taunts you with on-screen glimpses of your friends’ best leaderboard times as you cross checkpoints along the track.
The only possible downside to the game, for myself, is that is perhaps it doesn’t have enough content. However, one must remember that it is only a downloadable title, not a full priced retail game. What is promising however, is that there is already a ‘downloadable content’ button on the main menu, so it seems as though Vector Unit is not putting the game out and leaving it.
All in all, Hydro Thunder Hurricane is a glorious addition to the heritage of a much loved game. The game looks beautiful, plays very well and is a hell of a lot of fun. For the 1200 points that Microsoft are charging, and the re-playability of the game, the highly enjoyable multiplayer, and the pick up and play nature of the title, Hydro Thunder Hurricane comes easily recommended. Vector Unit can be proud.
[Rating: 4/5]
