Graphics
The graphics in Hydro Thunder Hurricane are very pretty, especially while speeding through the tracks. When your boat is stopped, one can immediately notice a lack of detail in the surrounding environment. That’s ok however, because the vast majority of your time will be spent speeding along and not lingering to look at individual trees in the game’s environment.
Audio
Hydro Thunder Hurricane utilizes the same announcer as the original Dreamcast version, which adds a bit of nostalgia to this title for those who are familiar with this game’s roots. However after a little while of playing the announcer’s voice, combined with the unremarkable sound track, can become annoying. This gamer personally recommends utilizing your Xbox 360’s media player to play your favorite music and solve this minor issue.
Controls
The controls in Hydro Thunder Hurricane are highly intuitive. The right trigger accelerates while the A button is your “boost.” If you have boost, then the X button will allow you to jump your boat. The handling is dependent upon the boat you are racing with and can vary greatly from one hydroplane to the next.
The boats themselves can be controlled in three different views: Up front third person view, median back third person view, and first person view. After initially began playing the game in third person, this gamer found that the boats can take a good portion of the screen space block the upcoming track. After switching to first person view this issue was fixed.
Each boat has a distinct advantage or disadvantage within its class. Some boats might accelerate faster at the cost of worse handling, while others might perform impeccably well in the air versus in the water. As one moves up through the classes of boats, each becomes increasingly nimble and easier to destroy should you crash into a wall or object.
Hydro Thunder Hurricane’s Campaign
There are four main modes to choose from in the single player campaign. The first is straight up old fashion racing against fifteen other boats. Placing in the top three will net credits that unlock additional levels, difficulties, and the other modes.
The ring master mode occurs on the same levels, and rather than racing against other boats the goal is for you try to complete the track as fast as possible without missing any rings. For the novice and pro difficulties, the ring master events aren’t to challenging. The expert ring master events, however, will require a significant investment of time and very precise playing. Missing even one ring can be the difference between a gold and silver medal.
The gauntlet mode is similar to the ring master events in the sense that you are trying to score the best time possible. Rather than aiming your boat to go through rings, the goals of the gauntlet events are to avoid the explosive barrels that populate the race track.
The championship mode is the most difficult mode to play because it combines all of the three previous modes across multiple events. Because the championship mode requires players to excel at the end of each event, a point value is assigned to you based off of your placing or time. After all events have been completed, only the top three point holders receive a medal for the race.
Hydro Thunder Hurricane boasts a total of eight distinct tracks and nine hydroplanes. Each track has several hidden shortcuts and alternate paths to race. Additional “skins” (colors) can be unlocked for each boat. One important thing to note about Hydro Thunder Hurricane for Xbox 360 LIVE Arcade is that the difficulty of many tracks is determined by the boat chosen.
Multiplayer
The best feature of Hydro Thunder Hurricane is the ability to play multiplayer games via Xbox Live. Competing against other human players and talking with them during the race adds some serious replay value to this title. Unlike other arcade games available on Xbox LIVE, Hydro Thunder Hurricane allows four local players to all join in on the fun against other online opponents.
While other players will automatically be matched with you, one player actually hosts each game. The race will not start until all players are “ready.” Thankfully the host has the option of booting players from the que that aren’t ready in order to start the race. After each race, players win anywhere from 25 points (1st place) to 1 point (last place), and their score is kept tallied back in the que screen for as long as they remain a part of the same multiplayer session.
Personal Opinions
Hydro Thunder Hurricane for Xbox 360 LIVE Arcade is great little distraction. This gamer’s only complaint was that there were only eight tracks to play on. At the moment it is not known if additional tracks will be offered as downloadable content, and if so at what price point.
Hydro Thunder Hurricane is certainly more exciting than MotorHEAT, however it will not provide a full in depth racing experience that a normal retail disc would. For gamers who would like to add a fun racing game to their library without shelling out serious cash for a retail title, Hydro Thunder Hurricane is the right choice for you.
You can try the demo for free and purchase Hydro Thunder Hurricane for Xbox 360 LIVE Arcade for 1200 Microsoft Points ($15). Did you enjoy this article? Please share it and subscribe for updates.
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