Rock You Like a Hurricane
Hydro Thunder Hurricane is the latest racer to hit the XBox Live Arcade. As the name suggests, it takes place entirely on water. The game is a throwback to the arcade racers of the late 90′s. Realism isn’t something you’re going to find here. It’s all about insane speed and huge air. The game contains 8 courses, some of which are point-to-point and some of which are circuits. But the beauty of both types of tracks are the various shortcuts and hidden paths through. You’ll find hazards along the way as well, whether a giant crocodile, sea serpent or just a pesky police boat trying to hinder your progress. Nine watercraft which vary by style and stats are at your disposal along the way.
Game modes consist of Race, Ring Master, Gauntlet, Championship. Race is typical arcade racing, pitting you against 15 AI competitors in a race to the finish. And like those games from the day designed to suck the quarters out of your pockets, you’re gonna start in last place. Not just last on the grid. I mean 15th place will be a few hundred feet ahead of you and so on and so on. So when you start, you won’t even see 1st place on your radar. All in all it’s a fun mode, although the difficulty ramps up exponentially when you select higher class boats.
Ring Master is probably the most entertaining of the solo modes. It’s just you against the course and the clock in this mode. In this game type, you won’t be choosing your racing line, you’ll be attempting to navigate through the rings along the track. Pass through a ring and it adds to your boost reserves, miss one and not only do you lose boost but you’re also given a time penalty. The object is to finish under the par time for each medal. As with the Race mode, difficulty ramps up dramatically. Novice will have a fairly easy racing line, whereas Extreme will test your skills and your patience as you’re forced to make ridiculous turns, hit difficult alternate routes and do all of this in boats that are faster and less forgiving.
Gauntlet is another time trial type event. The difference this time is that you’re free to go where you please with regards to racing lines…sort of. What makes this mode difficult is the plethora of red barrels littering the course. Everyone who’s played a video game since the early 80′s knows what that means. Explosions. Lots of explosions. Touch a red barrel, your boat goes bye-bye. You’ll have to use a combination of a good racing line, quick reflexes, boost, boost jump and a lil’ (or lot) of luck to medal in these events. Blowing up results in losing momentum and precious seconds as you wait to respawn.
Rounding out the list is Championship. Each championship offers multiple races of different disciplines. You may have a Race, a Ring Master and a Gauntlet event during a single championship for instance. Points are awarded for placement and the overall points determine the winner.
Online offers racing for up to 8 players via XBox Live. During my playtime with the online, I’ve yet to notice any lag, which may be due to the racing being on water, but regardless of the reasoning, unless you have a really slow connection, you shouldn’t notice lag when you play. Beyond that, it’s simply more racing with 7 humans instead of 15 AI. The more of those 7 players that are friends of yours will greatly increase your enjoyment of the mode. Nothing like boosting past your best friend at the finish line to take 1st place away from them.
Each track also offers up 10 collectibles, which take the form of Hydro Thunder icons. In all honesty, the majority of my fun with the game came from going into a private match with my girlfriend as we searched for the collectibles. Some are very easy to spot, some are quite well hidden and some will leave less talented gamers ready to pull their hair out in frustration after the 98th attempt at snagging a particularly difficult one.
I had no complaints with the graphics or sounds, both were well done. About the only gripes I had with the game were the Extreme difficulty level, the amount of places I found myself able to glitch through the environment and the developers including one achievement that requires 4 people playing on one XBox 360. I mean, come on, why? Anyway, I’d highly recommend the game even at it’s 1200 space bucks pricing (like most XBLA games, it should have been 800) because at the end of the day, it’s just fun. Even if you’re not into the racing genre, you should download the demo and try it out for yourself. Hell, you even get 10 minutes of unrestricted online play with the demo. I realize 10 minutes isn’t much, but it’s a lot better than no online during the demo.
Pros – Fun. High replay value. Lag-free online. Hidden item hunting.Cons – Difficulty. 1200 space bucks. Stupid-ass 4 local players achievement. Difficulty. :)
