Go that way, really fast. If something gets in your way, turn.
Hydrothunder: Hurricane came out last week as part of the XBox Live Summer of Arcade series and you guys – I seriously lost my shit about it. It’s been over ten years since a wee tow-headed Kiala toddled her way into an arcade, shoved a sticky dollar bill into the token machine, and clambered up a stack of phone books to use her booster and let me tell you something friends: there never was and never will be anything so exciting as racing a futuristic speedboat through the Halls of Valhalla while Norse fishing boats curse at you to “GET OFF” and a gigantic wooden Thor attempts to hit you with his axe. Nothing.
As far as I can tell, not much has changed in the new Hydrothunder and while this might bother some (I’m looking at you St Louis Today) I’m perfectly content with Hydrothunder behaving the way Hydrothunder should. I suppose, in light of ever advancing technology, the graphics and stuff could be technology-er. Like, maybe the game could be in 3D and on Mars. In the canals. And then the boats could revolt against their human slave masters and form a new governing race of space canal dwelling speed vessels who feed off human fear and adrenaline. (Actually, I’d totally play that game and it would be called Final Fantasy 97: HYDROTERROR. ) Anyway my point is Hydrothunder was just about perfect to begin with – blowing other nineties era racing games like Crazy Taxi and Alpine Racer (wait for it) out of the water. Sorry.
What has changed about the game is negligible and super fun: new courses like the aforementioned Norse Myth-y Asgard, Tsunami Bowl (which has this sweet Korean race announcer lady who gets very excited any time you hit a Boost bubble or one of those shiny spinning things or make a particularly good ramp jump), and Monster Island (GRIPE ALERT: NOT ENOUGH MONSTERS). There are gauntlet games with exploding barrels to trip you up and ringmaster challenges where you race through uh…rings and of course there are multiplayer modes (for up to eight online players and four single system players) which are enticing even to me, an avid lone wolf gamer. I guess racing games bring out the competitor in me. They also bring out the addict in me as I spent the last five days doing little else besides speeding my way through endless fantasy waterways cursing at walls and buoys and other boats and generally behaving exactly as I did ten years ago -minus the phone books*. I’m still pretty sticky though. What? I like jam.
*Okay I was a full grown adult ten years ago. LET ME HAVE MY LITTLE FANTASIES PLEASE.
All Hydrothunder tweets all the time over here
Image: Warner Bros.
TWO DOLLARS!
Any article that starts off with a Better Off Dead throwback is worth reading.
@thom and @rom ALL the quirks are still there! A Viking ship that races at lightning speed? Those are some super strong rowing Vikings!
Also, I like the announcer! He makes me laugh every time he he tells me it was probably the boat’s fault I came in like 8th or whatever.
@Thom yeah I was busting through Paris Sewers and the police boat came upon me so fast that it flew through the air like 100 feet past me, and then it failed to make the next turn and totally crashed. It was awesome!!
I still play the original all the time on my Dreamcast. I flipped out when I heard about this game, and I couldn’t be more excited to play it. Hopefully they kept all of the weird quirks, like the fact that police boats and site-seeing tours can somehow go 250+ mph.
“YOU’RE CRAZY!”
Better than Crazy Taxi?! Heresy!
I’m such a naysayer today.
Yeah, I’ve been digging on this game, too! The maps have some fun obstacles, and cool ledges and layouts.
One fun thing that happened when I was playing yesterday was that my Expert boat was so fast that I was launching off of ramps and going so far in the air that I would air past the turns and hit a wall. That indicated that you need a little more strategy than just pressing the gas and boost and cranking the turns.
I haven’t played any multiplayer races yet. I’m hoping to first get gold in all 8 single players maps. Then I’ll be ready to take on real live people!
I’m a little bored of the announcer. I’m not a huge fan of his brosephy sarcasm.
HydroooooTHUNDER!