Hydro Thunder Hurricane Review
About 6 months ago I gave in to some nostalgic urges and bought a Nintendo 64, complete with my two favourite games, Goldeneye and Star Wars Episode I: Racer. After about 10 minutes of playing Star Wars I realised I’d remembered it through rose tinted glasses and that N64 hasn’t been touched since. If I’d known Hydro Thunder Hurricane was on its way, I wouldn’t have bothered buying the N64.
Hydro Thunder Hurricane is a simple but addictive all out blast, consisting of 4 main game modes Race, Gauntlet, Ring Master and Championship. Points are earned for winning events on a sliding scale based on the results, as you reach different levels of points you unlock new boats, and levels. New boats vary in the usual departments, acceleration, top speed etc. The levels themselves are pretty damn impressive, there are a large amount of destructive elements and shortcuts, each level is also themed and as you race around events take place that vary the action. For example one of my favourite levels, entitled “Monster Island” sees you race around avoiding various giant monsters that interact with the flow of the water making the experience all the more bizarre, insane and most importantly fun.
The physics and game-play are as exaggerated as you’d expect and the game is all the better for it, as you unlock new boats with better handling you learn to fine tune your control and winning a race becomes all the more addictive. Slipstreaming competitor’s boats gives you increased speed. however the key to winning is definitely a combination of picking the best line and route whilst hitting as many nitro pick-ups as possible. Boosting works by collecting nitro pick-ups which top up your boost, this can then be deployed as and when needed.
Graphically Hydro Thunder Hurricane is as good as most Xbox Arcade games get, the water effects aren’t the best I’ve seen, but they’re good enough and this is a game that really is about the simplicity and fun of blasting along at over 200KPH.
One of the highlights of the game for me is the Ring Master mode, this mode sees you blasting through rings that are set out throughout the route. As you pass through each ring you get a small amount of Nitro. This simple game mode is highly addictive and great fun for trying to beat friend’s times and as you progress to pro and expert levels the smaller rings and varying placement force you to take some interesting routes through the courses. The one component missing from this mode is an option to race ghosts to see how well you’re performing alongside others, this would have added another competitive dimension to this otherwise great mode. The multi-player split screen is also great fun that plays beautifully with a rock steady frame rate and bought back memories of Hydra Thunder’s 4 player split screen on the Nintendo 64.
Overall Hydra Thunder Hurricane is everything you expect and want it to be. Just the right level of fun and addictiveness with enough game modes and unlocks to keep you going for weeks. At a price of 1200 MSP (£10) you can’t go wrong.
One Response to “Hydro Thunder Hurricane Review”
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very good