It's scientific fact that racing games are roughly 200 percent more exciting when the genre's standard asphalt surfaces are replaced with good ol' H20. One of the clearest examples of this was Midway's classic arcade racer Hydro Thunder -- a franchise that's been dormant for over a decade. However, Microsoft Game Studios and developer Vector Unit today announced that they'll soon blow the proverbial dust off the series this summer with Hydro Thunder Hurricane, an Xbox Live Arcade-exclusive sequel to the arcade classic.
Hydro Thunder Hurricane will include a number of multiplayer-oriented game modes, eight super hazardous race tracks and several returning speedboats from the series' original iteration. There's support for four-player local matches, eight-player online matches and a co-operative "Rubber Ducky" mode, which just sounds so intense.
Vector Unit is showcasing the title at PAX East. We'll let you know how it handles.
I'm with Dr. Blight in spirit- if not fully in opinion.
I mean, I'll still buy this, because it might be good on it's own merits and it'll probably be cheap. I don't think it looks terrible- but he's fully right that it does look pretty different from the original in terms of track design, speed and handling.
I'm reminded of the Guitar Hero/Rock Band split off. The original Hydro Thunder guys ended up doing a new more fully featured version of their game for a different publisher, while the named sequel is being done by guys that loved the original and now own the name to it, though they didn't make it. And as Guitar Hero under Neversoft had it's own feel and style, I think we'll see something similar with Vector Unit's (a MGS studio, it's worth mentioning-) take on Hydro Thunder.
I just hope it's awesome. Because I'd rather have good games be out there than bad ones. And that is has the tracks from the original game included, because they were awesome.
D'oh. I thought the internets ate my comment when I wrote it to Blight's comment above, so I reworded it as a standalone comment, only to see it then go through in original. COMMENT FAIL. :(
H2Overdrive owns this game in EPIC fashion. The quality of the video was bad so it's hard to give a critique of the graphics, but like was mentioned earlier it looks bland and uneventful. Hydro Thunder (and Arctic Thunder for that matter) were over-the-top, exciting, loud, fast, fun games. I don't see how H2Overdrive could be so awesome and this be...well, what it is.
My college's student center has two Hydro Thunder arcade cabinets linked together. There are quite a few hardcore players there who take it seriously...it's pretty exciting.
