I wonder what else Microsoft bought from Midway?

hyrdo what? the graphics are good for an arcade game.

Hydro Thunder Hurricane Impressions: Bouncy

Just about everything I know after playing the new Hydro Thunder is what you knew if you read today's news about the Xbox-exclusive sequel to Midway's speedboating series. I can add at least one thing: It feels good.

Aside from Wave Race: Blue Storm and Wii Sports Resort's jet-skiiing there haven't been many chances in the past.. 10 years!... to play a new racing game set upon tracks made of virtual video game water. With the return of Hydro Thunder, high-tech speedboat racing is back. Today at PAX East in Boston, I tore through a few laps of Hydro Thunder Hurricane and got a feel for what a modern video game system can do for a water-bound racing game.

I raced Matt Small, creative director of Vector Unit, the two-year old company that has worked with Microsoft to bring water-based racing to gamers again. A year ago, Small said, Microsoft obtained the Hydro Thunder license from Midway, and the game certainly looks like its namesake — a boat-racing game set on exaggerated theme-park-style tracks, full of speed boosts power-ups, jumps and statues of angry gods.

It races, though, like a modern game. Waves on the track bounced my speedboat around. Wakes from other boats rocked mine, but drafting right behind other boats gave me a speed boost. As we raced one course, a biplane flew overhead, dropping bombs. The explosions rocked the track and the ripple effect buffeted my boat. On another course, a geyser in the middle of the water lane shot our crafts into the air and through what might have been an observation deck. Players will be able to trigger some waves of their own, and they'll need to keep an eye out for avalanches and other disasters that might disrupt the water flowing around them.

Small said that all the tracks in the game are new, though some are thematically tied to the original Hydro Thunder. The old voice actors are not back, but the spirit of high-speed racing is. As a player races around the track, they can pick up speed boosts and Hydro Thunder collectibles. He said that the one of the most important elements to retain in the series is the availability of shortcuts. He promised there will be plenty.

I played a single-player race through a course set in Seoul and a split-screen race set near a forest against Small. The game supports up to four players split-screen as well as online play. In multiplayer matches, there are eight boats on the course. In solo play, there are 16.

Hydro Thunder Hurricane doesn't feel like a radical departure from the original game. It's likely to be one of those sequels that plays the way you think you remember the original playing. But wave physics didn't undulate quite like this back in the arcade and on the Dreamcast. That experience is here and, for better or worse, a rare treat.

The game is set for release on Xbox Live Arcade later this year.

looks kinda lame. ill have to pass

That actually looks like something I'd really like. I was excited when Turn 10 was teasing a "Forza Watersport," so yeah, I'm interested!

lol turn10 doing forza watersport would be awesome so forza 4 could be saved for next generation. i htink they are working on PGR5 or something like that

By Jeremy Parish 03/26/2010
The nicest thing I can say about Hydro Thunder: Hurricane (playable for the first time on the PAX East show floor today) is that it feels exactly like I remember Wave Race 64 feeling. That's not a slight by any means. When it was new, Wave Race was nothing short of incredible; in the cold light of hindsight, though, it's somewhat less impressive. But Hurricane feels as great now as Wave Race felt in 1996.

The secret, of course, is in the technology. Few genres benefit from advances in tech like racers, and in Hurricane's case, the Xbox 360's surfeit of processing power has been dumped into the game's water physics. It looks decent enough -- though it's hardly a competitor with Gran Turismo 5 or even Project Gotham Racing 4 -- but the water feels incredible. Waves buckle and deform the water's surface; the sea level rises or drops as a race advances; creatures leap into and out of the water, causing massive disturbances. All of these factors add a slight element of unpredictability to each course, as the turbulence of the racing surface affects the movement of your racing craft.

This is nothing new for the series; Hydro Thunder has always been the pumped-up, testosterone-juiced counterpart to more conventional water-based racers like Jet Moto and Wave Race. Hurricane simply pours more attention, detail, and dynamism into the experience than in the past. Developed by Vector Unit, whose previous credits include the remarkably similar Blood Wake for Xbox, Hurricane puts Xbox Live Arcade to good use: It's a very straightforward arcade-style racer. Players can choose from eight courses, nine racers, four gameplay modes, and either online play (for eight people) or splitscreen action (for four people) or a combination of both. Rather than try to cram it full of needless features or useless extras, Vector Unit is keeping the game lean and focused on fast, competitive, watercraft racing -- perfectly true to the series' roots.

Naturally, Hurricane includes a variety of extra factors for each race: Collecting nitro charges for boosting, smashing hidden logos to reveal bonuses, hitting out-of-the-way icons to unlock shortcuts, and more. Tracks are often populated with massive sea creatures (and even monsters) to keep things interesting, and the visuals seem as smooth as the water is choppy.

While Microsoft has neither a set price for Hurricane nor a release date more specific than "summer," the demo on the PAX floor gives every indication that this could easily go down as a great use of the inexpensive XBLA download format: Namely, keeping a fondly remembered franchise in the public eye without straying too far from its origins.

1337 Gamer said: looks kinda lame. ill have to pass

My thoughts exactly...MS could've invested in a better IP then this imo.

yo_john117 said: 1337 Gamer said: looks kinda lame. ill have to pass My thoughts exactly...MS could've invested in a better IP then this imo.

It was pretty much a garage sale, they probably got a pretty good deal on it and what ever else they bought