Hydro Thunder

"This game is washed up, both literally and figuratively"

Hydro Thunder is one of the earliest Dreamcast games, a home port of the famous arcade game with the same name. Otherwise known as “that boat racing game,” it borrows many similar arcadish characteristics from games such as Cruisn' World, where players race through a linear path, turning left and right and jumping off ramps from start to finish while trying to come in first ahead of nine other enemy boats. Certainly, unlike those car-driving ports, Hydro Thunder has its own niche that makes it significantly unique, considering its nearest competition is Wave Race 64 (which is a jet ski game, not a boat game). It's pretty interesting, but the home port for the Dreamcast botches several things that reduce the experience overall.

Hydro Thunder is not at all a complicated racing game. There are a handful of boats and tracks to choose from, each full of Dreamcast graphical goodness. It replicates the arcade version with utmost accuracy. Races can get very fast-paced trying to beat the timer and playing bumper-boat with the other players while bobbing up and down on the waves. Even though handling is a bit too loose to use “advanced” racing tactics such as proper cornering, the game makes good use of turbo boosts and shortcuts. Part of the racing experience involves collecting boost icons scattered all around the track. Pressing the boost button thrusts the boat forward at a ludicrous speed and also pushes other boats around. Thankfully, the developers have provided a lot of content to keep the game fresh for a little while.

There are a plethora of boats to choose from, ranging in different levels from easy to hard, even including some secret boats that are unlocked by certain means. However, regardless of what boat players choose the gameplay remains primarily the same--hit the jumps and the turbos--but faster boats tend to be more skittish on the water. The tracks range in difficulty too, and there are about 15 different tracks to choose from in all sorts of exotic locations. These range from pretty much every place you can think of racing boats, such as China, Greece, the Arctic Circle, and even a post-apocalyptic New York City. Each track has its own fair share of shortcuts, but the game tends to repeat the same old “thrills” each time, such as jumping off waterfalls, cutting through hidden tunnels, and plowing over pedestrian boats. All of these features sound great, but this is where the console port drops the ball.

This game feels all-around more unforgiving than the arcade port. The first reason being that if you want to merely go for a Sunday boating trip, so to speak, the timer is much more difficult than in the arcade. In the arcade, you were guaranteed to finish the race, but in the Dreamcast port, it'll clamp down on those less-skilled players with utmost surprise. There's also no option to ease the difficulty either.

Along with the strict timer, the game places so much emphasis on completing the game. It's so bad that pretty much 75% of the content is locked from the beginning. Even though the game makes very vague mention of the prerequisites, it's still painfully obvious that you have to win races. The game requires players to beat all the easy courses in 3rd or better using any of the easy level boats to unlock the medium level tracks and boats. It progresses in difficulty: beat all of the medium tracks in 2nd or better to unlock the hard level features, then beat all the hard tracks in 1st place to unlock the bonus features, which also requires you to beat those bonus tracks on 1st to beat the game! It sounds rather interesting, but to complete such mission requires pin-point accuracy and memory. In other words, you've got to hit all the boosts and nail every shortcut, and even on the hard course, it's still not guaranteed a win (Venice Canals comes to mind, watching as the second place guy blows past me in the final stretch *sob*). I think this is not a good way to “give” players features at all, and once you've got every feature in the game, it's already become boring, especially since you've “mastered” all the courses already.

To assure readers that I'm not being biased, I did, in fact, beat the whole game, but the way this game rams the whole thing down your throat and requires you to play so good kills the experience. I know so, and I hardly touched the game afterwards, even though it did feel good to beat the game at last.

Also, did I mention that to unlock these courses in two-player, you have to do the same exact missions in two-player, regardless of what you've done in single player? That's such an absurdity, I say.

Dare I mention that besides the poor mission mode the game's interface is one of the worst I've ever seen. The menus are very stiff and there's no music playing in the background whatsoever, which made me feel very, very awkward. It's impossible to restart races in-game, and that makes completing all the races even more of a pain than before. Given an extra month or two, this port would have been a bit more improved than before.

Otherwise, you can't complain about how the game looks and sounds. The game does emulate the arcade version with success; the boats looks pretty sharp and the tracks exhibit some good geometry. Sure, the texturing and geometry could be turned up a notch, plus the boat bobbing effects could look a bit more slick, but it's at least satisfactory. The framerate usually keeps up with the action, so it's not going to bog the racing experience. The sound, as said above, is atrocious in the menus, but in the game, the booming audio, consisting of roaring engines as well as manly announcer, do bring home some of the original Hydro Thunder excitement.

Overall, Hydro Thunder isn't a bad racing game; it's a simple “guilty pleasure” kind of racing game, but this port just bogs down the gameplay that made Hydro Thunder merely enjoyable. If you like the arcade port, just stick with that. If you love the game, then buy the Dreamcast version, but remember that it's still very frustrating to deal with.

Presentation: 3/10 – Oh my. Sloppy, boring old menus scream “rushed” in all ways.
Gameplay: 6/10 - The boating portions are pretty fun, but all those unlock missions are absurd and ruin the experience quite a bit.
Graphics: 7/10 – Not all that bad. Framerate is good, boats look good, tracks look good.
Sound: 6/10 – Menus are devoid of sound. In game, the boats and announcer contribute to the excitement just fine.
Replay Value: 5/10 – Missions suck most of the fun out of the game, otherwise, racing gets monotonous over a while.

Reviewer's Score: 6/10, Originally Posted: 06/24/04, Updated 11/19/07

Game Release: Hydro Thunder (US, 09/08/99)