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Hydro Thunder

If there's any one racing game in the arcades that has had gamers making a bee-line to it, Hydro Thunder is certainly one of them. With its skimming handling, and all around arcadey controls it's one of the most fun racers out there. Thankfully the Dreamcast has come into existence to allow there to be an arcade perfect port of the game for players to enjoy at home. However, for some the game may be too arcade perfect as there are no little extras (or big extras for that matter) to give that extra something that we've come to expect from arcade conversions.

Looking at the screen the graphics are just as good, if not slightly better than the arcade version. The look of the water is very pleasing to the eye, as is the boat modeling, lighting effects, and spray from the boats. The game also runs at 60 frames per second making everything flow incredibly smoothly. The visuals are really top notch.

The audio side of things has also been handled extremely well. The effects are very realistic, and all of the log ride cheers and screaming from the tour boats and such are intact. It's also nice to hear the echoes when driving into a cave. Basically all of the audio from the arcade version have been brought over to the Dreamcast version. What is especially nice is the game's soundtrack. Instead of having a more traditional vibe of electronica and fast rock / metal playing the game has a more orchestral theme that adds so much more to the experience. All in all it's nice to be able to really hear the game's audio since it could be hard to do so in the arcades with the cacophony of noise that swirls around there.

 

- Dreamcast Game Reviews - Racing Game Reviews - Reviews of Games Developed/Published by Midway

The controls are very simple and easy to grasp (now there's a bad pun). Even though the Dreamcast controller is sort of clunky it feels just fine in the hands while playing. The boats all respond very well and retain their somewhat nutty arcade-styled handling.

The one downside that Hydro Thunder has is that there has been absolutely nothing new added to the home version. No extra level, boats, nothing. It's not the end of the world, but it is also disappointing that the game is exactly the same.

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Regardless of the game being an exact port of the arcade version, Hydro Thunder still makes for a very fun title. At the end of the day it still equates to being an arcade game that can now be played at home which is fine and dandy. The game still stands above many of the other arcade racers on the Dreamcast and that's what counts.

Reviewed by Mr. Nash

(September 1, 2000)

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