I’ve always enjoyed driving games. While classic coin-op games like Pole Position and Turbo have held my interest; I have always liked the "unusual" coin-op driving games a bit better. Titles that would fall into this category include Atari’s old Fire Truck game, San Francisco Rush, Crazy Taxi, and Hydro Thunder.

Hydro Thunder has been a particular favorite of mine. Recent coin-op driving games like Crazy Taxi & 18-Wheeler have given some new life to the driving style games by introducing some new elements. Hydro Thunder has done that as well, by giving us a visually impressive boat racing game with good solid gameplay. Granted, we have seen some boat racing games before, but not like this.

Hydro Thunder is now available for the home consoles. While several different versions exist, this review will cover the version for the Sega Dreamcast. The home version of the game was developed by Eurocom Entertainment Software, and is marketed by Midway.

If you are new to Hydro Thunder, let me bring you up to speed. The object of the game is to race your boat (through a number of courses) in the fastest time possible. To start off, you can select a course from the three "easy" tracks. You also select one of three "easy" boats, and then you are whisked away to the race. Finishing in third place (or higher) on all three "easy" tracks will unlock three harder tracks, and three more powerful boats. Placing second (or higher) in these three tracks will gain you access to three even harder tracks and three even more powerful boats. If you can finish in first place on the three difficult tracks, you will be rewarded with four bonus tracks that are locked away in the game. There are also four hidden boats that are waiting for you to unlock.

Take a look at the screen capture on the left. This was taken from the Arctic Circle track. You have a speedometer in the upper left hand corner. Just below that is your boost gauge. (More on that in a minute.) To the right of the speedometer is a stopwatch with the elapsed time of the race. In the upper center of the screen is a countdown timer for the next checkpoint in the race. On the upper right corner is a radar. Just below that is your position. You will start all races in last place.

Let’s take a closer look at the tracks. Midway should be commended for assembling a demanding and exciting set of tracks that should keep your interest for some time to come. For example, the "New York Disaster" track simulates a flood in New York City. You will race your boat through flooded New York City streets, and through the subway system. Along the way, you will see many recognizable objects from New York City, including a submerged Statue of Liberty. A New York City Police boat will attempt to pull you over during the race, and you will hear a New York cop yelling at you through a bullhorn.

Another track, Venice Canals, represents a high-speed race through the waterways of Venice, Italy. In my opinion, this is the hardest track in the game. It is full of narrow sharp curves that are difficult to navigate.

Yet another track, Arctic Circle, represents a race down an arctic river, out to the ocean. Arctic Circle includes obstacles such as kayaks, killer whales, and a cruise ship.

What's cool is that these tracks are all unique. They each have a specific flavor in terms of atmosphere and style. Each of the tracks has fantastic little details, such as the polar bears in the Arctic Circle track, the blimp & amusement park rides on the Thunder Park track, or the Police helicopters that chase you through the Lake Powell track. Check the screen captures below to see what I mean.

Turbo Boost power-ups are located in many places along all of the tracks. You can obtain boosts for four seconds, or nine seconds. A fuel gauge on the left side of the screen represents the amount of boost you have left. You can use the boosts to build up additional speed, or make your boat jump into the air. You can only store roughly eighteen seconds of turbo boost in your boat.

While most of the turbo boost power-ups are placed where they can be easily found, some have been hidden. Many of the hidden power-ups can be found in the secret short cuts hidden in each track. Some secret short cuts are easy to find such as under waterfalls. Some have been hidden away quite well, and will require some of your time to find them. The short cuts generally save you a few seconds, and give you a power-up or two.

Screen captures of Hydro Thunder
Click on images to enlarge

Since we are racing on water, you will have to deal with changing water conditions, so the physics are different than racing on land. The strength of the waves vary from calm to choppy, and changes in the strength of the waves will affect how your boat performs. Water is presented very effectively from a visual standpoint. At certain parts of the game when you are racing through shallow water, you can see objects at the bottom of the track including fish, sharks, and sunken ships.

The boats are just as cool as the tracks. Each boat has unique physics for speed, cornering, turbo, etc. As a result, each boat performs differently in a race, and you will need to practice with each boat to learn how it "behaves." Sound comes in to play here, as the engine on each boat has a distinct roar. Some of the powerful boats sound like a diesel engine, while some of the "high-tech" boats have a distinct scream that sounds like a UFO.

The racing can be presented from three different perspectives: a first person view, a third person view, and an extended third person view. You can choose which perspective you prefer, and change views "on the fly" during a race.

Now, here is the big question: Does all of this graphic "eye candy" I mentioned above have a price? I have always thought that gameplay is more important than flashy graphics. Having said that, the Dreamcast version of Hydro Thunder is able to give you all great graphics and the great gameplay you would expect from the original coin-op version. There are plenty of small details for all of you people who love high quality graphics, and the Dreamcast doesn't seem to have too much trouble keeping the framerate high. There are occasional brief slowdowns in the framerate, and rare problems with clipping, but they don’t seem to affect the gameplay.

So, is there anything about this game that I didn’t like? Unfortunately, the answer is "Yes." First of all, I have some problems with the way the user interface is implemented. If you start a race, and screw up so bad that you have to start over, there is no quick way to do so. It would be nice if there were some way to restart a race in progress without having to return to the main menu.

This may not sound like a big complaint, but believe me, it is. The problem is that this game huge. As a result, the wait involved for jumping from the main title screen, to the options screen, to the track selection screen, to the boat selection screen, to the actual start of the race involves loading a TON of data, and it is a lengthy process. Odds are that if you are going to restart a race, you will be using the same track and boat, so why do I have to wait for all of these extra menus to load? A quick restart feature would be a great addition to the game.

There are plenty of small details for all of you people who love high quality graphics, and the Dreamcast doesn't seem to have too much trouble keeping the framerate high.

Another interface problem involves the VMU. There is no option to auto-load your settings and scores from the VMU. Each time you boot the game, you need to go to the options screen, and load your settings/scores manually. I have plenty of Dreamcast games that do this automatically, so I am a bit confused as to why I can’t do this in Hydro Thunder.

I was disappointed with the lack of flexibility when setting up your controller. You cannot reassign the button configurations to your liking. There is a primary configuration, and an alternate configuration that are hard-coded into the game, and you cannot change the settings.

I also would have liked to have some kind of "practice" mode included in the game. Midway hasn’t really added anything new from the original coin-op despite the fact that they had a prime opportunity to do so. A "practice" mode would have allowed beginners to learn the tracks, and the behavior of each of the boats, without having the other boats on the track getting in your way. It would also give you the chance to find some of the short cuts hidden away in the game.

The original Hydro Thunder coin-op featured a two-player competitive mode if two Hydro Thunder units were linked. The Dreamcast version of Hydro Thunder does offer a two player competitive game via a split screen mode. While it is fun to race against another player, I feel that Midway wasted another opportunity to add something new & fun to the game. How about a two player "capture the flag" mode, or a "tag" mode, or a "battle" mode, or some other option that could have added to the multi-player experience?

I love games that support force feedback, and Hydro Thunder does support the force feedback module on the Dreamcast. However, I think it has been used entirely too much in this game. If you have a force feedback module installed in your controller, be prepared. I finally got fed up with it, and pulled it out. One annoying aspect of the force feedback comes at the end of a race. If you hit another boat, or a wall, or some other object after the end of the race, the force feedback will rattle your controller for around ten seconds while the score screen loads. It seems inexcusable that something like that slipped through quality control before the game went into production.

The Hydro Thunder coin-op is a fantastic game. In fact, I feel it is the best boat racing game that has ever been produced. I am pleased to say that the game has translated well to the Sega Dreamcast. Visually, the Dreamcast version looks almost identical to the coin-op version, and the Dreamcast gameplay is every bit as good as the coin-op.

Having said that, the coin-op game is designed to be a quarter-munching "short attention span" game. Most of the races on the coin-op last approximately two minutes. Midway had an opportunity to bring home the feeling of the arcade game, while introducing some additional features that would add replay value, and extend the life of the title. I feel that Eurocom Entertainment Software and Midway have "missed the boat" (pun intended) by not adding some additional forms of play for the multi-player mode. I also believe that they made a mistake by not including some kind of "practice" mode. As a result, people that are playing the game for the first time may experience a steep learning curve.

Once you start racing, you will have fun. You will want to race again and again to improve your scores. Hydro Thunder is a fun game, and is worth adding to your collection.

For more information, visit the Hydro Thunder
homepage at the Midway web site