Hydro thunder game
HYDRO THUNDER GAME FREE
WIN A FREE RACE FOR FINISHING 1ST OVERALL! Text leftover from the arcade game that can be found scattered throughout 1ST_READ.BIN. This hidden message isn't present in the arcade game's files, so it seems that someone at Eurocom wasn't a fan of James Cameron. This message can also be found in the arcade original.Īnother message can be found near the beginning of most files in the game, directly below the previous message. Gauntlet has you playing through each stage against the clock, the only difference being that the waterways are booby-trapped with exploding barrels that force a checkpoint restart if struck.A developer message that can be found in all versions of the game is present at 0xBAC8C in 1ST_READ.BIN and throughout track 37. Miss a ring and you incur a time penalty, with the size of the rings diminishing as you rise through the boat classes, thereby scaling the difficulty.
Ring Master, the second event type, goes some way to helping you discover these shortcuts, each event shepherding you through a course by picking out a route using giant rings through which your boat must pass. You're free to bump into your rivals, but your efforts are best spent taking racing lines to pick up the next speed boost capsule or hunting out the shortcuts that thread through each of the game's eight tracks. Races pit you against 15 competitors in a watery dash to the finishing line. There are four different types of event in which to compete, each accessed from the main menu screen. A sequel to the Dreamcast launch title with which it shares two thirds of a name, the intervening years have done little to shift the series' structural approach to a racing game.
That said, there's no denying Hydro Thunder Hurricane's wholly orthodox framework. Both games offer neat twists on age-old tropes. Both games demand lightning quick reactions for success. Moreover, while Hydro Thunder Hurricane's brash brand of interactivity has a different timbre, underneath the theme and colouring, the two titles sit together quite comfortably.īoth games demand trail and error, the former in feeling out its immovable solutions, the latter in feeling out the optimum routes to facilitate the fastest possible lap times.
HYDRO THUNDER GAME FULL
A three-hit combo of elemental nouns, each threatening to whack you from your sofa into a squall of testosterone.Īnd why not? Microsoft's decision to juxtapose Limbo with an uncomplicated speedboat racer in their scheduling demonstrates not only the publisher's understanding that it takes all types to make a medium, but also exemplifies the full range of approaches their service has the capacity to house. If Limbo's deadly waters represented a cloying quicksand to oblivion, Hydro's undulating waves are ramps to the stars.Īs such, ponderousness is, quite literally, for losers. Spin out on a corner and you need only stab the back button for a rolling reset: combo the endorphins without pause for thought. Videogames should exaggerate physics in search of perfecting the chemistry of play, the game argues. They gobble down speed boost capsules like froth-mouthed junkies under a maelstrom of distorted keyboards and six-foot snare drum clacks.ĭelicacy and finesse be damned, screams developer Vector Unit into the wind and spray: videogames are about domination and high-speed spectacle they're about shaving a few seconds from the times of every last name on your Enemies List about finding the odd secret bonus and, every three laps or so, making your jaw hang slack as a giant f**king sea serpent explodes out of the water and sends your boat ricocheting off into a rock face. 25-foot racing boats, whose engines roar in Texan accents, roll and bounce through white water rapids. If Limbo, last week's inaugural Summer of Arcade release, aspired to the art house aesthete's choice - Braid through a glass, darkly - Hydro Thunder Hurricane is a hyperactive celebration of balls-out, dumbass, American videogame-ness.