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New Xbox 360 Game Will Rock You Like Hurricane

Upcoming XBLA game takes racing to another level.

March 29, 2010
Hydro Thunder Hurricane Preview
Credit: Vector Unit

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.

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.

Originally published on 1UP.com.

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