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Hydro Thunder Dreamcast Publisher: Midway Developer: Midway Players: 1-2 Difficulty: Medium Camera: Rear Chase, Far Rear Chase, Hood Additional Pictures Screen 1 Screen 2 Screen 3 Screen 4 Screen 5 Screen 6 Screen 7 Screen 8 Screen 9 Screen 10 Screen 11 Screen 12 Screen 13 Screen 14 **Thanks to Gamecenter.com for a few pictures

The Dreamcast Can Pump Sweet Graphics!! Watch Out For That Shark!! There Are 13 Boats To Choose From. Should That Guy Be On A Sea-Doo During A Race Like This? Yes There Are Police On The Water And They Are As Fierce As Ever TACH- O -METER Control: (4.5) Graphics: (4) Sound: (4.5) Replay Value: (3) Overall: (Not The Average) (4)

The new Sega Dreamcast just hit the store shelves to buy this past 9/9/99. Adults and kids alike rushed to the electronics stores to purchase one immediately considering the fact that it is the most advanced home gaming machine available on the market. Along with the power behind the system there was also a plethora of great video-games that added to the great first-day sales. Right now there is a Dreamcast in about 1 million homes!

With all of this power and great games there has to be at least one racing game in the bunch? Oh but there is and it is called Hydro Thunder. Hydro Thunder is a boat racing game that spans environments from all over the world. It was ported to the Dreamcast from its original home in the local arcades. Almost everything that I loved in the arcade version is near perfect in the Dreamcast game. There is no other video-game system out today that will give someone a better experience then the Dreamcast. The Dreamcast is able to pull off the arcade-crisp graphics and the wonderful framerate found in the arcade. On the other hand there are still a few things that could have been done to make Hydro Thunder on the Dreamcast a perfect port.

There really is no story behind Hydro Thunder. What surprised me is that in the home version there was an absence of a Championship, League, or Time Trial modes. This really affects the game's longevity a few months after a purchase. A racing game has to have some flair or something about it that will draw you back to it after you have beaten it. With the absence of these key racing features it really hurts the overall rating of the game. Instead of all these modes there is a straight one player mode with which you select a course (out of a possible 13), choose your vehicle, and the race begins. What you can expect in this mode is a fast paced, adrenaline pumping action. While you race there are wild jumps, deranged police cars that ram you into the wall, and lovely site-seeing boats that make great targets. If you are able to place in certain top finishes then you will be rewarded new tracks and vehicles. The other mode that is available is the two-player mode. With two controllers two amigos are able to race each other to see who is the Hydro Thunder king but the two-player mode included in this package is down-right disturbing. A horizontal line along the middle of the screen separates one-player's vehicle and two-player's vehicle. This is all fine and dandy considering this is how most two-player games are played out but what is very troubling is the fact that the framerate drops so low that the boats, instead of flowing over the water, bounce along in an irregular manner.

Most racing games have bonus tracks after completing certain tasks like winning selected races etc. . What Hydro Thunder fails to offer are some decent secret tracks. After getting in the top three in the easy tracks you are rewarded a second set tracks of medium difficulty. Finishing in the top two on these adds a third set of hard tracks. By finishing first of these tracks one is compensated for all their hard work with four bonus tracks but are they worth it? No. Only the first track do I find a worthy bonus. When I say worthy I mean a track that has great design and gives me something different then the last nine courses I beat. The last three courses are so pathetic in both their track design and originality. They were a complete waste of time to race on because of how boring it was going around the course. Little originality for making it that far paid off. Two of the three were like racing around one of those duck pond games at the amusement parks and the third was a straight drive through a dull castle.

Most speed boats do not even compare to the wacky vehicles that can be found in Hydro Thunder. The first set of "easy" boats are somewhat normal looking except for the one that resembles a fighter ject. "Medium" vehicles resemble upgraded boats of today and the "hard" vehicles are extremely odd. One vehicles looks like a space ship. What is very good about these boats has its own water attitude. No two boats are the same. But what I found is that the "hard" boats really are not that great. My personal boat that I won with very easy is the "medium" boat Tidalblade. Great handling along with great speed make it the boat of choice. As for the bonus vehicles, they are just plain abnormal. There is a Chumdinger. The Chumdinger is a small boat powered by a normal motor and driven by a country hick from the south dresses in overalls and a plaid shirt. Other bonus vehicles are the TinyTanic (the Titanic), a Police Boat, and a hovering type of craft.

Track design for the first nine courses are excellent and very original. There are jumps galore and speed boosts all over the water that add four or nine second boosts to your boost meter. Along with the jumps there are huge waterfall leaps, bridge dives, and volcano bounds. Each track has its own special characteristic that separates itself from the rest. Tracks include Artic Circle, the Far East, Venice Canals, Ship Graveyard, Lost Island, Lake Powell, Thunder Park, and the Greek Isles. Possibly the greatest course in the game New York Disaster. A giant meteor hit the city and flooded New York streets and buildings. This recipe makes a perfect backdrop for a boat race. There are street signs floating in the water, street and building rubble on the banks, and other various objects floating about.

Graphically, Hydro Thunder roars past any Playstation or Nintendo 64 game. The lush colors, beautiful landscapes, roaring backgrounds, and slick, reflecting boats are all included. Water reflections, ice sparkles, water splashes, and lens flares light up the tracks wonderfully. Another wonderful aspect is the backgrounds in each track. In one track there is a smoldering volcano just waiting to blow its top and in another course there is lightning clashing everywhere as rain pours down.

The control and sound are all on par and responsive if there is no slowdown. Using the analog control steering is simple and each boat handles as it would in real life. I personally have never driven a boat over 100 miles per hour but it seems realistic enough. For the "YEEEEAAAA WHOOOOO!" to the "BRACE YOURSELF" all add to the games terrific sound. Police boats yell at you to slow down and put your hands on the boat, tour boats talk about how terrific the surroundings are, and the monkeys that you breeze by make their classic grunt. Boat motors and splashes all sound great as well.

Will Hydro Thunder last a long time in the Dreamcast? Probably. But once you have beaten everything there is to be beaten there is little looking back on it. I spent all my time trying to get all the bonus tracks and they turned out to be worthless so I had no reason to replay a track I already conquered. One more bad feature is the extensive load time that the game takes before each race and options screens. This may turn off some buyers that are impatient but for most it is not that bad considering most games that run from a CD have load times. If there is one racing game available for the Dreamcast that is enjoyable to play and easy to get the hang of then this is it. I would recommend, though, that this title be rented before anything else. -Nick Steinhauer