Hydro Thunder Hurricane

Hydro Thunder Hurricane is an arcade-style boat racing game, and the sequel to Hydro Thunder. Gameplay involves players selecting one of nine boats to race through one of eight courses. The primary mode of gameplay involves a sixteen competitor race to the finish line. As with Hydro Thunder, players can collect boost powerups throughout a course which physically transform the boat into a more aggressive-looking form. Once transformed, players can use acquired boost to increase the speed of the boat temporarily, or to jump over obstacles. The game's eight tracks are (in order): Lake Powell, Storming Asgard, Monster Island, Tsunami Bowl, Lost Babylon, Paris Sewers, Seoul Stream, and Area 51. Hurricane continues the Thunder series tradition of hidden shortcuts and alternate routes in courses. Some routes can be found by simply driving towards them or smashing through an obstacle, while others require the player to drive over green powerups which lower gates or raise ramps. Players earn credits by winning races. These credits serve as points which automatically unlock additional gameplay elements, such as boats, skins, new courses and game modes. 'Gauntlet' also removes AI competitors, but replaces the rings with explosive barrels littered throughout the water. Players must complete the course as quickly as possible while avoiding the barrels. Hurricane also features a number of multiplayer scenarios. Up to four players can complete via splitscreen against each other and twelve AI competitors. Vector Unit explained the decision further on their blog: "If players -- especially new players -- are too easily frustrated, they just say screw this and drop out, which reduces the number of players and the number of available online games". ==Development and marketing==

Hydro Thunder Hurricane was first unveiled at PAX East on March 26, 2010. It was then used as one of two mystery games for ScrewAttacks Iron Man of Gaming. Hydro Thunder Hurricane was released as part of the third annual Xbox Live Summer of Arcade along with titles such as Monday Night Combat and Limbo. The water was programmed for the game using several different techniques. Fresnel reflections, normal mapping, ray-traced depth fogging and depth-based foam and an adaptive LOD system were built to handle the visuals. The physics system that controls the water allows multiple types of waves such as wakes and whirlpools, and also adapts to handle different boat hulls and other objects in the water. An external audio contractor, Robb Mills, was called upon to compose the game's music. Developers also provided support for the Xbox 360 Wireless Racing Wheel. Hydro Thunder Hurricane did not start life as a Thunder franchise title. Matt Small, creative director for the game explained: "The first game demo we made was an original speedboat racing game. The demo showed off the game's controls and our new fluid dynamic system". They took lessons from Blood Wake, altering and updating the physics to be not only realistic, but to "make a game which a Novice player can easily pick up and learn". According to Vector Unit: "The basic idea was speedboats meets Supercross in a futuristic post-global-warming flooded Earth". The engine was built from the ground up, and unitizes FMOD for sound and Bullet Physics Library as part of the game's physics system. Besides for Xbox 360, Vector also announced the game to be available for Windows 8 via Microsoft's Windows Store when the operating system is released. It joins other ports of popular Xbox 360 Xbox Live Arcade titles such as Ms. Splosion Man, Toy Soldiers and Ilomilo. Updates and downloadable content When asked about the possibility of a PlayStation 3 port of the game, the company stated: "People ask us this all the time, and unfortunately the answer is no. Microsoft Studios licensed the game from Warner, and as you can imagine Microsoft is not generally all that gung-ho about making games for the PlayStation". adds three tracks, and two new boats, including the Whiplash (pictured). While the game itself utilized redesigned versions of the original Hydro Thunder boats, the Tempest Pack boats are entirely new to the series. Vector Unit held a contest from August 14 to 23, 2010 allowing consumers to design a skin for their favorite boat. On August 25, two winners were chosen to have their designs placed into the game. As a consolation prize, everyone who entered a design was notified that they would receive a code to download the content for free once released. Additional boats and tracks were also confirmed on August 9, in an interview with Small. Vector Unit released DLC pack named Tempest Pack, consisting of three tracks - Atlantis, Castle Von Boom, and Bermuda Triangle, each with Race, Ring Master and Gauntlet game types. Two new boats were included, Whiplash and Psyclone. The Tempest Pack was released on October 27, 2010. Vector Unit stated that if sales of Hydro Thunder Hurricane and the Tempest Pack are high enough there may be additional downloadable content: "We'd love to do more; we have all kinds of ideas for new boats, new tracks, the whole shebang. But the first part of your question hits the nail on the head: it's all about the sales". ==Reception==

Hydro Thunder Hurricane received "generally favorable reviews" according to the review aggregation website Metacritic. and the reviewer from GameTrailers said the game "looks sharp for a $15 release". The reviewer from Edge praised the game's small touches, including the fast load times, ability to choose between mph and km/h units, inclusion of a useful instant recovery button, support for online splitscreen and "how your rival's times flash up in-race to add just that extra dash of spice". Official Xbox Magazine UKs reviewer cited that "there's a brilliant playfulness to the level design". They further noted the usefulness of the Ring Master mode in guiding the player to some of the game's shortcuts. Total sales on the Xbox 360 for 2010 were in excess of 160,000 units. Sales on the 360 continued to be strong, with over 53,000 units being sold the first week of 2011. As of year-end 2011, Xbox 360 sales increased to 223,000 units for the core game and nearly 25,000 for its expansion pack. As of December 2012 Xbox 360 sales increased by an estimated 45%, with leaderboards registering over 321,000 players. The Tempest Pack performed similarly, with just over 38,000 registered players. The Tempest Pack downloadable content received high praise from critics. Jim Cook of Gamers Daily News praised the new course design, stating that it was a major draw for Hurricane players. He also gave high marks to the game's two new boats, as well as the addition of refitted Expert class versions of the game's Novice and Pro boats. Cook was critical of the high unlock points of these boats, stating that "[they] may take a while to unlock unless you've been very active with the game". John Laster of XBLA Fans gave the Tempest Pack a "Buy" rating and called the content a great value for fans of the game. He also felt the courses were exceptional, feeling they were "on par, if not better than the tracks released with the game". He wrote that the two new boats were well matched with the other expert boats, and that the upgraded Expert versions of the Novice and Pro boats were "a necessity and something we wish had been included in the original game". In its first week of release, the Tempest Pack sold over 5,300 units. ==References==