Hydro Thunder Hurricane is a sequel to arcade game Hydro Thunder, developed by a new dev team called Vector Unit, released on Xbox Live Arcade in July 2010. Like its predecessor, HTH features wacky powerboat racing through a variety of locations where boats would otherwise have no business racing. Most of the boats from the first game are back, with updated designs.
In addition to the standard racing game mode from Hydro Thunder, the game also has "Ring Master" events (where the normal Boost powerups are replaced by a series of rings you must drive through, and you get a time penalty for missing rings), "Gauntlet" events (where the course is littered with Exploding Barrels that will blow up your boat, costing you precious seconds respawning and getting back up to speed), as well as "Championship" events (which are multi-race events mixing all three other types). The game also has up to four-player local (split-screen) and 8-player online (via Xbox Live) multiplayer modes, including a team-based even called Rubber Ducky, where each team has to get their designated rubber ducky across the finish line first.
Compare the original Hydro Thunder and its Spiritual Successor, H2Overdrive.
This Game Provides Examples of:
- Area 51: One of the tracks. Includes a brief section set on an alien planet.
- Atlantis: One of the tracks from the Tempest Pack DLC. Yes, it's underwater.
- Buffy Speak: Sometimes, when you find a hidden package on the track, the announcer will go "Hey! You found a secret... thing".
- This is actually a Call-Back to the original, when he would say "Hey, you found a secret!" whenever you found a hidden shortcut.
- Cherry Tapping: The rubber duck in Rubber Ducky mode can be used in online races, too. It has the weakest stats of all the boats, but you can win with that thing. Yes, even against the Expert-level boats.
- Cool Boat: As in the original Hydro Thunder, most of the playable boats fit here, but special mention goes to Miss Behave (made from WWII aircraft parts), and Rad Hazard, which looks like a flying saucer skimming along the water (the manual for the N64/Dreamcast/PSX port of the original Hydro Thunder said it was made from parts found near Area 51).
- Expansion Pack/Downloadable Content: The "Tempest Pack" DLC
, which adds three new tracks (with races, Gauntlets, Ring Master events and championships for each), two new Expert-level boats, new skins for the existing boats, Expert-level variants for the Novice and Pro boats, and three new achievements. - Suspiciously Similar Substitute: The first boat that is available, Vector, replaced Hydro Thunder's Midway in the lineup. The latter was named for the first game's developer/publisher, Midway Games; since Midway Games wasn't involved in Hurricane, the boat was replaced by one named for this game's developer.
- Wacky Racing: Naturally. The tracks are just as crazy as in the first game.
