My favorite Games of All-Time #7: Hydro Thunder - Originally published on 1UP - July 7, 2006

Hydro Thunder is the greatest racing game ever made.

There, I've said it!

It feels as if a great weight has been lifted from my shoulders.

Think about it and let it sink in.

In all of my years playing videogames there have been a few standouts. Pole Position, Monaco G.P., Race Drivin', San Francisco Rush, Mario Kart, F-Zero, Gran Turismo, Wipeout, Auto Modellista, Daytona, Virtua Racing, Star Wars Pod Racer, Burnout, Need for Speed and Forza Motorsport...

None of those games can rival the greatness of Hydro Thunder.

Call my bluff, I dare you.

Hydro Thunder isn't about a bunch of bad-ass boats.

Hydro Thunder isn't about the best tracks ever committed to a racing game either.

Hydro Thunder is the complete package. It meets and exceeds all of the criteria in my definition of a great game. Ask any of my friends and family, I got them hooked on it. That game appealed to people that weren't even racing fans. They played for the sheer thrill of it. No other racing game can lay claim to that.

The idea for a boat racing game was spawned when members of Midway took a vacation on Lake Havasu. The good times and fast boats mixed for an experience that they wanted to recreate. They didn't just manage to recreate the scene, they streamlined it, supercharged it, juiced it on nitromethane, and blew it up.

I completely skipped Hydro Thunder in the arcade the first few months it was in. I thought it looked too much like a computer game. Other Midway racers did little to impress me. Many arcade goers were die-hard fans of the Cruisin' series. I always thought those games looked and played like crap compared to the Sega racers.

Granted I had a bias but at least I gave the game a chance. Within a few plays I was hooked. Literally, I would count the days until I could go to the arcade and play Hydro Thunder some more. You would be hard pressed to find a bigger racing videogame fan. In all my years I never thought that a boat racing game would ever make my list let alone become my favorite racer of all-time. Hydro Thunder is possibly the most underrated arcade game ever.

Let's begin with the basics. The control is both tight and unique. This racer features a steering wheel and throttle, there are no foot pedals. The designers at Midway fought management to let them make a boat racing game that featured these details.

In fact, the entire project was an uphill battle. The US arcade scene was dying, by 1999 is was hanging on by a thread. Midway was scaling back arcade projects. Hydro Thunder would be one of the last scheduled to come out. Any original Midway games that shown promise were rarely followed-up. Unless of course the title was Mortal Kombat... As you can guess I put a lot of the blame for Midway's success and failure squarely in the lap of management. Hydro Thunder was the best game they had made in 15 years and rather than turn it into a franchise they let it die.

The cabinet was designed around the experience. A large display showed off the fancy boat models and beautifully rendered levels. Team Hydro made sure the controls were placed logically to help create the illusion of a superboat steering wheel. The throttle on the right could go both forward and reverse as well as a boost button on the thumb.

The racing-inspired seat had a full back with speakers on the headrest and under the seat itself. Perfect surround sound was achieved when combined with the speakers facing the player. I have heard louder games in the arcade but I have yet to hear any one with as much fidelity, range and clarity as a Hydro Thunder cabinet. Team Hydro put in the game the low frequency rumble of a blown supercharged engine, the high-pitched squeal of a turbo, the roar of a rocket and just about every effect that can be created on water. Just sitting and listening to a blown V8 idle before a race can quickly put you in the mood for racing.

The music on each level is as epic. Midway's Orpheus Soundstation is credited with the music on Hydro Thunder. Rather than put together some bland rock-inspired riffs Orpheus instead put together some amazing compositions. Each of the songs compliment the tracks on a cinematic level. As if Harry Gregson-Williams had written the score.

The two most memorable things about the game are the boats and the tracks. This game would not have worked with just any old boats either. Those featured in Hydro Thunder had to be as wicked as the levels. With names like Cutthroat, Banshee, Rad Hazard and Razorback you better believe these were anything but ordinary boats.

These boats could hit speeds at over 250 mph and even jump with a boost technique. While boosting the boats received a "Mighty Hull" attack and could plow through opponents or obstacles without losing any speed. Each boat handled differently as well. Some boats drifted around corners while others carved the turns hard. There was a boat for every type of driver and each helped balanced the game.

The theme for the game was that you were a pilot in the most elite and secretive boat racing series around. This meant that each race location was special and often times surrounded by police, making the stakes for winning all the more important.

Whether you were tearing up the canals in Venice or navigating some of the tightest rivers in all of China, the experience was never the same twice. Hydro Thunder, like many classic arcade racers, featured a series of shortcuts, some obvious and some well hidden. So in Venice you would hit a straightaway at 200 mph, reverse the engines, cut a 90 degree turn, hit a boost jump over a pier, turn the opposite direction mid-air and accelerate to full speed when you hit the water. Each turn in the game was critical, each speed line was important and every shortcut had to be exploited if you wanted to win. It could be very easy to get caught up staring at the eye candy on each level and miss a turn.

The sense of speed, of grand racing has never been better in any racing game. Much of that has to do with the details on each level. On Lost Island for example, there were prehistoric creatures swimming in the same waters you were racing in. Cave paintings, hidden temples and volcanic erruptions helped create the atmosphere of a "Jurassic Park" for boat fiends.

The closer you looked the more details you would see on the level.

You can measure the greatness of a racer by how much detail went into the selection of each stage. Each level was a living, breathing, slice of a fictional "now." Team Hydro had grown up playing Sega racers, so they knew how to properly exploit the balance between racing and exploring.

The physics of the water helped compliment these levels. You see, unlike the other racing games, water is a unique element. It can be as smooth as glass or it can be choppy. These things effect the way your boat handles in a race. During a severe storm the giant waves produce more dynamic racing than in the roughest off road courses. Hills of mud and dirt don't move and shift under an off road truck. Waves can peak and fall under the boat at any time. F-Zero, Pod Racers and Wipeout really never featured this type of detail in the racing. It was usually go all out until the finish line. Racers had to fight the elements for control of the boat during the harder levels in Hydro Thunder. The Ship Graveyard is a contender for the greatest racing level ever designed (if not for the Nile Adventure in the same game.)

Crappy still pictures do nothing to capture the fluid environment of the graveyard. Sunken boats and aircraft are strewn over the place while a tempest rages on. There is poor visibility in the dark and during a rainstorm, yet like the other levels it is tooth and nail to the end. Hydro Thunder excels in the use of gut-wrenching jumps and drops to help maintain the illusion of breakneck speed.

Notice that I used the word gut-wreneching instead of jaw-dropping. In the Rush games a sports car can jump a few hundred feet over a hill. That is jaw-dropping. In Hydro Thunder the boats can jump about as far, if not further. But when there is a drop-off, from a waterfall or dam for example, there is a more visceral reaction. The boat may drop more than a few hundred stories into the river below. In that time the reaction goes from "hell yeah" to "holy shit!"

Look at the picture above. Do you notice the third image on the right? There is a boat flying way above the lake? More often than not every race is decided by a last minute drop off from a hidden shortcut. A person will be in the lead right until the last few hundred feet, when all of a sudden, from out of nowhere a boat flies in and wins the race. Needless to say this is how I would usurp my friends in the arcade. Did I mention that this game is best enjoyed with a friend?

No great racer would be complete without secrets. In addition to all of the sweet boats you could pilot, there were hidden boats that were just as much fun. From the "Tinytanic" to the "Chumdinger." The designs of all of the boats, hidden or otherwise deserves a nod.

There were other codes that players could input into the game to disable the opponents from being able to catch up to clearing the area of competitors. There was even a hidden track in the arcade accessible only by pressing the right buttons.

Hydro Thunder was released to praise from both gamers and reviewers alike. It was one of the few games that magazine editors could genuinely call one of the greatest arcade racers and one of the greatest arcade titles ever. Crappy ports were made for the consoles. The Midway treasures one that came out recently has a Dreamcast port of Hydro Thunder, the best looking of the ports, but absolute crap when compared to the arcade game.

In their infinite wisdom Midway asked Team Hydro for a sequel. In the meantime Midway released half-assed racers with the "Thunder" logo in the name. These would be the forgettable Arctic Thunder and Off Road Thunder which stole much of the same things that made Hydro Thunder work but never replicated the experience. These games were panned by gamers and critics. Not long ago G4 TV named Arctic Thunder the most interactive arcade game ever... it seriously wants to make me punch someone at G4 right in the mouth.

To add insult to injury Midway then scrapped the Hydro Thunder 2 project well into development. I spoke with the team as they were working on it. At least three tracks were near completion and two boat models had already been made. Truly Hydro Thunder 2 would surpass the original in every way. But it was never meant to be. Here are the only known screenshots for the boat models in the sequel, Razorback and Tidal Blade

Hydro Thunder has earned its place on my list a thousand times over. I hope you get a chance to play this in the local arcade and not on the consoles. Right now I am going to take the cousins to see Pirates of the Caribbean 2, there is a Hydro Thunder machine in the lobby. Looks like it's got some racing left in it yet!

I’d like to hear your personal top-10, top-20, top fighting games, top sports games, or top games in any genre. Let me know in the comments section please. As always if you would like to sponsor me please visit my Patreon page and consider donating each month, even as little as $1 would help make better blogs and even podcasts!