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Spiritual Sequel To Hydro Thunder On The Way?

twinturbo2

butthurt Heat fan
http://kotaku.com/5137523/hydro-thunder-spiritual-sequel-on-the-way

I remember hearing about a collaboration between Raw Thrills and Specular Interactive, a new arcade game developer founded by ex-Midway San Diego developers responsible for Hydro Thunder and Off Road Thunder. Could this be the end result?

Kotaku said:
Arcade Heroes is reporting today that the team behind the original Hydro Thunder is developing a spiritual sequel to the Midway arcade classic, set to debut at next week's ATEI show in London.

Arcade game manufacturer Raw Thrills is set to reveal H2Overdrive, a powerboat racing game developed by the original Hydro Thunder team, creators of the best arcade racing game of all time. After two poorly received spin-offs, Arctic Thunder and Off-Road Thunder, Midway allegedly canceled the true sequel to Hydro Thunder in a moment of infinite evilness.

Details are scant, but to hear Raw Thrills tell it, H2Overdrive looks "amazing." Hopefully, that means "actually amazing" and not just "amazing in comparison is Raw Thrills' other games, like Target: Terror." Please be good. Please be good. Please be good.

As long as it has the boat throttle controls like Hydro Thunder... DO. WANT. :D
 
I think there was a cancelled PS2 Hydro Thunder knockoff with the exact same title.

Anyway, great news if true. I have fond memories of the original game.
 

twinturbo2

butthurt Heat fan
Quick update. Raw Thrills made it official and passed on some screenshots to Arcade Heroes. Here's the relevant text, with cabinet details in bold.

Arcade Heroes said:
Raw Thrills’ has revealed to us a brand new racing game that will be shown at ATEI next week that is tentatively called “H2Overdrive” (which is not based upon the PS2 game of the same name). In news that should be music to the ears of Hydro Thunder fans, Raw Thrills’ has brought together the original team that created Hydro Thunder to give us this new game, which will feature many of the things players loved about that game (such as the huge drops and many shortcuts) but add some new aspects to it as well (which they couldn’t say much about at this time).

The cabinet to be shown features a 42″ LCD HD screen, pulsing LED lights and the game itself looks “amazing”. We’ll have more on this when ATEI rolls around in a few days!

UPDATE: We just received the first screenshots of H2Overdrive from Raw Thrills’. Many thanks to them for sending us these pics. Now just imagine the game running at 60 fps on a 42″ screen and we have a good idea of what it will look like in person

boat1.jpg

boat2.jpg

boat3.jpg

boat4.jpg
 

camineet

Banned
The Dreamcast version of Hydro Thunder was actually worse than the 3Dfx Voodoo2 powered arcade version. Anyway, I'd love a spiritual-sequel to HT in 2009 :D
 

twinturbo2

butthurt Heat fan
MechDX said:
EDIT: WTF?? THIs is a damn arcade game? Home console versions people!
Hydro Thunder isn't the same without the boat throttle. Just start nagging your local family fun center into getting this game, problem solved. :D
 

MechDX

Member
twinturbo2 said:
Hydro Thunder isn't the same without the boat throttle. Just start nagging your local family fun center into getting this game, problem solved. :D


Dreamcast+Interact C4 wheel/racing seat+home theatre>>> arcade.

Give me a home version with force feedback wheel support dammit!
 
I have some great memories of Hydro Thunder... my dad, brother, and me sank so much money into this game over the course of just one night. Hopefully this game lives up to it!
 

bridegur

Member
I wish a developer would step up and just rip off the Wave Race formula for the PS3 or 360. This looks decent, but I'm sure it would have looked far better on a non-arcade machine at this point.
 

twinturbo2

butthurt Heat fan
ATEI hits next week, will update this thread with cabinet pics. I'll lay it down here. If H2Overdrive has the boat throttle, it's the instant GOTY 2009 winner, hands down.
 

camineet

Banned
I just realized what a powerful board the original Hydro Thunder ran on:

Intel Celeron 333/366MHz
64MB RAM
3DFX Quantum Obsidian card
Hard Drive

No wonder the Dreamcast version had to be downgraded somewhat.
 
twinturbo2 said:
Quick update. Raw Thrills made it official and passed on some screenshots to Arcade Heroes. Here's the relevant text, with cabinet details in bold.



boat1.jpg

boat2.jpg

boat3.jpg

boat4.jpg

.......

Wow. Unbelievable... it really looks like Hydro Thunder! Hydro Thunder is indeed one of the best arcade racing games ever, rivaled only by a very, very few games (San Francisco Rush The Rock: Alcatraz Edition is the only one I'd rank higher for sure...), and I'd given up on ever seeing another game like it from that same team... and this is happening! Amazing... I really, really hope we get a home port somewhere! That looks really, really great. I want to play it now...

Please? :)

Oh, I'm hoping for some great wave physics... it's kind of amazing that the original Wave Race 64 still has some of the best waves and wave physics of any water racing games ever. Hydro Thunder was mostly racing on flat, waveless water... it had nice water, but not quite the waves of Wave Race. Maybe they wanted it that way, but even so... more waves and wave physics would make a Hydro Thunder style game even better, I think.

twinturbo2 said:
Hydro Thunder isn't the same without the boat throttle. Just start nagging your local family fun center into getting this game, problem solved. :D


This is, of course, true. I found one of the arcade machines at a place I was at once last year, and got the opportunity to play the arcade version again for the first time in years... and I remembered how much more fun it is in the arcade. Oh, sure, it's fun on consoles, but there's nothing like the real thing, that's for sure. The wheel, throttle, seat... it's an amazing experience, and really near-perfect arcade racing.

camineet said:
I just realized what a powerful board the original Hydro Thunder ran on:

Intel Celeron 333/366MHz
64MB RAM
3DFX Quantum Obsidian card
Hard Drive

No wonder the Dreamcast version had to be downgraded somewhat.

The graphics aren't quite as good, but of the home ports, because it has a four-player mode while it's just two player on DC (and every other console), I slightly prefer the N64 version of Hydro Thunder... it's an amazingly great game on every platform it's on, though.

twinturbo2 said:
ATEI hits next week, will update this thread with cabinet pics. I'll lay it down here. If H2Overdrive has the boat throttle, it's the instant GOTY 2009 winner, hands down.

Quite possibly. The only racing game I can think of that I'd be more excited to hear of the existence of than this one is a real Rush 4, and I don't think that's going to happen. So yeah... pretty good! I just hope it lives up to the promise... but we'll have to wait until it comes out to see if that happens or not.
 

Haunted

Member
Fuck yeah, new Hydro Thunder!

But arcade only...grrr. They're dead here, why must you torture me so? ;_;
 

Teddman

Member
Does this mean the key personnel of Swingin' Ape are reunited? They were bought out by Blizzard, renamed "Blizzard Console," and then split up and absorbed into various departments once Blizzard canned Starcraft: Ghost...

Swingin' Ape, developers of Metal Arms, were essentially the Hydro Thunder team after they split from Midway.
 
twinturbo2 said:
After two poorly received spin-offs, Arctic Thunder and Off-Road Thunder, Midway allegedly canceled the true sequel to Hydro Thunder in a moment of infinite evilness.

Hey! Off-Road Thunder is awesome. I actually play that more (on Midway Arcade Treasures 3) than I do Hydro Thunder.
 

camineet

Banned
I fuckin' loved Arctic Thunder, it has by far the most beautiful tracks of any of the 'Thunder games. I absolutely loved the Alaskan Pipeline :D
 

Cravis

Member
Sega1991 said:
Hey! Off-Road Thunder is awesome. I actually play that more (on Midway Arcade Treasures 3) than I do Hydro Thunder.
I preferred 4 Wheel Thunder on the Dreamcast over Off Road Thunder. That game still looks good to this day.

I'm so pumped for H2Overdrive.
 
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