Hydro Thunder Go! Pocket-Size Review
Game Review | June 2, 2011 8:34 pm
Released on May 25th, Hydro Thunder Go! is a very ambitious Windows 7 Phone Game from Microsoft Game Studios. Fans of Hydro Thunder Hurricane should immediately feel right at home.. The first thing that jumped out at me when playing HTG is... the graphics on the game are outstanding, I'd go so far as to say they are the best on the Win7 platform at the moment. The game engine employs dynamic lighting/animations and interactive courses which are beautifully detailed. The game engine handles the water effects quite well though the framerate isn't a constant 60fpm, it's certainly very stable and not choppy when a lot is happening on screen.
The controls for the game take advantage of the phones built-in tilt mechanics, an option to use a touch screen steering wheel is there for those that don't want to look quite as ridiculous when racing in public. For achievement hunters and completionists the game offers 14 achievements for 200 points, none are particularly grindy but you will need to beat the par-time for each course in Time Attack Mode and earn a gold medal for each course in Race mode.
This is honestly the first triple A title to be released for the Win7 platform and the game has quite a lot to show for it. You can download the ghosts from your friends list and then compete against friends completion times. Leaderboards are intact for each game mode. Speaking of game modes, after playing Race mode and Time Attack mode players will eventually unlock Hydro Blaze mode which is by far my favorite part of the game. In Hydro Blaze mode you will race on an endless track with constant gaps to jump and snap decisions at every turn, the faster you go the more points you earn and boosting increases the bonus multiplier for earned points, but boost too much and you will be unable to jump!
I rank this game: S
It's the first must-have game for the Win7 platform.
Hydro Thunder Go! is available on the Zune Marketplace for $4.99
The game features 3 Game Modes, 9 Tracks & 12 Racers.
(Source: Zune Marketplace)
Rating: 10.0 of 10
Keywords: Win7 Hydro Thunder Go; review
