I know a few of us here -- myself included -- have fond memories of playing this arcade game during break times at work (or sometimes even on the clock, once it hit Dreamcast). Well, they just released an updated sequel to it yesterday on XBox Live Arcade, and it is even better than the original.

- It still has the blue/red turbo powerups. Now there are also 10 "Hydro Thunder" rotating tokens to hunt down and collect in each level, like the coins in Rush 2049.

- Multiple branching paths are still the focus in each level, but now there's a heightened sense of chaos going off around you. Kinda reminds me of Split/Second, only you don't have control over triggering what happens.

- The water physics, OH GOD. So much fun. The originals felt almost like you were just driving on wet pavement with how the boats skidded across the surface. This new one is running on an impressive physics engine that causes the flow of each level to become massively chaotic, with huge waves and crashes going on all around you. You can even run in someone else's wake to "Draft" and get a boost in speed. Awesome.

- Online multiplayer. Niiiiice.

It's 1200 points, but I absolutely think it's worth the price. If anyone else picks this one up, give a shout out here and let's try taking it online sometime!

I think the game is just absolutely terrific- to me, it's on a par with what Sega did with the release of OutRun on XBL Arcade last year.

I'm officially addicted to the Ring Master mode.

I played the demo yesterday and I'll probably buy it tonight. It's crazy amounts of fun.

In fact we did play a bit last night. So all of you Blur holdouts... what about some Hydro Thunder?


The water effects are awesome and I could race the Area 51 course all day long.

Sorry about disappearing last night -- I got pulled away for dinner and ended up watching a couple episodes of King of the Hill on Netflix.

Tonight is going to be a night of Left 4 Dead with my fiance and brother online, but later this weekend (Saturday & Sunday) I will absolutely be up for some Hydro Thunder and Blur if you guys are game. I've decided to set up my gaming habits to sticking with one main game at a time just to get through to the end, since I have a horrible habit of getting distracted by multiple titles and never finishing them (right now I'm focusing on Alan Wake), but I'll make special time to play racing games online.

I gotta have my racing fix.

All you need to know is that the rubber duck SUCKS to race with.

Dammit, you people are gonna make me spend 1200 points, aren't you?


Actually ,I downloaded the demo a couple days ago, but haven't tried yet. Looking forward to it this weekend hopefully.

I gotta say, the Ring Master mode is just fun as hell and one of those that makes me play it again and again.

I tried the Ring Master mode on Expert last night on Lake Powell and oh man, that was tough, but just fun as hell. A real nice thing about that mode, they really mix up the ring placement for all of course across the various difficulties... and you get variety with it on a circuit course as well...

I'm just enjoying the hell out of this...

And BTW, summer of Arcade related, Limbo is just fantastic, maybe one of my favorite games of the year...

Seconded... Limbo is quite fantastic!

If I remember correctly, they give you at least an hour of multiplayer on XBox Live, so you could play with us tonight and see if it's worth your hard earned MS Points.