MGS acquired the distribution rights from Warner Brothers, who had just purchased the license from the recently defunct Midway Games. We believed in our prototype, but we also knew that a known license would bring much-needed publicity to our first title as a new studio. It was through our conversations with Microsoft that the idea of tweaking our design to fit the Hydro Thunder license first came up. We shopped it up and down the West Coast publishing gauntlet, and eventually caught the interest of Microsoft Game Studios.
Six months later we had a game engine, a playable PC prototype, and a PowerPoint pitch that we'd practiced in front of friends so many times I could recite it in my sleep. We figured we'd start with something we knew we could make.
Plus we'd worked together years before on the boat combat title Blood Wake for the first Xbox. We went with water because we love the emergence you get from the dynamic surface, and aside from minigames in titles like Wii Sports there hadn't been a decent water racing game in about 10 years.
The game we set out to make was designed from the start to be a small-scale but big-attitude water racing game for XBLA or PSN, a throwback to classic arcade racers like SF Rush, and of course, Hydro Thunder. We absorbed details we'd never had to think about as employees: the nuts and bolts of small business management, contract negotiation, group health plans. Ralf's revelation was all the push I needed.īy January 2008 we'd quit our jobs, liquidated every personal asset we could live without, upgraded our PCs, and incorporated a new company - Vector Unit. We had a little money saved up, and we were tired of working for The Man. Ralf and I had put over 12 years apiece into established companies, most recently me as an art lead at EA Redwood Shores and Ralf as a programming lead at Stormfront Studios. Progress was achingly slow.Įvery developer I know daydreams about breaking away at some point to work on their own game.
The problem was we had regular paying jobs. Or at least we'd been talking about working on it. My pal Ralf Knoesel and I had been working on a little side game project, just for kicks. That line popped up in my chat window on a night in the summer of 2007. about quitting and doing the small games thing." The new tracks are great, and if you enjoy player against other players, the X-Boats are a necessity and something we wish had been included in the original game."So I've been having these thoughts. Not only that, but they added a few new designs to the game.Īll in all, this is a great value for fans of the Hydro Thunder game. This brings the total of expert boats up to 11 now. Vector unit realized that online play is dominated by expert boats and quickly rectified the situation releasing the X-Boats. The two new boats match up nicely with previous boats offering players to chose something new that may match their style better. Bermuda expands the insane weather of Storming Asgard as player’s race through the open seas and eventually through a whirlpool where all hell breaks loose. The track features a unique design where each lap requires going back and forth through a middle segment causing oncoming boats to meet in the same pathway. Castle Von Boom adds in an interesting cross -traffic mechanic and massive explosions, as players will dodge exploding barrels, cannonballs and other boats. In Atlantis, players race through the sunken city in a three lap race were new pathways become available each lap.
The Tempest Pack for Hydro Thunder: Hurricane contains three brand new original maps (Atlantis, Castle Von Boom and Bermuda), two new, original Boats (the super agile Whiplash and the slip-slidery Psyclone), one new skin for every boat in the game, six X-Boats (upgraded to expert versions of current boats) and of course 50 additional Gamerscore.Įach of the new tracks is on par, if not better than the tracks released with the game. Clearly it could, as two months later, the game’s online community is still thriving and Vector Unit has released their first piece of DLC. This wasn’t to say the game suffered from significant flaws, but we questioned if the game could hold attention long enough to match its $15 value for the majority of players. A copy of the DLC was provided to us for review purposes.īack in August, we reviewed Hydro Thunder: Hurricane for XBLA and gave it a Try rating. The Tempest DLC pack retails for 400 Microsoft points.
The full game retails for 1200 Microsoft Points. Hydro Thunder: Hurricane was developed by Vector Unit and published by Microsoft.