As someone from a snowy climate, I’ve often wondered why no one has tapped what in my mind is the pure gold mine of snowmachine racing. In the last couple of years, we’ve seen a bunch of them hit, led by EA Canada’s very strong Sled Storm, but none have really captured the potential of the sport. While Midway’s Arctic Thunder isn’t going to take home any prizes for simulating the sport realistically, for pure fun…come on, it’s a Thunder game!
Like the other installments in this series, Arctic Thunder is an over-the-top racing game that throws you into some wild tracks full of huge jumps, insane obstacles, and shortcuts a-plenty. A new twist in this one allows you to mount an offensive against the other racers, either with your fists or one of the many items strewn about the track. Of course, they can attack you too, so you have at least one more thing to worry about as you wind around the tracks at high speeds.
There are four different game play modes. You can do a straight race by playing Race, play a Training mode, do a four-player contest in Battle mode, or play the arcade game in the vaguely named Arcade mode. You also have the option to upgrade any of the game’s sleds or spend points to unlock any of the game’s massive number of secrets.
Once you’ve picked your game mode, choose from any of the six initial riders. These include the straight-laced Agent 5, the ape Ponzo, and the sexy snow bunny Candy Ice, along with a few others who show similar personality. Earning points will unlock up to 13 other riders. Each of them has their own basic attack and different attributes, along with their own unique look and personality.
Given the vehicle of choice is the snowmachine, you’d think the tracks would be confined to snowy areas. The initial assortment of tracks in Arctic Thunder include the Lost Himalayan City, the Chernobyl Meltdown (complete with a nuclear plant that goes meltdown with you in it), Blizzard in DC, the Haunted Forest, the Swiss Alps, the Alaskan Pipeline, and 6 secret unlockable levels. These levels are jam-packed with awesome pieces, such as the castle in the Haunted Forest or the flooded remains of the Whitehouse in DC. All of these tracks are just awesome to race through, and knowing the other Thunder games, the best tracks are yet to be unlocked.
The tracks are just crawling with bonus items and pickups to collect. You get your basic speed boost, a shield , a health pickup, and a few weapons including an “atomic snowball” that acts like a grenade launcher and a super attack that sends a wave of destructive force ahead of you. You’ll also hit icons that will kick you into one of a variety of stunts. All of this translates into some pretty crazy mayhem when a bunch of riders are in one section of the track.
After spending some time with the E3 version of the game, I came away pretty impressed. This game is just as addictive and not nearly as shallow as the already very fun Hydro Thunder. My first session of the game, I picked the ape, Ponzo and headed for the Lost Himalayan City track. After quickly coming to grips with the controls, I tried to keep a handle on the sheer speed and massive quantities of obstacles flying at me. Ponzo has a pretty good punch, and using it I knocked two riders off their vehicles before I hit a speed boost and blew past most of the crowd. Sure, I ended up sliding into 5th place in the end, but that was after careening headlong into a wall after picking up a speed boost. This game is totally fun, and I can’t wait to dig into the multi-player portions of the game. Playing through the other available tracks confirmed that Arctic Thunder is indeed the real deal.
This one is going to massive fun, folks. Arctic Thunder is scheduled to release by the end of the year on Xbox. Those on a the lookout for a fresh, fun arcade-style racer are surely familiar with the Thunder series at this point, and so long as this one continues on it’s current path, this won’t be the game in the series to disappoint.
Arctic Thunder is a snowmobile adventure racing game which is going to deliver an arcade style experience you’ll never forget. The game is a semi-sequel to Hydro Thunder, which was a succesfull game for the Dreamcast platform. The game is being developed by Midway.
The game contains six characters, each of them having it’s own unique attributes, personalities and sleds. While some characters are better suited to defend, others are better in the attack role. The design of the sleds matches the personality of the character it’s owned by. Each sled looks different, has different handling and it’s own boost effects. There’s a hidden feature that allows you to select any character for any sled, but it’s not known how you can get this.
The following characters are featured in the arcade version of the game, and you can find them in the Xbox version for sure.
Mai Zhou Lin - Oriental Racing Woman With Gymnastic Abilities
Ponzo - Bigfoot Racer
Willie Quinn - Jamaican Bobsledding Racer
Dirty McKurdy - Mean And Dirty
Candy - Hip Hop Queen
Agent 5 - Secret Agent Spy
The game has 6 tracks, all based on a different location and in a different theme. They all have stunt points, shortcuts and heart-stopping jumps. Power-ups are located troughout the tracks to give you a special ability for a limited time period. These include boost, shield, health , snowballs and super attack.
These are the 6 tracks that you can find in the arcade version of the game. The Xbox version of the game is going to have 12-16 tracks, so you don’t get bored after 2 days of playing.
Chernobyl Meltdown - The Kremlin and Russian countryside complete with helicopters, submarines breaking through the ice and a nuclear meltdown.
Blizzard in Washington D.C. - A massive snowstorm has covered the city; mounds of snow bury the White House and monuments.
Lost Himalayan City - The ruins of a lost civilization, high up in the Himalayan Mountains.
Haunted Forest - A night track with ghosts, moving trees, mists, graveyards, a haunted castle, coffins and a mausoleum with a spiritual power. Players that survive the night, breakout to the dawn of a new day!
Alaskan Pipeline - Sled trails through the pipeline maze, a blizzard with whiteout conditions, a salmon run with waterfalls and an avalanche run.
Swiss Alps - A journey through Switzerland offers water tunnels and villages of the Swiss Alps.
The game will have multiplayer options that let 3 of your friends join your game. There isn’t much known about the internet functions at the moment, if the game is going to have them at all. But expect that the Xbox version will have some internet functions.
There isn’t much more know about the Xbox version of the game, but expect that more info get’s public at this year’s E3 expo.
