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My friends and I went to Ingram Mall here in San Antonio to see if GameStop had any copies of Scribblenauts in (they didn't unfortunately). However we did discover that GameTown, the arcade in the mall, had acquired a H2Overdrive machine!
If you liked Hydro Thunder, you'll love what they did with H2Overdrive! Everything from the original is there, the boosts, the boats, the jumps, and even the tracks are reminiscent of the original! Makes sense given that some key members of the Hydro Thunder team worked on it! The game does have some new features, but I'll get into that in a moment.
First up the machine itself. This arcade in particular has the full-featured machine. There are rings of LEDs at the bottom rear of the chair arranged like a jet engine that light up and change colors when you're putting on the throttle, boosting, or super boosting, The dashboard has a digital number display with a ring of LEDs around it to display the speed (the LEDs light up like a standard speedometer) to the left of the wheel and a similar display (sans digital number display) on the right for the boost gauge. The steer wheel doesn't have force feedback, however the chair does. The throttle has a spring that pushes it up into neutral if you pull into reverse. The resistance it gives you makes it so much easier to pull off jumps and other special techniques that require reverse.
The boats in the game are pretty much the same as the original, however they have different names, most likely due to licensing or copyright issues. A couple notable examples are Midway being Raw Thrills (the makers of the game =D) and Tidalblade changing to Thunderblade. The boats are upgradable via a PIN system and points you earn during the race and upon finishing. We didn't get all of the upgrades, but the first one gives you a Super Boost power obtainable by grabbing Gold Boost markers which gives you a massive burst of speed but burns up your boost power extremely fast. The second one adds armor or spikes which can be used to smash crates containing powerups.
Unlike Hydro Thunder you don't have to play the game multiple times to unlock the medium and hard tracks, they are available from the start; however, 2 of the tracks can be played in reverse as shown on the status screen, but we couldn't figure out how to get them. Most of the courses are throwbacks to the ones in Hydro Thunder; Temple of Flume has elements of the Catacombs stage and Canyon Quake borrows from Lake Powell. I could go into a description of the courses, but that would take too long. All of the non-circuit tracks have secret shortcuts, but we only managed to successfully get into a couple.
All in all, it's a great successor to Hydro Thunder and I'll probably be spending a lot more time there to play it. Between the 4 of us we managed to spend about 35 dollars on just this one game! If you happen to find a place that has it, post it so we all can get a chance to play it.
TL;DR H2Overdrive is even more awesome that Hydro Thunder, well worth the buck or so it'll cost to play!
If you liked Hydro Thunder, you'll love what they did with H2Overdrive! Everything from the original is there, the boosts, the boats, the jumps, and even the tracks are reminiscent of the original! Makes sense given that some key members of the Hydro Thunder team worked on it! The game does have some new features, but I'll get into that in a moment.
First up the machine itself. This arcade in particular has the full-featured machine. There are rings of LEDs at the bottom rear of the chair arranged like a jet engine that light up and change colors when you're putting on the throttle, boosting, or super boosting, The dashboard has a digital number display with a ring of LEDs around it to display the speed (the LEDs light up like a standard speedometer) to the left of the wheel and a similar display (sans digital number display) on the right for the boost gauge. The steer wheel doesn't have force feedback, however the chair does. The throttle has a spring that pushes it up into neutral if you pull into reverse. The resistance it gives you makes it so much easier to pull off jumps and other special techniques that require reverse.
The boats in the game are pretty much the same as the original, however they have different names, most likely due to licensing or copyright issues. A couple notable examples are Midway being Raw Thrills (the makers of the game =D) and Tidalblade changing to Thunderblade. The boats are upgradable via a PIN system and points you earn during the race and upon finishing. We didn't get all of the upgrades, but the first one gives you a Super Boost power obtainable by grabbing Gold Boost markers which gives you a massive burst of speed but burns up your boost power extremely fast. The second one adds armor or spikes which can be used to smash crates containing powerups.
Unlike Hydro Thunder you don't have to play the game multiple times to unlock the medium and hard tracks, they are available from the start; however, 2 of the tracks can be played in reverse as shown on the status screen, but we couldn't figure out how to get them. Most of the courses are throwbacks to the ones in Hydro Thunder; Temple of Flume has elements of the Catacombs stage and Canyon Quake borrows from Lake Powell. I could go into a description of the courses, but that would take too long. All of the non-circuit tracks have secret shortcuts, but we only managed to successfully get into a couple.
All in all, it's a great successor to Hydro Thunder and I'll probably be spending a lot more time there to play it. Between the 4 of us we managed to spend about 35 dollars on just this one game! If you happen to find a place that has it, post it so we all can get a chance to play it.
TL;DR H2Overdrive is even more awesome that Hydro Thunder, well worth the buck or so it'll cost to play!