Reviewed: January 10, 2002
Reviewed by: Richard Cross
Publisher
Midway
Developer
Midway
Released: November 16, 2001
Genre: Racing
Players: 2
ESRB: Teen
6
6
6
6
6.1
Supported Features:
When I first purchased my Xbox, I couldn’t wait to get some of the new and exciting titles for it. I made the assumption that because this is a brand new platform and it has Microsoft written all over it, I couldn’t go wrong with the games. Well, that was definitely the wrong assumption. I have to admit that most of the games that I have are designed very well. Halo, NFL Fever 2002, and Madden NFL 2002 are all at the top of my list for great games on the Xbox. Midway’s Arctic Thunder, however, is the one title that has truly disappointed me.
Midway is known in the industry for great fantasy games. Let me clarify the word “fantasy” for you. Midway takes a real game, let’s use football as an example, and they put a spin on it to create a fantasy football game that is exciting and fun to play like NFL Blitz or the recently released NHL Hitz 20-02 for the Xbox. This is a game that allows you to create some great plays and really pound your opponent, all while looking fresh and stunning. They have done this in the past with hockey and boat racing as well.
I am not saying that Arctic Thunder is a bad game. You may just want to rent this one for a weekend instead of buying it with your hard-earned cash. Arctic Thunder is great fun in an arcade game sort of way. First thing on your agenda is to pick your driver, and let me tell you there is quite a variety to pick from. Each driver has his own skills and specialties that will help you in your quest to be the best and fastest snowmobile driver on the track.
Arctic Thunder includes all sorts of weapon power-ups such as atomic snowballs, proximity missiles, super attacks, and snow bombs. You also have the ability to punch and kick your opponents off of their snowmobiles. The game also includes additional power-ups such as speed boosts, shields for defense, and health bonuses.
The game has a total of twelve tracks of which only six are open for use and the remaining six must be unlocked. The Alaskan Pipeline and Blizzard in D.C. are just a couple of the tracks that are offered.
There are more than fifteen total characters included in the game. Six of the characters are available from the start, and you must unlock the remaining characters and sleds as you advance through the game.
There are six different race modes including Race, Points, Battle Arena for multiplayer, Upgrade Shop, Training, and Arcade. Point racing is the most exciting race mode that you can play. In the point race mode you gain points from placing during the race. The points that you collect can be used to unlock new drivers, new sleds, and even new courses.
The entire process of earning points and unlocking these hidden features does take a bit of time. Depending on your level of play you could literally spend hours playing the game just to unlock your first new driver. After about an hour of play I was able to unlock a new driver and a new sled. I was also able to upgrade the acceleration and performance features on my sled within the first hour of play.
The game control is quite responsive. The controls respond quickly and accurately to your commands. The steering is tight on the straight-aways with just a small amount of slippage in the corners.
One of my main complaints with the game is the friction, or the lack thereof. When your sled careens into a wall it does slow down a bit, but in the real world you would be thrown clean off and into a snowdrift.
The actual race portion of the game is quite exciting from start to finish. The screen does become cluttered with power-ups during the race, but all of these power-ups just add to the excitement of the game itself. Sometimes it is difficult to keep track of what position you’re in during the race because the screen is a visual overload of power-up graphics, explosions, and other drivers.
The graphics have been improved considerably from the Playstation 2 in almost every aspect. The explosions and background graphics are very colorful; however, the driver and sled models still look very much the same as their PS2 counterparts. In all honesty, I thought this game could have been so much more in the graphical department with the power of the Xbox at its disposal. The graphics are definitely jazzed up compared to the PS2 version of the game, but that is still no reason to buy this game.
The menus and upgrade screens are very intuitive. The upgrade screens tend to cram a lot of information into a small area making the text a bit difficult to read during the upgrade process.
The explosions and game sounds are quite good. The riders scream as they fall off their sleds, and the explosions make you sit up and take notice. The constant drone of the snowmobiles does tend to draw on your nerves after an hour of play, but the other sound effects mask it quite well.
The one feature that I would have liked to have seen included in this game is the ability to use your own custom music play list. The Xbox allows you to rip music from a standard music CD down to MP3 format on the Xbox hard drive. Some of the games that are available allow you to listen to these music tracks while you are playing the game. The background music isn’t as dull as some games that I have played, but it’s not as good as listening to my own music collection either.
One would think that with all of the drivers, snowmobiles, and courses available in this game that you would play this game continuously. This is simply not true. Besides selecting your drivers, courses, and upgrades, there really isn’t much to do besides mash your thumb down on the green button. The single player replayability just isn’t there in this game. The same is not true for the multiplayer mode.
In multiplayer mode you are allowed to have up to four drivers. This feature alone is worth some points in the replayability arena. Arctic Thunder is pretty fun when you have some of your friends over to see who can knock whom off of their sled and win the race. It’s even quite a challenge just to place in the top three.
Maybe next year we will see a vastly improved version of this game with broadband support and the ability to challenge drivers from around the globe. That feature could possibly sway me to even purchase this game with my own money next year.
Overall, this game is just another one of the everyday race and race again varieties. With some improved graphics this game would have done itself justice on the Xbox platform. Arctic Thunder is definitely worth a weekend rental for you and your friends to play, but I would have to recommend against purchasing it.
If Midway does decide to release a sequel to this game next year, hopefully it will include some Xbox caliber graphics and broadband multiplayer support. Until that happens though, I would recommend you steer clear of this Xbox title.