Developer: Inland Productions Publisher: Midway Release: 09/17/01 Genre: Racing
Midway had a winning formula with their Thunder series of arcade games even if sometimes the quality was mixed. Hydro Thunder was spectacular and the home ports ranged from decent to excellent. Offroad Challenge, while not part of the series was similar and a good game in the arcade. The Nintendo 64 version is best forgotten. 4-Wheel Thunder was an improvement and Arctic Thunder should have continued the streak. Somewhere during the porting process something went wrong as the PlayStation 2 edition of this game is an abomination not worth your time. What a damn shame.
Arctic Thunder follows along the same lines as the other titles in the Thunder series. You race to the finish line, passing checkpoints to earn more time as you battle for first place. However Arctic Thunder adds a dollop of weapons to the mix. These are the standard fare: heat seeking missiles, speed boosts, shields, and even land mines. There are trick power-ups that when hit will scatter more items along the track which in this game is a necessity. Power-ups in this game are more important than your rider’s stats as they play more of a factor in whether you will come in first or last. And even that is not a guarantee.
Arctic Thunder is frustrating for a number of reasons. The game has some of the most aggressive rubber banding I have come across in a while. You will never be able to build any kind of lead against the CPU. Once you are in first they will aggressively launch an all-out assault that will more than likely see you drop to last place in moments. If you are lucky enough to hit multiple speed boosts in a row as well as find a shield maybe you can eke out a win. But in my experience it always came down to the last few seconds of the race. Like Looney Tunes Space Race the density of power-ups also makes it annoying. With so many items every few feet weapons are going off every few seconds and you cannot focus on the race. Less is more in this case.
I can kind of see why the game leans so heavily on the chaos to provide its thrills. As a racing experience Arctic Thunder is mediocre. Despite its creative track locations the level design is not terribly exciting. The non-existent physics engine makes navigating the shortcuts and jumps a chore. They certainly try as certain tracks up the ante in terms of spectacle. But the myriad issues with the game ruin any excitement they could possibly provide. These are not problems exclusive to the PS2 version; these same flaws are present in the arcade as well.
It is too bad Arctic Thunder is so frustrating as it has a ton of content which makes for insane replay value. This is one of the most complete racing packages around. There are four game modes although their differences are slight. They do serve a purpose though. Race mode rewards gold medals that give secret codes that let you modify difficulty and power-ups available in each race. Arcade mode is an exact replica of the coin-op. The most significant is Points mode. Here the game awards points for nearly everything you do. These points are used to buy new riders, snowmobiles, and exclusive tracks. There is a lot to unlock and together with the battle mode gives the game a lot of replay value. It is just too bad that the game itself has so many problems that you will not stay long enough to unlock all of it.
In the arcade Arctic Thunder was not a stunner but did have imaginative courses and a solid framerate. The game is big on spectacle and takes you through a variety of cool settings to offset its snowy theme. While it did not reach the artistic heights of Hydro Thunder it was decent. It has been thoroughly butchered on the PS2 unfortunately. There is no getting around it, this game is ugly. The textures are low resolution, muddy and much of the lighting is missing. Particle effects are weak and do not sell the snow effect at all. The worst offender is the atrocious framerate. The game attempts to hold 30 fps but fails miserably. Any time weapons go off the framerate dips dramatically which in this game is constant. The majority of the time it feels like you are driving in slow motion and it affects the gameplay sadly.
In Closing
Arctic Thunder is a fun and fast-paced racing game, at least in the arcade. At home it does not match up to the arcade in any way, shape, or form. There is a lot of content in this package that gives it significant replay value. But you would have to overlook far too many of its flaws to appreciate it like the wildly fluctuating framerate. If you are a fan of arcade-style racing games there are far better options on the PS2, like Sled Storm. You are better off chasing those titles rather than trying to wring any enjoyment out of this one.
