Gaming Target - Xbox: Arctic Thunder

Written by Daniel Pelfrey on January 21, 2002

Full Review: A review so cold it generates hypothermia.

Arctic Thunder is one of those games that you either look forward to playing, or you dread putting in your console. It comes from Midway, purveyors of arcade style gameplay, so you know that realism is going to get checked at the door. If that doesn't appeal to you, then obviously, this isn't your game.

If you know and love Midway for who they are, then you will understand, and appreciated Arctic Thunder for what it is -- an arcade style snowmobile combat racing game. You take one of several characters from the start to the finish line in courses that can only be described as Ц well, only Midway could come up with Chernobyl Meltdown.

The gameplay of Arctic Thunder is simple, maybe even too simple. You press the A button as the throttle, and the right trigger to УattackФ Ц whether it be with the various weapon power-ups or with your fist to a rider as they slide up next to you. The weapons have such names as УAtomic SnowballФ or УGrappling HookФ. They do what you would expect them to do, annihilate your enemy. The weapons are over the top fare, but that's what you get when you put a ninja on a snowmobile.

Yes, that's right, a ninja, and a Yeti. And, well, you just need to unlock those to find out. The various riders have upgradeable bits to them, such as how accurate their weapons are, or how big the blast radius will be when a certain bomb goes off, or how long your character remains invisible. The sleds themselves are also upgradeable in terms of speed, handling, and acceleration.

In order to upgrade the rider and sled attributes, points are needed. These points are awarded in the Points Mode. You get a certain amount of points for coming in first, second, etcЕ as well as hitting the power up icons, and taking out other riders. Unfortunately, this isn't as fun as it sounds, since there is so much to upgrade, a gargantuan amount of points will be needed just to increase the various riders and sled attributes. A large number of points will be required to unlock additional riders as well. Since each of the tracks are so short, you can only rack up a certain amount of points with each run, and will find yourself running through the same course over and over and over and over again to get enough points to do all of the upgrades you want.

The courses may be short, but there are a lot of them. Of course, many will have to be unlocked as well. This is where you will most likely get bored with the game, as it takes more points to unlock a new course than anything else. It's almost obscene how many points are needed to unlock all of the courses, and by the time you have racked up enough points to unlock the final courses, you're sick of seeing the old ones.

The goal of Arctic Thunder is to get the gold medal in the Race Mode for each course, which at times appears to be a matter of luck as opposed to skill. Far too many times do other riders pass you out of nowhere, even though you are on full boost. Want to increase your boost time? Go into Points Mode and get some points to increase that attribute. It won't matter though. I swear that at times instead of increasing my rider's speed the boost power up increased the framerate for the whole game.

The races don't last long, really showing the game's arcade roots (there's even an Arcade Mode). A lot of the courses come in at about the two-minute mark, which is fine for a little while, but after playing the same courses over and over again (because you haven't amassed enough points to unlock anymore) a two-minute race gets very dull. Yes, there are shortcuts and hidden paths, but there doesn't seem to be any real advantage to them since the AI comes out of nowhere.

Multiplayer is a УbattleФ affair, with arenas needed to be unlocked (here we go again) with a large number of points. If you have the strength to stick around until it's fully unlocked, it's quite fun.

The graphics and sound of Arctic Thunder are probably the worst features of the game. There is not a lot of music in the game, and most of the sound effects consist of a high-pitched whine passing as the snowmobile engine. There are no taunts from the riders, something that is sorely missed. Only the occasional grunt of noise as they are blown off the sled will let you know these aren't robots. There just is no personality in the individual characters, which is a shame. There is more clipping in this game than any other Xbox game to date. Far too many times have I ridden my snowmobile through a tree or two on my way to the finish line, or halfway into the side of the hill. The character and sled models are sub-par even for a PS2 title, let alone Xbox. Midway did nothing to optimize the game for Microsoft's console, which is a shame.