Arctic Thunder
Road Rash meets Sled Storm in this snowmobile racer! Is this a perfect match or does it fall face first into yellow snow?
Ladies and gentlemen, you are looking at one of the worst games for the PS2 and Xbox. The game that scored an average review score of 44.21% on GameRankings for the PS2 version [The Xbox version scored slightly higher somehow]. The game that most critics told you to pass on and maybe try EA’s Sled Storm “reboot” if you want a snowmobile racer for the PS2. The game that broke my PS2… no wait, that was Musashi: Samurai Legend. Nevermind. So, why are you reading this? You obviously know what the score will be for this game. You’re obviously expecting me to rant about how this was a waste of a PS2 disc and how I flushed $2.99 down the toilet… or so you think! I am actually here to tell you that the critics… are WRONG…somewhat [what a twiiiist]! [Note: MegaDaffy has the PS2 release and will be reviewing that.]
As per usual with my reviews, let’s cover the basics first. Arctic Thunder is a snowmobile racer that was created for arcades by Midway [R.I.P.] in 2001 and ported to the PS2 and Xbox with the help of Inland Productions. The game plays much like Hydro Thunder in the sense that you race from Point A to Point B on a track and try to win the race by finishing in first place. The difference here is that you can use weapons [and yourself] against the other racers to assist you in winning the races [and of course, a little nitro never hurt either. LOL] This was also most likely the game that you played whenever you went to an arcade because it looked cool [pun not intended] and it had a fan that would blow on you as you raced. While the home game lacks the fan [a feature that can be easily remedied with the use of a small electrical fan placed in front of you], it still retains the same basic gameplay that you loved from the arcade. So if Arctic Thunder is just as good at home as it is in the arcade, why did the home game fail?
One part of the reason is the graphics. This is where the home game takes the brunt of the bad reviews because the graphics on the PS2 game are OK, but not always up to par with PS2 or sixth-generation standards. I’ll admit that the game does look good and does try to emulate the pseudo-3D graphics from the arcade version… but only until there’s a lot of activity on the screen. This is where the graphics take a tumble as the game starts to blur and pixelate a bit if, for example, you have 4 or more racers passing by you and shooting off weapons and/or trying to kick you off of your sled. This issue also happens when you encounter track hazards [such as a statue that tries to drop rocks on you in the Himalayas track or the submarine that emerges in the Chernobyl track] as well. The interesting thing I noticed is that this seems to only happen on the “intermediate/advanced” tracks of the game, somehow I did not notice this issue on the two beginner tracks. Did the developers run out of time to fix this issue in the other tracks? Anyways, as a final note I will say that the artwork for the characters and any still photo that is used in the game does look very nice despite the noted issues. My final thoughts on the graphics of the game are that it is still a game that’s nice to look at, just like the arcade version. Unfortunately once it gets moving, that’s when the problems flare up and make the arcade version the better [and oddly enough more brighter] looking one out of the group.
The next thing I’d like to discuss is the controls and gameplay, the controls are your standard racing controls. The X Button accelerates and the D-pad or Left analog stick steers the sled. If you want to shoot weapons or, as the Warren Zevon song goes “Hit Somebody!”, you can press the L1 or R1 buttons. I found these controls to be functional and easy-to-use. That’s it. There’s really nothing else to really say about them. So let’s move onto the gameplay for the home version. The PS2/Xbox home versions have 5 modes of play to them and they are Single Player, Points, Training, Arcade, and Battle. Obviously in three of the four modes, you are just racing from point A to point B on a track with your selected racer. However, each of them adds a tweak to the game. Single Player mode has you racing to win gold medals which will unlock new characters. Points mode has you collect points to not only unlock more characters and tracks [yes, more tracks are available than the 6 tracks you start out with], but also to upgrade any of the sleds. It should be noted that these points can be collected by pulling off tricks [which are done by collecting the pink icons located on top of the tracks’ jumps] or by hitting another racer with a weapon or your fist/feet. Training is where you can do practice runs on the race tracks and find shortcuts that can help you win the races. In my opinion, this should have been called Time Attack or Practice because the name “Training” is misleading [at least to me it is] as you aren’t learning how to play the game but rather just racing alone. Next is Arcade mode, this where you can play the arcade version of the game. Yup, no need to worry about points or gold medals in this mode. All you need to do is race and win for the sole purpose of bragging rights. Lastly there is “Battle” mode, which serves as the game’s multiplayer mode. I can’t say much about this because I couldn’t sucker… I mean get a friend to play this mode with me.
You may be thinking that these extra modes are only serving to pad out the game and you’d be correct, seeing as I mentioned earlier that the only difference between the race modes are slight changes in the game’s rules. However I don’t really see this as a bad thing because it at least makes it look like Midway and Inland productions were trying to make the game worth buying by adding additional content. On the other hand when you look at the hit arcade ports of the three Rush games [L.A. Rush does not exist and I will slap anyone that says otherwise] and Hydro Thunder, you do have to wonder why Midway thought Arctic Thunder needed extra content in order for it to warrant more purchases. Essentially, my thoughts on the controls and gameplay for the game are that they’re good. That’s all. It’s not the best PS2 game but the controls are functional and the gameplay works, so it’s also not the worst PS2 game either.
Before I finish off the review and give you my final thoughts on the game, I’ll briefly discuss the misc. items of the game. The 6 characters that you start with when you first start up the game have only mostly aesthetic differences [read: different sleds], what I mean by this is it doesn’t matter which one you pick because they all move at the same speed and handle very well. This is great, but it makes the sled upgrade feature pointless in the scheme of things. This is not really a big deal nor I am going to fault the game or the developers on this, but it also doesn’t validate the need for an upgrade feature in my opinion. Also, the music in this game, unlike in the Rush trilogy or Hydro Thunder, is very forgettable and almost non-existent outside of the game’s main and racer/track select menus due to the fact that the snowmobile sound effects and various noises/voice clips sort of drown out the in-game music.
So with all of the extra stuff out of the way, what are my final thoughts on the game? Well, I wrote this article to prove that the critics were somewhat wrong in their reviews of the game by calling it a horrible PS2 game. That’s where the “Somewhat wrong” part comes in. This game is not horrible by any definition of the word, it is actually fun to play despite its flaws and hey, you now have the chance to play the game that you loved to play in the arcade anytime that you want. On the other hand, the reviews that deemed this game as passable are a bit more correct as there isn’t anything you are really missing by passing this game over for EA’s Sled Storm or Konami’s Whiteout, even with the extra unlockables and upgrade feature. I give this game a 5.5 out of 10. It works, it’s fun to play in short sessions, and its something new to check out if you want to play a piece of Midway’s arcade history, but don’t go out of your way to find it if you weren’t a huge fan of the arcade game.
Recap:
Pros:
+ Arctic Thunder at home
+ Artwork looks great
+ Extra features/unlockables add to gameplay
+ New ability to upgrade Sleds
+ Still fun to play and controls well too
Cons:
– In-game graphics blur during heavy on-screen activity
– Features/unlockables also pad gameplay
– Sleds are already good to begin with which invalidates Upgrade feature
– Extra modes only change game rules
– Music is either drowned out by sound effects and voices or is very forgettable
Note: Thank you to AllGame.com for giving me a brief reminder on the controller layout of the game.
RT Gomer Productions 