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Overview
You’re the ultimate athlete, willing to go the distance to win. It doesn’t matter what the terrain is, you’ll conquer it. Now you find yourself on the snowy plains just a few minutes before the race and you're riding your enhanced snowmobile, armed with the latest weaponry money can buy. You’ve got to guarantee that you’ll win, after all. If need be, you’ll take out the opposition without a second thought. The thrill and the danger excite you and pull you ever closer to victory. The other competitors look tough but they don’t have your edge. It’s time to show the world what you’re made of.
Gameplay, Controls, Interface
To start the game off, you’ve got to decide what race you want to participate in. It shouldn’t be a big surprise that you would want to pick the icon saying 'Race' -- the other options are great, but in this one you can acquire gold medals that will allow you to unlock special hidden features. If you’re a real fanatic and collect all twelve of the gold medals you’ll be able to finally unlock the super character that has had all of his attributes maxed-out.If you’re the kind of person who likes to improve your character, then earning points is the way to go. To get as many points as possible you’ll have to make sure that you steer your snowmobile towards as many ramps as you can. By jumping off the ramps you enable your craft to perform stunts by pushing various buttons on your control pad. The characters each have their own types of stunts unique to only them, so don’t expect to be able to use the same combinations for the every character. If you want to gather more points then you should do your best to win the race while also performing outrageous stunts. For every medal, whether it be the gold or just the bronze, you will receive additional points for improving character attributes or whatever. After you’ve acquired as many points as you want to spend, just go to the upgrade icon. On this screen you’ll be able to upgrade any character available as well as his or her sled. If you want, you can also choose to unlock new characters, courses and battle arenas for your enjoyment. For the best variety of characters and tracks you should choose to just spend your hard earned points on unlocking all the hidden characters and courses. Besides, if you win all the gold medals, you’ll have the best character available which makes it pointless to waste your time on improving the other characters and their sleds.
If you want to win you’ll have to use the power-ups scattered throughout the courses. You’ll find that most of these power-ups are used to blow up the enemy. One of my favorites is the grappling hook, with which you can snag the enemy and rip him off of his snowmobile. There are also power-ups used to enhance your speed and to protect you from attacks from behind. You should learn to identify the power-ups so that you can use them to your advantage.One of the better features of Arctic Thunder is how simple it is to control your character. You use the left analog stick to control movement and help avoid obstacles as well as the other opponents. By pressing the X button you can adjust your speed, and if you need to brake quickly you simply press the R2 or L2 button. These are truly simple controls that make the movement of the game smooth and easy. If you want to attack your enemies, you use the R1 or L1 to hit them with your fists. If you want to let loose on the heavy artillery, you’ll first have to snag a power-up and then use the triangle button to target your enemies. If you choose, you can change your view by using the select button and if you feel that you need a heads up display, just press your circle button. So, as you can see everything you need is right in the palm of your hand.Don’t go now, I’m not finished. I had a lot of fun with how the game feels and the movement of the character. Usually in games, I have to worry about what is going to jump out at me around the corner or annoying camera angles that disorient me. Using your heads up display, you’ll never have to deal with those problems ever again. So many elements add to the intense feel of the game, like the power-ups and obstacles, helping to lend a dramatic air to the game. Without the constant feeling that I could loose the race at any moment, I found I would battle harder for dominance over the other opponents. It kept me interested and entertained hour after hour with no sign of ever becoming bored. It’ll blow your mind and keep you coming back for more punishment.
Multiplayer
Ride The Thunder Book
If you can scrounge up another controller you can choose to challenge your friends to fight in the battle arena. You use the battle arena whenever you’ve decided to take a break from the race and shoot your opponent into a bloody mess. You set the rules to either a time limit or a certain number of kills to determine the victor. Once the battle begins, race around the arena of your choosing while snagging power-ups to destroy the competition. Whoever has the most kills by the end of the battle is the winner.
Graphics
It almost reminds me of Twisted Metal on ice. In Twisted Metal each character has some sort of odd diabolical past that makes him a complete freak job. Well, expect no less from Arctic Thunder. You can see just by looking at all of the characters that they were misfits of society right from birth. Hell a couple of them aren’t even human. On top of that the scenery of all the courses is something that’ll blow your mind. My best example is the course where you drive right through a nuclear power plant just as it begins to go through meltdown. Or you can even play at the White House as it has just been frozen over. Who wouldn’t love that? With all that and explosions to top it off Arctic Thunder can easily be designated as delicious eye candy.
Audio
You not only have great graphics and enjoyable gameplay but you can also really get into the terrific sound effects. You’ve got to love the bombarding sounds of explosions and the grunts of heavy-handed fury as you pound your enemies to pulp. Also for your personal enjoyment you can listen to appropriate feel-good music to help you dish out the punishment. It is an experience worth your time so sit for a spell and soak in all that Arctic Thunder has to offer.
Bottom Line
I had a lot of fun playing Arctic Thunder but I felt that it fell short of scoring in the nineties. It was a great idea to have some sort of point-based system so that it gave you something to strive for. Also, I felt that if it weren’t for the fact that collecting all twelve of the gold medals gave you that maxed-out character, I'm not sure I would have ever played the game in racing mode. The graphics and the sound effects also added to the overall enjoyment of the game. As I said earlier, though, the game really did remind me of Twisted Metal. For this reason I took a couple of points out of the score, sending it down to a still impressive 86. So, with that score, the game still is a great purchase for all ages to sit back and enjoy.
