Those familiar with the games that have come out of the Midway camp probably know Hydro Thunder but aren't aware of it's younger brother, Arctic Thunder. It works by taking the premise of Hydro- zooming around really fast, and adding snowmobiles - hence the Arctic.

Arctic Thunder is a beautiful game while you're speeding around with a rocket between your legs, but if you stop to take a closer look, it can be absolutely hideous. The pixelated textures are on the objects in the wrong direction and the terrain is blocky to the point of looking like Star Fox. Of course that's if you slow down, which will never happen unless your controller lacks an X button. Arctic Thunder moves so fast the blemishes are unnoticeable, and with the lighting and smoke effects that come from missiles, the game looks damn good. The draw length is so long that you will be hard pressed to find any pop-up. I was also impressed at the sheer number of little touches that were in the levels like totem poles, park benches, snowmen and more. It's those little touches that turn the game into an exciting racer instead of just a downhill sled ride.

Voice acting? We don't need no stinkin' voice acting. Other than being able to physically see the characters, you have no idea what personality they have. Voice acting would have been nice to give some depth to the characters, and unfortunately the uninspired music adds the same amount of depth to the overall gaming experience. Sound effects however are done well, with shrieking missiles and whining engines.

Arctic Thunder could be best described as the illegitimate child of Twisted Metal and SSX. Although it is disguised as a racing game, it's really about vehicular combat. Imagine a linear Twisted Metal. The courses are straight for the most part, and your goal is to reach the finish line first. Trying to use your skills as a racer alone won't suffice, so you must rely on weapons. That's right, if someone is ahead of you, just blast em. Power ups along the way will give you access to limited numbers of attacks enabling you to blow the other racers into snowflakes.

If it weren't for the weapons, nobody would be able to stand a chance against the other racers in Arctic Thunder due to the sluggish and unresponsive controls. Analog is supported for steering and gas, but it becomes completely pointless because if you turn half-way or hold a steady speed, you will only end up slamming into the walls. Either turn all the way or don't bother at all. And brakes? We don't need no stinkin' brakes. Just slam the gas and crank the steering and you'll do just fine. I guess it doesn't really matter since you will have to focus all of your chi into hammering the opponents with your arsenal.

Storyline? We don't need no stinkin' storyline. Instead Arctic Thunder offers a bunch o' modes of play. The bulk of the game is carried by the Race mode, in which you quest to earn the gold medals from each of the courses to unlock more courses, hidden characters and sleds. Also included is the Arcade mode, (I guess it tries to steal quarters from you?) Battle mode and Points mode. Battle mode puts you and a second player into an arena to duke it out a la Twisted Metal, while the Points mode allows you to earn credits to make upgrades to sleds riders and weapons. Arctic Thunder is not a racing simulator my any means, and I noticed no difference between the default settings and a maxed out racer on a maxed out sled. As far as I can see, the Points mode is pointless since the upgrades are unnoticeable. And now that I think of it, there might be 12 different players and sleds but they all handle the same and they all have the same set of weapons. Variation? We don't need no stinkin' variation.

It's not hard really, just keep gas down and tap the fire trigger like it's a track and field game and you'll win almost every time. Also as previously stated, if you plan on turning, either go all out or not at all. I figured this strategy out on my first race and placed second. Surprisingly, in Arctic Thunder the enemies do little to slow your progress with weapons, but instead just go really fast. There was no instance of anger as I got blasted off my sled for the umpteenth time like in other harder games, and this actually was quite refreshing. The biggest challenge is overcoming the controls. At first I thought it frustrating to slide all over the place due to the lack of sufficient controls, but I realized that I would just have to plan my lines better, which in turn made it a better game.

Was I the victim of a defective disk? Had I put it in upside down? These were the questions I asked myself as I realized that the game was taking an unusually long time to load after I had initially put the disk in. After a while I saw the Midway logo, but there was no splash screen or loading cursor before that assuring me that my PS2 hadn't died. The other load times were acceptable, however and they didn't make me ponder the health of my system, which was nice. Arctic Thunder features an auto save option that saves during the menu after a race, so you can still select what you want to do next without the game stopping so that it can save. Also I noticed a little gauge in the corner to monitor, which I thought would be pretty useful. Quite the contrary, it was too small and had too much on it, so I couldn't quickly find the information I needed.

What Guys thinks: Cool idea - it could have been the next Road Rash, but it lacked the fun factor, and didn't have any innovation. Also it was quite short, and if I'm going to spend 50 bucks, I'm gonna want at least 30 hours of gameplay. Arctic Thunder could be beaten as a rental, and that's just what you should do first - rent it.