Vector Unit

I hope you’ve not made plans this weekend, as it’s a bumper release day this Friday on Xbox One with 8 (yes 8!) new indies looking for your attention. First …
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Imagine one of those commercials in which a girl is picking petals off a flower while spouting out the phrases “he loves me” and “he loves me not.” Now substitute me for the girl and Read More

Riptide GP2 was developed and published by Vector Unit. It was released on Xbox One on January 23, 2015 for $4.99. A code was provided by the publisher for review purposes.

In Riptide GP2 you take control of a hydro jet and take to the waterways to put your racing skills to the test against AI, your local friends and/or the Xbox leaderboards. The better your racing skills are, the faster you will rake in the winnings and progress to the next set of challenges. You can use the money you’ve won to upgrade your current hydro jet or purchase one of 10 others that unlock as you progress higher in rank. With over 25 stunts at your disposal, and with doing stunts being the main way to increase your boost, finding the right line to hit a jump at max speed will take some time and patience but will ultimately help you win events.

Even before playing Riptide GP2, the mere mention of its developer, Vector Unit, immediately made me think of Hydro Thunder Hurricane (HTH), an Xbox Live Arcade game released in 2010. Hydro Thunder Hurricane is also made by Vector Unit. Unfortunately, Riptide GP2 is so similar to HTH that it feels more like an updated port or unreleased HTH downloadable content than a complete game in itself, which is what it should feel like.

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From Vector Unit, the makers of Hydro Thunder Hurricane for Xbox 360 and Windows 8, Riptide GP 2 is out now on Xbox One for a low starting price …
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At Microsoft’s E3 press conference on Monday morning, there was a video montage of a lot of games that are coming to Xbox One through the ID@Xbox program. Over the next few days, XBLA Fans is bringing you a slightly longer glimpse of those titles than what the montage trailer allowed for. Our coverage of these titles will be in alphabetical order. Following is a look at the fourth set of those games.

Ori and the Blind Forest

Microsoft describes Moon Studios’ Ori and the Blind Forest as “one of the most stylistically gorgeous games we’ve seen on Xbox One so far. Even though the young console doesn’t have much competition in that realm yet, it’s a fair statement to make. The Metroidvania title looked absolutely gorgeous racking up a lot of time in the limelight during Microsoft’s E3 media briefing. Moon Studios was busy quietly working away on the side-scroller for four years prior to its public debut last week. The playable E3 demo received mostly favorable reports from the show floor, but we’ll have to wait until the fall to find out how things come together in the final release.

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Riptide GP. It was the flagship game for NVidia’s Tegra 2 chip on Android devices, and the second release from Hydro Thunder Hurricane developer Vector Unit. Having gained footing as a developer with Hydro Thunder, Vector Unit took the opportunity to go indie and put their amazing water engine to use on mobile devices. The result is something that is truly one of the best mobile gaming experiences to date.

The game is essentially a futuristic jet ski racer. Like the now-aged Wave Race 64 water physics play an important role, but instead of canned water, Riptide uses a dynamic system. Jet skis produce wakes, which in turn change up the way you have to race. The environments are over-the-top, just like another classic favorite, Jet Moto. With racers a dime a dozen it takes something special to stand out–something that keeps you coming back. Riptide GP has it in strides.

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Back in the winter of 2001 eager gamers stood in the cold overnight in anticipation of getting their hands on Microsoft’s first console, the Xbox. They took their new console home along with their selection of about a dozen launch titles. About a month later a second wave of games were released, among them was Stormfront Studios’ Blood Wake. It was an innovative title that focused on combat on the open waters. Like many titles from that time the plot had a certain amount of cheese factor, but somehow was still incredibly satisfying. But the real gem was the water physics, something ahead of its time.

Funny thing is, without Blood Wake we wouldn’t have Hydro Thunder Hurricane. See, Stormfront housed the brains and brawn behind Vector Unit, Hurricane‘s developer. Ralf Knoesel and Matt Small both worked on Blood Wake as a programmer and artist, respectively. Knoesel designed the water simulation which became one of the building blocks for the system in Hurricane. These guys have a special place in their heart for this little gem, and there are a lot of good reasons why.

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Hydro Thunder Hurricane developer Vector Unit wants to to hear from you. In a recent Facebook post the developer posted the following: “Question for you HTH fans out there: …
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Today at Mobile World Congress developer Vector Unit unveiled their next game, Riptide GP.  While unfortunately not a XBLA title, the game is coming to Nvidia Tegra-powered …
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In a recent interview with Game Gnome, Hydro Thunder Hurricane developer Vector Unit stated that they will be revealing a new title next week. No details as to the platforms …
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