It's Hydro Thunder, just without Damn the Torpedos.

I'd like to see Damn the Torpedos in riptide 3, but we'll see about that.

Riptide GP 2 is an excellent jet ski racing game set in a future utopia so rich that mankind can afford to setup above ground water canals that go up hill. Its a fun, enjoyable, easy to play, tough to master sort of game with unlockables, upgrades and different watercraft to buy. There's a lot of content here and a healthy several hour campaign for a game where its longest races are a mere three minutes long.

Kudos to the developers for making a game where water crafting is a serious sport with helmets rather than the bikini clad fun fest it could have been. Even going for the watercraft genre shows a lot of talent. There are admirable animations of tricks and riders, the water physics feel good, because you'll never have the exact same experience no matter how many times you play on the game's thirteen circuits.

From the start of the game, you get four modes: the career, VR time trials, online multiplayer which is dead and split screen multiplayer for when you have real friends over. You are offered an optional tutorial, but the game is simple enough to understand. Use a keyboard or a 360 controller, sway your body, use your accelerator, turbo boost and perform tricks in the air to replenish your turbo meter.

The turbo boost feels quick and speedy, but its a ramping acceleration rather than a giant boost. So your best bet is to wait until that meter is full before using it. Once you use it, the turbo keeps going until you're out.

Under normal circumstances its best to use turbo in a straight away, but with Riptide GP's trick system, its best to use turbo going into low jump. Why low jumps? Because they're too low to perform tricks, but if you use your turbo, then you have just enough of a window to get a trick in. If you fail a trick, you wipe out, your body rag dolls on the water and sometimes your watercraft smacks into you. There's an easy respawn button, but it costs you time. Even if you fail the landing, you still get your turbo charged.

Tricks are easy to pull off on any jump from a ramp or a big wave. When you're in the air pressing both analog sticks right, both analog sticks up, one analog stick left and the other right. While it does replenish your turbo meter, you need to diversify your tricks. Each time you use the same trick twice, you'll get less turbo from it. Grander tricks need more air time for you to finish, but give you far more boost for your effort.

Riptide GP 2 is a game about leveling up as you earn money and experience for each event you compete in whether you win or lose. Leveling up grants you a skill point or two that you can use to unlock a new trick or ability. The abilities seem meager, things like gaining a bit more turbo from each trick and being able to perform tricks faster by a fraction of a second.

With the cash you earn, you purchase upgrades for acceleration, top speed, handling and boost. You can also purchase better watercraft and that becomes a must, because other racers will have better vehicles and you'll be left in the dust or in this case, the spray. Another nice touch about the game is choosing your exact colors and being able to randomize those colors. While you are yourself in the game, having different colors makes it feel fresh every time you get bored of looking at the same color.

There are a diverse array of event types that can change your strategy going in. There are typical races, eliminations, and hot lap challenges, but also free styles where you score points for tricks. Finishing in the top three will grant you one or more stars. Race events are unlocked by your total number of stars so you'll be replaying plenty of quick events.

The career spans nine championships and dozens of events while the VR time trials are solo races. The time trials make good use of ghosts and keeping track of your friend's times. So there's always a reason to come back and shave a few seconds off your time while competing against a ghost.

During the career, there seems to be two new courses introduced per championship, but the time trials has everything unlocked from the start. The tracks have a few different themes to tell them apart, but several courses look similar with different times of day and a variety of layouts. The two real themes seem to be rich racetrack and arctic racetrack. Some circuits are small and rely on a hairpin circle or a figure eight. If you ever find yourself going in reverse, the game reminds you of the respawn button.

While the water physics are good at making ramps, the other game physics feel a kin to the arcade. Its impossible to leap over one section of track into another. There's no way to crash your watercraft, it just realigns you, but never seems to slow you down. The only way you can fall off is failing a trick. These little details keep you playing the game.

After going through so many other racing games this feels like it stands out for a lot of reasons. Its fun, its on water and the trick system makes it far more engaging that other methods of gaining turbo. Riptide GP 2 manages to fit a lot of content into a small mobile file size. Its perhaps the largest, best looking game for around 250 MB of file size.

This is a very fun arcade racing game, though only if you're interested in the single player or have friends who also play it, as the multiplayer community seems practically dead.

I had a great time completing the single player campaign. There is a real sense of speed here, and while the graphics are nothing to write home about, they are pleasant enough and run great on my Radeon HD4850. It took me many tries to score 3 Stars in quite a few of the events, and some I had to come back to later after a few level ups and with a further upgraded hydrojet. The AI is decent, and I didn't notice any rubberbanding. Crashing into other players or even the scenery only slows you down a little (or a lot if you actuall hit the scenery head-on), and the only way to wipe-out is to land back in the water in the middle of performing a "Trick". In that case, you lose precious seconds while your hydro jet resets back on the track, and then has to accelerate back up to speed.

The game worked perfectly with my 360 controller, but didn't recognize a Logitech Attack joystick, so perhaps only the 360 pad is supported. There is keyboard support , but I didn't use it so can't comment much about how well it works. It's worth noting that "auto-acceleration" can only be disabled when using the controller and is forced for the keyboard. Mouse is only supported in the menus.

The single player Campaign mode is made up of 9 "Series" of events . The events in a series are played stand-alone - there is no "comlete these X events one after another and then total up your score to get your placement" type of tours in this game. The first "Beginner's Luck" Series contains only 4 events, but this increases all the way up to 12 events in final "All Stars Cup". In each event you get 1, 2 or 3 Stars for placing in the third, second or first place respectively, and the total number of stars are used to unlock/qualify for latter events.

There are four types of events. "Race" is self-explanatory. In "Elimination," every 15 seconds the racer in the last place is eliminated until only the winner is left. "Hot Lap" has you race a single lap against time, and "Free Style" give you 60 seconds to score as many points as you can by performing Tricks. The first 8 series all contain a mix of these four event types, while the final "All Stars Cup" only has Races.

A core part of the game game is the character progression system. As you place in the events, you earn experience points to level up your character, and money to purchase and upgrade hydrojets. Every time you level up, you get 1-2 skill points to spend on either new Tricks or perks.

There are 9 hydro jets to purchase in addition to the one you start with, all with upgradable Acceleration, Top Speed, Handling and Boost attributes. Each hydro jet has a different starting and maximum upgradable value for each attribute, and not even the most expensive hydro jet is the best at everything. I personally prefer the Lancer which is a Jack-of-all-trades - pretty good in every area but not the best in any.

Tricks are crucial to doing performing well in all event types as they are used fill up your boost gauge, as well as scoring points during Free Style events. Complex tricks giving greater boost and point rewards require more skill points to unlock, and the most difficult ones even have "prerequisite" tricks that your character must have first. As mentioned before, Tricks can only be executed while the hydrojet is in the air, and landing back on the water before the trick is completed results in a temporary wipeout. The more difficult the trick, the more airtime is required to execute it. Using the same trick multiple times in a single event results in diminishing returns, so it is recommended to have multiple tricks of each difficulty in your repertouire.

Dissapointingly, Perks only come in two flavors - extending the boost time granted per trick, and allowing you to land a tiny bit earlier without wiping out while performing a trick (though you get less boost/point rewards if the trick isn't completely finished.)

And unfortunately the progression system is a detriment to the Online mode. Even if you do happen to find someone playing, the chances of them being a similar level as you are very slim, which leads to very one-sided races. There is an "Invite Friends" option though which would work much better if you have Steam friends who you know are a good matchup for you. I played a few online matches against a couple mis-matched opponents, and didn't notice any lag - the game ran the same as offline.

There's a Split Screen option for 2-4 local players, but I couldn't try it because it seems to require each player to use a 360 controller and I only have the one. I'll update the review if it turns out there's a way around this.

The final mode is the "VR Challenge" which has you race against the "ghosts" of your Steam friends to try to beat their times. Again, you need to have Steam friends who play this game and have a similarly built up character to yours.

TL;DR get this game for the great single player arcade racing, unless you know you have some buddies to play with.

I have a hard time recommending this game in its current state.

First the things I like.

The games controls great using an xbox 360 controller.

The game looks really good. They didn't just port the mobile version, they upgraded the graphics and it shows.

I have not been able to connect to a multiplayer game yet to make any comments about that. The game just sits there saying waiting for other players

What I don't like. and hope they are able to fix

First the sound. I am a huge fan of hydro thunder. And part of what makes that game so awesome is the whole background music and co-pilot talking to you type thing going on. Sadly there is none of that in this game. I actually really dislike the background music, it fails at making you feel like your on the edge of your seat like it does in hydro.

The sound effect used for wrecking your jet ski is just plain bad, reminds me of broken glass. seriously I just trashed a jet ski and the best sound they could come up with is the sound of dropped glass?

I could learn to live with the whole music thing, after all I can turn it off and play my own tunes, which I would recommend doing. However after 37 races I am losing interest in this game very quick. I have gone from this is really cool to this is really annoying. We all know this game is a port of the mobile version. The mobile version had in app purchases. Now to their credit they did remove that part of it. For the record I hate playing games that are pay to win or we are gonna make you grind grind grind. Well that's what it feels like to me, a giant grind.

Yes this game is nothing more than a grind when you get right down to it. I am on the third series of races out of 9 all together. Within each series you have multiple races. Each series requires x amount of stars to open and each race within requires x amount to open. I started to notice after the first series that I just could not compete anymore. I spend what little money I have on upgrades and bam all of the sudden I am coming in 2 and 3rd. I have reached yet another point in the 3rd series where I simply can not compete cause my bike is not good enough. So what do I have to do, gp back to the first series of races that I can actually come in first place now and start racing them over and over again until I earn enough money to be able to compete once again. An average race only lasts a couple mins so it doesn't seem bad really. But let me give you an example. I need 60,000 to unlock all 4 upgrades to my bike. I would buy a new bike but to get a comparable one in stats it would cost me 100,000. If you win a race you can make approx 1100 to 2200 if i recall a race. if come in second or even third you get paid squat. You do gain extra founds every time you level up as well. for example if you reach level 8 you get a 8,000 bonus. a thousand per level if I remember right.

My problem with this all is the fact I have reached a dead end in the game. I can't win any more races to collect stars to be able to continue in the game. The only way I can accomplish that is to upgrade my bike so I don't keep getting smoked by an average of 4-6 seconds. And the only way to upgrade my bike or buy a new one is to grind out races I have already won over and over again.

Keep in mind I am only in the 3rd series, this may or may not get better. I don't know and a may never find out because I am already burned out racing the same couple races over and over trying to earn money so I can upgrade my bike.

I can't begin to tell you how many hundreds of hours I have sunk into to hydro thunder, from the original arcade to the dreamcast, even this company's redux of it. This game was a no brainer for me to purchase. Kind of regretting it right now. This is not the next hydro. However with a few tweaks this game could be awesome in its own right.

Great game, very addictive and easily worth £4 or whatever currency you use.
I bought this game for myself and 3 other friends over a week ago and we haven't stopped playing since.
The graphics are fairly decent for a low price racer and there's a few nice touches with things going on in the background.
The steering of the vehiches is very good and responsive. The choice of vehicles isn't a lot but theres still enough choice for different types of races.
The career mode is challenging enough with race, elimination, hotlap and freestyle events.
The online play is not busy at the moment but at least there is online play and also "friend invite" online play which works well.
My favourite mode is the VR challenge, which is basically racing 2 or 3 laps of a selected track in the quickest time possible. Your best time is recorded as a ghost so you can race against yourself. But what makes it even better is that your steam friends best times are compared to your own so you can see their character on screen racing and your own which gives you incentive to beat yours and your friends best times, taking corners tighter, boosting at the right time etc. Also you can see the best times on steam on the global leaderboards so you can see yourself climbing the leaderboard each time you improve your race time. So what you waiting for? Go out and buy it and see for yourself. 9/10 rating overall. For the price? 10/10

If you enjoyed Waverace 64, you will love RIPTIDE GP2!

The controls are super smooth and the career mode is awesome with new hydro jets to unlock, sick stunts to master, and a variety of events to compete in. It feels like you are racing in a futuristic water park The courses are really well designed.

Executing tricks will charge your turbo boost meter different amounts depending on the difficulty. Using turbo boost will rocket your jet into high speed thrill mode where you will need to have adept timing to take turns and hit jumps with precision. One of the keys is knowing which trick to pull at the right time. The better your stunts, the faster you'll go. The waves are active and knowing when to slash through or glide on top of them is another of the many facets of timing and skill mechanics that make RP2 so enjoyable.

The ghost feature allows you to race friends and yourself to improve times and climb the leaderboards. Plus, you can race up to 5 players in online multi-player. Throw in a lengthy career mode and kick azz music and you have one of the best racing games around that's easily worth the price tag.

Thank you for bringing RIPTIDE GP2 to Steam as I don't own a "mobile device."

First off, don't let the fact that this was originally a moble game turn you off. In my opinion, if a game is good it can exist on any platform and still be a good game so it doesn't matter what platform it originally came out on. With that in mind, lets review.

If you were ever a fan of Jet Moto, Sled Storm, or any other arcade stunt/racing games you'll find yourself remembering the great times you had with those games within Riptide GP2. What the game lacks in graphics it more than makes up for in fun. While I say that keep in mind that although the graphics might not be up to par with the current generation of games they are still fairly decent. Furthermore, the action is smooth and I've never experienced any slow ups or lag while playing.

Physics wise the gameplay is loose. Don't expect a realistic simulation of jet skis or water racing here. Instead you'll find a more arcade style of gameplay physics which is, once again in my opinion here, a nice refreshing change from all the hyper-realistic gameplay that many other games try to convey. Not that I don't enjoy some realism in my games, but sometimes its nice to just kick back and not worry about all of that.

In terms of general gameplay expect to have a blast trying to get the best time while performing some crazy stunts. The stunt system is fairly detailed and stunts are set by your level, which gives you a chance to make your character your own. Other customizable features are the ability to choose the colors of your ride and your rider. It's not super detailed, but enough to make it your own. The courses in the game seem well laid out and there's a wide variety of racers to choose from which you buy and upgrade using money you earn while racing.

There is selection of multiplayer options within the game which was somewhat unexpected. First up is your standard online multiplayer. I've raced others a handfull of times and the action is always smooth and fun. Second is the race for time multiplayer in which your times on each course are sent out to your friends where upon they can race a ghost of your gameplay. This is a nice option for those who may want to compete against others who may be on a different time scale than others. Finally there is a multiplayer split screen option for up to four players. Personally I have not tried this option yet and found it fairly unusual but nice within a PC game.

Overall the game is a lot of fun if your not looking for realistic racing action. There's at least as much content within the game as there was in any of the Jet Moto games and in my opinon is well worth the price of admission. If your looking for some simple fun races with plenty of options to play with friends you've got to try Riptide GP2.

This Jet Ski racing game is easy to play but difficult to master. Anyone can pick it up and have fun playing it. makes the local split screen awesome as a fun party game. The music is great, some kinda trance music, but its very relaxing oddly for a racing game and fits with the atmosphere real well. The waves are amazing, even the other racers sorta leave wakes or mess with the wave physics it seems. The developer is active on the forums which is helpful, and the controls are fluid and great with a controller.

There is a thing called VR challenges, like Mirrors Edge and others games, if someone in your friends list on steam raced that challenge, you can race their ghost to beat their time. Its fun playing against other friends ghosts. There are online matches with a small community of players but like any game if looking for online races can always ask in the forums to add more friends to play online together. The community seems very friendly for this game.

Like ski games, there are jumps you can do tricks on and there are TONS of tricks. For a race game this should be a must have since there are ten million car racers, but for being the only jet ski racer, its pretty AWESOME!

Rating: 10/10 Value: $19.99

Great fun, although the online portion is a bit lacking. If you liked Wave Race and Hydro Thunder on the N64, though, you'll probably like this one too!

Boat racing? Vector Unit? Count me in!

Vector Unit, the developer behind this game, are responsible for the very excellent XBLA game, Hydro Thunder Hurricane. If you're a boat racing fan, be sure to check that one out. It's on Windows 8 for PC and XBLA for Xbox 360, of course.


This was a mobile game, and you can tell in some places, but it's a very, very good PC port. It has everything you need. Plenty of graphics options, automatic controller/keyboard support, all that stuff.
The mobile stuff (optional auto-acceleration feature) is in there, but it's fine.

The graphics have been enhanced from the mobile version, and they look really good. If you haven't played the original version, then you'll be in for a treat. The art is fantastic, as in every VU game.

The music... It's beautiful! There are a couple of tracks I don't care for, but there are a few more I just absolutely adore.
VU, I want a soundtrack to buy!
It's kind of modern sounding. Not really dubstep, but close to it. I hate dubstep, though, so that's kind of odd. It's just really nice to listen to. For me, at least.

There are 12 tracks, and they all have a unique theme. Pretty to look at, but you don't have much time for that in this game.
It's extremely fast-paced. Stop for a second and you're going to lose.
There are a few shortcuts/alternate routes on (some of?) the tracks, but they're not the main point of the game. If that's what you love about boat racing/Hydro Thunder, then you won't really find much here.

But no, one of the main points of the game is to memorize and pull off cool stunts in the air to gain boost to go faster and beat your opponents. (In some cases, the clock is the opponent as well)

There is a TON of customization for your boats. Basic stuff like paint, upgrades, etc, but still, quite a bit of customization. So if you're into that, then I can assure you, it's on full display here.

The career mode is simple. You just play the various events, try to do your best, earn 1-3 stars per event, and use those stars to unlock further events to complete your career.

There's a time trial mode, and if you are a big nut for that kind of thing (like myself) then this game will offer endless replay value for you. Gotta keep trying to shave off a hundredth of a second here, another hundredth of a second there, and so on...

There's also split/screen multiplayer for up to 4 players! That's a fantastic feature that virtually no PC games have anymore. (I think) it only allows controllers in split/screen mode, though, so be prepared to gather up all your controllers, heh.

The online multiplayer is fun. I hope a lot of people end up buying this game, because we need to have more consistently full (6 player) matches! 1v1 can be fun but that's not how I want to play online boat racing. :(

Last, but not least, we have the controls...
They're OK. I'm used to games like Hydro Thunder, Split/Second, Burnout, and so on. The controls in this game aren't quite as... tight? responsive? as you're probably used to. You just have to hold down a bit longer than most games to get a tight turn. The track design plays OK with this kind of control, though, so it's pretty much all good. The main thing is just you, yourself, getting used to the controls. After you do that, they're fine.

Overall, I'd say 8.5/10. It's boat racing with a huge emphasis on tricks and boost, not too much else. Made originally for mobile devices, so it's not a very complex game with crazy twists and turns and huge variety, BUT it's still a very good game. Well made, fun to play for a while (especially if you like multiplayer or time trialing), and so on.

The game has a nice style and charm to it, but I'm a huge boat racing fan so I may be biased. You'll have to try it for yourself.
For $10 dollars ($7 during launch week) I consider it a steal, but that's just me.

I can't wait to see Vector Unit's next game! :)