Hydro Thunder/Gameplay

Avoid hitting anything unless it's a ramp. If it's a ramp with arrows going up it, try to hit only one side of it—following the arrows to get their speed increase—the longer & flatter the ramp the more speed increase it gives.

Use the check point times as a guide to how well you are doing over previous runs. Be careful on circuit tracks not to over use the boost early on to gain the best split times as you will end up with none or next to no boost on the last lap.

For cornering try to take a longer, wider path along the turns and avoid sharp turns if you can. The less the boat turns at faster speeds, the less the speed you loose because of that turn. This is exactly the same principal as any other (road) based racing game & is usually referred to as a "racing line" around the corner.

Get used to hydro-jumping, it's the only way you'll win on the harder tracks. Also get good times on any track, you can max out the speed when in the air using boosts and as soon as you are at maximum speed you can let go of the boost & continue at that speed until you land (or hit something). An extension of this is hydro-bouncing—hydro-jumps, one after each other. To pull this off, towards the end of a jump, go through the sequence of another jump. Get it right & you'll jump straight back into the air and with a little boost you'll be right back up to max speed so you can kill the boost and preserve it.

If you're just after high placements and not particularly interested in the times, then stick with the boats you get at the beginning—the "easy" boats. My own preference for this is Damn the Torpedoes. The reason being is the computer boats will go at a comparable speed to the boat you select and the slower boats still boost at max speed giving you that added advantage over the computer boats as they are going at their slowest speeds in the game. For setting times, I always use Cut Throat—it's stability, max speed (when not boosting) and ability to fly well make for an excellent combination. Don't get me wrong—it's not the best at each but it's the combination that makes it the best. Note: just as the Easy boats are easier to complete in first place, the Hard boats are harder to complete in first - don't be discouraged if you're not finishing first in these boats until you are used to the individual track and it's secrets.