Arcade
Hydro Thunder was originally released in arcade version. It is in the same cabinet as Cruis'n USA and Off-Road Thunder, with the difference of Hydro Thunder having no foot pedals, and including a three-position throttle with forward, neutral and reverse settings. The arcade version is also notable for its immersive sound setup, with regular play volume set lower than the feedback volume of the subwoofer in the seat. This original version also does not contain the Catacomb and Castle Von Dandy tracks. In addition, some tracks are hidden and can only be accessed with codes.
Sega Dreamcast
Control of the boats is not always good, and sometimes they don't respond to turning even if you go at a snails-pace. This can be frustrating when you don't get the angle right when heading for an obscured boost. Only thirteen tracks are in the game, not the misprinted 14 that is in the manual (the 'test' track got pulled before release). Lighting on some levels makes for difficult visuals, although they are more realistic. This version has the most annoying name entry system for high scores, as the input is via the 
and with no auto-repeat and the game does not remember the last name entered.
Sony PlayStation
Graphically, this version is the worst of the lot. It plays well with a good sense of speed, although it can be a little too dark in places. As with the Dreamcast version, control of the boats is not always good and sometimes they don't respond to turning no matter how slowly you go. This version has two additional features to the basic 13 tracks: Time Trial and Circuit Mode. In Time Trial you get to pick a course and run through it without any opponents.
In Circuit Mode you spend money to enter a track, and each track has prizes which increases with difficulty. You have to race all the easy tracks before being allowed to enter any medium tracks, race all medium before hard, and all hard before bonus. You can race the tracks within each difficulty in whichever order you care to. You begin with a pot of $3,000 and it costs $500 for easy tracks, $1,000 for medium, $1,500 for hard and $2,000 for the bonus tracks. Prize money is $3,000 for 1st place, $2,000 for 2nd place and $1,000 for 3rd. The high score is based on your earnings only, not the amount left after track entry fees, so a maximum of $39,000 is possible.
Nintendo 64
The Nintento 64 version is graphically okay. It plays very sluggishly and gets far too dark in far too many places to really see what you're doing. Additionally, there is no sense of speed in this version at all.
IBM PC
This version is visually superb, but the quirk with the super start was off-putting at first. Control of the boat is responsive, and record entry is the easiest as the developers took into consideration the keyboard being present so you can simply type it in. There are some great visual effects in terms of lighting, but this can make some areas of the game difficult to navigate until you are used to the course.