| Hydra | |
| Publisher: | Atari Games Domark, Tengen (Amiga/Atari ST/C64/CPC/ZX Spectrum) Atari Corporation (Lynx) |
| Producer: | Milt Loper |
| Programmer: | Dennis Harper Andrew Burgess |
| Artist: | Chuck Eyler Deborah Short Nick Stern |
| Composer: | Brad Fuller Don Diekneite |
| Genre: | Vehicular combat |
| Modes: | Single-player |
| Arcade System: | Atari G1 |
Hydra is a 1990 arcade vehicular combat video game developed and published by Atari Games. In Hydra, the player pilots a hovercraft, trying to deliver top secret items while avoiding mines, other hovercraft, and logs. The player can collect money and fuel to continue. X-Y yoke control.
In Hydra, thieves are trying to steal the treasures from a museum. These artifacts contain secrets to a weapon, and it is up to you to stop them. The player is issued an experimental speedboat to navigate the rivers in order to retrieve the treasures from checkpoints.[1] There are nine levels of rivers and oceans, while playing the game the player can collect money bags for extra cash and crystals for extra fuel. The obstacles are gun embankments, enemy crafts and other nuisances which will slow you down and you can lose your cargo which will float down stream that you will have to go and collect.[2] At the end of each level the player then drops off the cargo and can then buy upgrades from a shop to improve the Hydra speedboat.[3]
Developed by ICE Software and published together by Domark and Tengen, Hydra was ported to the Amstrad CPC in Europe the same year as the arcade original. The following year, it was also ported to the Amiga, Atari ST, Commodore 64 and ZX Spectrum. The Atari Lynx version was developed by NuFX and published by Atari Corporation in 1992.
Robert Jung reviewed the Atari Lynx version of the game which has been published on IGN, he went on to say the game borrowed "heavily from RoadBlasters" but he found it fun giving a score of 8 out of 10.[4] Game Zero Magazine reviewed the game giving a score of 82 out of 100.[5]