I've never been into racing games very much, other than things like Mario Kart and F-Zero, but I loved Hydro Thunder in the arcade. That was an awesome game! Riptide GP 2 reminds me of it. Oh, it's not the same, of course, but the racing-on-water thing is and it provided me a great burst of nostalgia. The game stands on its own, at least so far, as a great racing game in its own right.
The graphics look really nice. I'd peg it as very nice PS2 and there is a lot of extra stuff in all the tracks I've played that keep them from looking boring or feeling all the same. The music is forgettable techno but it fits the high speeds well. The only special thing you can do during the races is boost, and you get boost from doing tricks during jumps. Wise boosting is the key to victory sometimes. This game is pretty tough too. You get money and experience for winning races (or at least for placing highly), which you can use to upgrade your ride (or buy a new one) and buy new tricks, respectively. It's a nice progression system. My handling was pretty bad at first, for example, but after upgrading it I was able to make all the turns much more easily. And there are a bevy of control options, so there should be something that works for everybody. It's a fun game and I definitely want to see how far I can get.
I liked the sit-down version of Arctic Thunder in the arcade because it would blow cold air on you. Great for hot days.
I never played Arctic Thunder but I've heard it's good too.
This is a bit off topic, but did you ever play Jet Moto on PS1? I had tried going back and playing it but it was hard as hell, and no matter how I tried I couldn't get anywhere near first place lol. I'm wondering just how much time we used to put into that. This one looks pretty fun though.
No, I never played that one but a lot of the games from that era seem hard to go back to these days. And they were typically so ugly 
Man, I loved those aracade cabinets where you sat on a jet ski mold and got cold air blown in your face. Fun times.
Those are the kinds of experiences you can't get at home, even with a good port of the game. Fun times indeed.
I guess you could play the game at home next to a fan or AC vent. :)
I might actually have to look into this one.
You should! I think it's just $.99
This is actually a real solid tablet game that I spent a good amount of time playing. Controls are solid and the little tricks you can do for boost use the swipe feature well. My one thing against it is I wish there were more tracks to play through other than the reverse of the courses.
I haven't gotten to any mirrored tracks yet. Good thing it's a fun game to play 