Amplitude

"This is a journey into sound."

Amplitude is the spawn of what supposedly happens inside the minds of hardcore DJ's. The wander along trippy, technicolor tracks in their futuristic look vehicles blasting notes to unleash parts of a song. Now you can journey into this fantasmical world of music and let me tell you, what a journey it is.
The objective of the game is pretty simple. Select a song. You will then be transported to an are while riding along a track. On this track there a different sections of colored track, each representing a different part of the song. Red for drums, blue for bass, green for vocals, and so on. The objective is to blast the notes in correspondence to the song. This makes for some pretty rad, arcade-style gameplay. It's simple enough to follow with enough challenge to keep you coming back for more.
You can play the arcade mode, or you can enter remix mode and compose your own track of notes for different songs. This mode will definitely be a favorite among DJ gamers (if there are any). Or you could just modify hard songs to fit your abilities.
There are four difficulty levels and the harder the level, the more beats in the level in correspondence to the song being played. So, basically, notes not played in the normal mode will appear in the brutal mode, and any missed notes there will be in the insane mode.
Speaking of the songs, the play-lists aren't like DDR Japan-only songs you've never heard of. Included are songs by Garbage, Wheezer, Run DMC, P.O.D., David Bowie, and many others, totaling up to 24 songs. There is bound to be at least one favorite song among at least one person (unless, of course, you enjoy classical music. Sorry Yo-Yo Ma lovers).
The graphics are pretty good, producing a nice little technicolor world with nice neon effects. And, if you look closely, you can see lights lighting up with each note you unleash. But of course, you can't usually take in all of the visual detail, as you must pay attention to the track every section in order to pass the level.
Of course there are problems. For one, the song list is pretty short. You may get bored with it. Plus, there are some parts that you might think would only be possible with superhuman reflexes.
Also, a word to the wise: in order to play this game, you gotta have rhythm. The whole basis of the game depends on it. If your the laughing stock of the downtown midnight dance club, you're gonna want to stay far away from this games. Fortunately, there are some power-ups that can help, including Auto-Blaster (eliminates on section of track), Slow-Mo (self-explanatory), and Score Doubler.
Oh. and don't think that this game is lacking multi-player, because it doesn't, and it's fun. You can play two-player with a buddy. Plus, you can play online (with a dial-up or broadband modem) with another person. The multi-player view might seem a little awkward if you have played single player mode for a longer while. Plus, like most other games, it is a lot funner to play with and trash-talk with a buddy.
Overall, DJ's will love this game and people who just want a quick game to play with a simple arcade concept will get a kick out of this. People who play the heck out of their games will probably want to give this a rental. Simple and fun, it is definitely a nice addition to a PS2 library. I give this game a very good, but not quite perfect, although very close, but no cigar, Eight out of Ten.

Reviewer's Score: 8/10, Originally Posted: 01/08/04