Amped: Freestyle Snowboarding

"A very nice game, with different control, and a career mode sure to last."

Personally, I'm not a huge fan of sports games, and extreme sports games. Sure, I really like an occasional game of Tony Hawk or 1080, but it's not something I usually play to death, trying to get every last thing, I usually reserve that kind of gaming fanaticality for RPG's or fighting games. Amped however, changed that.

Story
You are a nobody. You want to be somebody. There is the story. You start a career and along the way you become better and more well known by doing tricks for sponsors, beating pros on the mountain, doing insane tricks in front of the camera, doing insane tricks anywhere, and killing, uh, talking snowmen. There are no races, and almost no limits on the mountain. If you can see it on the mountain you can go there.

Graphics
Graphic-wise the game is very pretty. The snowboarders and snowboards are very well modeled. The other various people on the mountains are very well modeled as well. The snow looks like snow, and the ice looks like ice! The replays look very nice, with the slow-mo's, rotating camera's and sun glares.

Gameplay
The gameplay is definitely one of the more frustrating one's in recent time though, especially for those of you raised on the Tony Hawk based trick system. When I first dived into this game, I was also messing with Tony Hawk 3 at the same time, and I didn't land a single trick on Amped. I was always on my head, back or sideways. The A button controls the jump, the X, Y, and A again, control grabs in midair. You can tweak the grabs with the L, R, or both in midair you grind by hitting the B button. Unlike Tony Hawk and you can't mash buttons until you hit the ground and hope for tons of points. A lot of the time you want to figure out exactly what you're going to do before you do it. Also when you grind you can balance per se. You just trick until you lean too far and jump off. Once you do get used to the controls, then the game become immensely more fun. But be warned though, there is a steep learning curve, and even after you figured out the control this game is TOUGH. For those of you easily angered, make sure you put a pillow across the room where you constantly fling your controller.

Lastability
Replay value is what this game has going for it. I am number #15 in the world as of now, and still can't stop playing. You start at 120 and work your way down doing the aforementioned events. Finding the snowmen is probably the hardest, as they yell at you from all angles and you have to crash into them to catch them. The game has tons of tricks to learn and tons of gear, clothes, and snowboard to earn. This game will definitely last you a while. Just remember, you can't do SSX type tricks, this is realistic. You try to attempt a Quintuple back flip; you are going to end up in a twisted way. But with certain cheat codes; you can make a helicopter's blade look slow...

Sound
Sound wise, this game is beautiful. I have a DD 5.1 setup and it is definitely one of the best sounding Xbox games yet (not quite Halo though). The best part is the ability to use you're own ripped tracks on the Hard rive. You can finally put to use all of those songs you thought would only be used on Project Gotham. In case you have no CD's laying around to rip, the preloaded sound tracks are actually quite decent and varied for a change. The sound of the snow is different from the sound of the ice. The yells and screams from the media can be awfully annoying, though, and the snowmen are just plain weird.

Multiplayer
Multiplayer isn't too great though, if you're looking for a party game, this is not it. There is no true multiplayer, only a take turn type one, where you have to beat the other player's score. I personally didn't spend much time on this at all, not finding it very fun. At least they put something there though, but I would have loved to play co-op. Maybe in Amped 1.5: Online!

Bottom Line
If you can get past the odd control, and you realize from the beginning this is NOT SSX, you'll find a highly enjoyable snowboarding game.
7/10

Reviewer's Score: 7/10, Originally Posted: 04/14/02, Updated 04/14/02