"Right on, dog!"
You hit the sweet spot on the jump, soared above the feeble boarders below,
grabbed the edge of board, then, landed in perfect position for the next jump.
Off the next ramp you ease back and invert 360-degrees.
Excellent!
You are now qualified as a shredder. With tops of boxers showing above
low-riding baggy pants, you have the look, and through practice, you have the
style to be considered one of the snowboarding riding stars of the slopes.
Microsoft Game Studios and XSN sports are behind the title of Amped 2, an
upgraded Xbox title to the successful snowboarding release.
Amped 2 is a freestyle snowboarding, tricked-out experience, with sterling
graphics, a strong musical score and a lot of options for game play. Hooking up
through the XSN Sports network in multiplay allows you to set up your own tours
or challenge online gamers.
The idea is relatively simple, pick a boarder, and then launch into one of
the game modes, which include career, free ride, and multiplayer. There is also
a tutorial and replay theater to relive those magical cyber moments.
Once you pick your rider, you are treated to a rich options package to give
that boarder a somewhat unique look.
You can customize your boarder by changing tops, hair, eyewear, hats, gloves,
pants, boots and boards.
You start off with a ranking of 250, and can progress your rider up the world
rankings by competing in events. Events consist of pulling off tricks down the
mountain and garnering points for them. You can learn all the control elements
in the tutorial or hazard a guess and you move quickly down the mountain.
The career path is progressive, meaning that you have to start at a certain
mountain and once you have hit the point levels, you can move along. You begin
on Millicent 1 and need a high score (accomplished by doing tricks and
flattening obstacles along the way) of 15,000 or a media score (pulling tricks
in front of the cameras) of 5,000. Each mountain consists of several runs, and
several events. The game features such North American runs as Breckenridge, Bear
or Mt. Hood, and international mountains like Mt. Buller (Australia), Laax in
Switzerland and Mt. Harris (a heli-drop) in New Zealand.
As you progress you can unlock videos of 14 of the top pros.
The musical score features 300 cuts from indie artists, and comments from
those on the slopes, which can either appreciate your efforts or ridicule. There
is a fine line between the comments in either area. Of course, you can get a
measure of revenge, and score a few points, by riding over those standing idly
on the slopes.
Graphically Amped 2 is excellent. The animations are smooth and the
three-dimensional environments are sweet to look at. The game has also done a
solid job of keeping the control elements simple.
The game also has a couple of new features, like butter which is a system to
allow players to link tricks in combination for bigger points. Snowskate is
another new feature and, at the moment, unique to Amped 2. It is more akin to
skateboarding than snowboarding and features one-footed lip tricks, rail slides,
kick tricks and advanced grabs.
Amped 2 is the Tony Hawk snowboarding title with all the style (or ‘steez’)
and action of that highly touted skateboard game, but in a completely different
venue. The game looks great, sounds good and plays very well. Timing is
everything in this game, and if you nail the tricks the rewards will fall like
an avalanche upon you.
This review build was not rated.
Gameplay: 8.5
The build received did lock up a few times on the interface menus, requiring a
system restart. Once on the slopes, though, the action was seamless and
fast-paced.
Graphics: 8.9
Some of the trees you pass are a little blockly and some environment elements,
though you pass them in a hurry look two-dimensional, lacking depth. That aside,
the animation is solid and the environments present, overall, a real treat for
the eyes.
Sound: 8.8
There are an amazing number of tunes here. The chatter in the background can go
from biting criticism, to exuberant praise, to just downright lame remarks. The
other sounds, grunts in crashes, and the board slicing through the snow, are
fairly typical of the genre.
Difficulty: Medium
The courses are nicely designed, but through repetition you can get a real feel
for where the tricks are best done. The challenge lays in creating bigger tricks
and scoring more points.
Concept: 8.8
Butter and snowskates are nice additions to the package, and the game is easy to
jump into but tough to master.
Multiplayer: 8.8
The game does have solid online support, which works well off the single-player
mode. You practice and then jump into the world to challenge others online to
see who can pull off the biggest tricks and score the most points.
Overall: 8.8
Amped 2 is a solid title. This is the Tony Hawk of snowboarding; the tricks are
huge, the musical score is unique and solid, and the graphics are extremely well
done. This title has ‘steez."
