Amped is one of Microsoft?s first attempts at an extreme sports game, and for the most part they have succeeded. The atmosphere is totally right, but the gameplay comes up a little short of the usual extreme sports standards.
The graphics are pretty good. The character models look great, as do the models of the journalists who are there to take pictures of you. However, the courses are a bit dull. I know that snowboarding is about going down a mountain, but there doesn?t seem to be enough on the courses. The courses mainly consist of jumps, trees, and rails. There are also occasional differences on the courses, such as stairs to go down and other stuff, like snowmen to knock down. It?s just too much white though, and it doesn?t feel like there are enough obstacles. It makes many of the courses seem alike, and makes the game more boring.
The default soundtrack for Amped is different, with some good tracks and a lot of lame ones. However, the game supports custom soundtracks, so this solves the mediocre default track list. The journalist voices can be either cool or annoying, depending on how you do. If you manage to pull off a really good trick then they will praise you, but keep on messing up and they insult you like crazy. It makes it so that if you bail a lot, you might want to turn the character voices off completely.
The gameplay feels a bit stiff, but this is understandable considering Amped feels more like a snowboard sim than an SSX Tricky rip-off. The controls take some getting used to, and can be frustrating at first, but after you eventually get the hang of it the game becomes more fun. There are several modes, with the major ones being quick run, and a world tour mode, where you can advance up in the ranks of snowboarders. In this mode, there are several challenges per course. The first is the challenge of your overall score, and the other is a media score. You get your media score by doing tricks in front of journalists, and where they are is marked by an icon. After you beat these two challenges, a sponsor challenge is unlocked for the level you are working on. This is where you continuously do new tricks and get the sponsor excited by the end of the run (by doing good tricks). The last challenge is a pro challenge, where you have to beat the pro?s score for a certain trick throughout the level. These are interesting, but can get repetitive after several courses.
Overall, Amped is not a bad game. However, it just doesn?t have enough to compete with the arcade style SSX Tricky. Snowboarding purists should check it out, and every one else should rent it to see if they can get into it. A good rental and a likely purchase for the gamer on a budget who is looking for a new extreme sports game.
Report Card:
Gameplay: 7.5
Graphics: 7.5
Audio: 8
Replay Value: 7 Overall: 7 out of 10
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