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Amped 2

November 2nd, 2003 Jason Rybka Leave a comment Go to comments

Microsoft Game Studios first jumped into the snowboarding sports genre during the Xbox launch back in November of 2001 with the release of Amped Freestyle Snowboarding. It was a solid title and helped the Xbox launch along with variety to what was a limited number of titles. Amped 2 has taken everything good from it’s predecessor and added more goodness to it, from extra moves and combos, beautiful mountain slopes, simple control, to the addition of Xbox Live, Amped 2 offers everything a snowboarder dude could want, except snow in the shoes. Lets take a closer look.

Gameplay

Amped 2 has a deepened Career Mode, with tons of challenges and unlockable goodies, but before you dive in head first you’ll want to go through a well designed rider tutorial, a welcomed addition for the new boarders among us. After about 20 minutes you’ll be riding like a pro, or at least posing as one. Each mountain area has a set of challenges that must be accomplished, challenges such as Trick Points, Media Points and so on, as well as bonus objectives like finding hidden snowmen throughout the trails. Completing certain objectives will add goodies to your Portfolio and unlock additional levels, as well as increase your rank. The main progression of the game is rank based, in order to reach the final level you’ll need to get your rank from 250 all the way down to eight!

The title is filled with fast paced action and challenges that are, for lack of a better term, pretty challenging at times. Becoming a Pro Snowboarder is no easy feat, and becoming a solid gamer will take hours of practice. This version of Amped has more spins, flips, aerials, and ollies than we saw in the original, and more ways to tweak ‘em for additional points, including a combo multiplier and the new ‘Butter’ maneuver, similar to what we’re used to seeing in skateboarding and rollerblading titles.

Not ready to begin a new career? Try Free Ride! Just hop on the board and do as you please, no pressure. ‘Just Ride’ on the other hand allows you to roam freely with no rules but tracks your scores, thus allowing you to rank it up on the leader boards with less pressure.

The environments are very interactive, with onlookers giving encouragement, praise, and the occasional ‘yahoo’ for an excellent flop. Better than than the rest? When all is said and done, Amped 2 can be considered a snowboarding success, and undoubtedly the best snowboarder available.

Xbox Live

The career mode has plenty of challenges to keep your lonely butt occupied, but there’s nothing like heading down the trails out-tricking your best buddy, or a complete stranger for that matter, via Xbox Live. Hop on Xbox Live and instantly become ranked higher than I am, well I never said I was particularly good at this did I? Fact is, the Xbox Live portion of the game is almost seamless, and finally a game that doesn’t boot you back to the beginning of the title after checking for downloadable content. Amped 2 is also Live Aware, meaning you’ll be able to see your friends list even while playing an offline game.

Standard multiplayer features allow 2 players via split screen, 2-8 via System Link, and up to 8 player through the Xbox Live service.

XSN Sports also adds the ability to create a Pack, a clan if you will, so you can ride with your teammates and participate in tournaments and more in the future.

Control / Playability

As you can see from the diagram below the controller configuration is very simple, it’s mastering the timing and the combos that’s the tricky part. There are also some additional controls not described in the diagram. Pressing the left or right trigger will perform a ’switch’, allowing your rider to quickly change opposite to his or her preferred stance. You can earn more points during those bad ass moves by slowly pressing either the right or left trigger and slowly moving the left trigger. The X button along with the left thumbstick will perform ‘Snowskate Kick Tricks’, dependent upon the position of the thumbstick. The game can be a bit unforgiving when it comes to landing moves correctly, so practice my friend. The D-Pad acts as a Free Look mode, and the White and Black buttons help you manage your music playlist during gameplay.

Amped 2 Default Control Setup

Graphics / Presentation

Amped 2 boasts some really exceptional graphics, and while the in game scenery is just a notch under the mountain flythrough sequences, it becomes pretty awe-inspiring at times. The snowboarders maneuver with good fluidity and the crash animations are dead on, sometimes literally. The rider customization is a bit more hefty in the latest version of Amped as well. The framerate is consistent throughout and if you are one of those HDTV owners, you’re in luck. We did notice a couple of minor glitches while sliding down the slopes, sometimes on our back, but hey, we had a great view of those puffy clouds!

Amped 2 Screenshot

[ Additional Screenshots Temporarily Unavailable, Sorry. ]

Audio

Audio is presented in Dolby Digital, and offers more than 300 Indie tracks to please almost anyone and keep the tracks fresh, however, if it’s not your cup of tea custom soundtracks are supported, and the playlist can be altered during the game. Ambient sounds are good, sliding on rails or slashing through the snow, it all adds the the adrenaline rush while careening down the mountain. Little voice snippets of onlookers and cameramen are alright, but annoying after a while, thankfully we can mute ‘em in the options.