Amped 3 Xbox 360 Review

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December 1st, 2005 Jason Rybka Leave a comment Go to comments

I must be getting old, I have to admit it. I remember when skateboarders were branded as hooligans and I even remember when snowboarders were banned from the slopes as they were looked down on by the skiers. I used to ski a lot and I even snubbed them until I tried it and starting to hang out and see what tricks they could pull off. It looked easy, but it’s not and in a way it is similar to skateboarding with a mix of water skiing but using only one ski. Of course, now snowboarding is a huge sport and an Olympic event.

When Microsoft released the first Amped, I fell in love with it. The game seemed to offer something different while having some elements of THPS added in. The game had no live support and when the sequel came out with live support, once again I was in love with it. I could play the offline mode and then take on the best online. I used to love to crank up the tunes and just play for hours. We all know that Microsoft decided to end their XSN network. This left fans of the series having to replay the two games to get their fix of taking on the mountain. I was happy when I first heard about 2K getting the rights to make a new Amped for the 360. Now fans of the series were a certain group of gamers and whenever a series changes hands, there are going to be some changes. You may have heard that the game does not really have an online mode. This may turn a few off but read on to see why fans of Amped should give the new Amped 3 a chance.

Gameplay

Amped 3 starts like the original series only you soon can tell the game is loaded with odd humor. You are the new guy on the mountain with big dreams of being the next shredder to make it big. Your friends are the oddest group of boarders ever put together. There is a tomboy who tries to hide behind the tough attitude, a guy named Wiener boy and a big guy who has read or seen too many martial arts movies and is into to Zen for his snowboarding talents. Then there is Sebastian who really wants to make it big and tries to guide you throughout the game. Gamers will soon find that with this group the overall story is going to be wacky. Not trying to be funny, but if you took the script of Yellow Submarine and mixed it with Saturday morning kid shows, that’s how the storylines unfold. Odd, you bet it is, but in a good way. There is a whole mountain with sponsors to impress, contests to win and strange hippies trying to test your skills. They went for a unique angle and at times the stories will unfold with colorful graphics and cut-out storyboards, and even clay animation.

Behind all the strange ways they tell the stories, the gameplay is surprisingly solid and the amount of levels is huge. If you happen to be a fan of the second Amped game, you may remember those singing snowmen that you had to find and crush while they threw insults and sang obnoxious songs. Well now you will need to rescue the cash and gear stolen from you and your crew, pick up magical bunnies, and even see how much magic kitty litter you can pick up in a single run. It’s a parody and adds some funny moments, but if the game only relied on this it would have become old quick. Thankfully they mix in the wacky events and stories with normal missions and cut-scenes. For the most part the goals are like those in the Amped series, some sponsors like rail tricks and some like grabs so you need to pull off a certain amount in a time limit to beat the goal and win the swag. Then there are the medals and photo moments and here the game uses more high tech looks. It’s now live video of your attempts and it looks fantastic. If you fail any goal or test, you can repeat it or try and beat the score and see how you rank against others.

The mountain is broken up into several sides and gamers will need to meet certain goals and medals before another section will unlock. Amped 3 is huge and at times this is great. At other times it almost works against it. The mix of parody and realistic snowboarding works, but then they throw in snowball fights, snowmobiling and sledding events. At times it almost can overwhelm or confuse players as to what their goal is. Weiner Land is hilarious and the land of Zen showed originality. To really enjoy the new Amped, fans will have to go with the flow and not expect things to appear normal. Trick wise it’s very solid but one thing that bothered me in Amped 2 has returned which is the butter move. For those who may not know what a butter move is, think of an Ollie in skateboarding. You lean back and ride the tail then pull off another trick for huge points. It just seems unreal and I never saw Shaun Palmer begin his run by buttering, but I can overlook it and thankfully there are only a few medals that you need to use this move in the whole game.

2K and Indie Built went for something different and mixed fantasy with the realistic style of the original series. They made the runs nice and there are miles to explore. The wacky humor grows on you and at times those challenges are more fun. Die-hard fans may get turned off while newcomers may not mind as much. Flashbacks and 60’s influences are seen throughout the whole adventure. In the end it all makes sense and again they were trying to add something new.

Control / Playability

Learning the basic moves is simple and will take about ten minutes if that. The controls are set-up perfectly for a game like this and respond very well. I also liked the fact they made it pretty standard as far as games in this genre go and did not try and add too many new controls that fans would have a hard time with. Triggers modify the tricks while you use the left analog stick to flip and spin. Different combos of buttons will create new moves and grabs. The harder controls are learned in sections and Zen Man will teach them to you. I am not joking; the heavy dude that is always quoting Zen comments will take you to his Zen World and here is a tutorial, if you want to call it that. The only trick that feels unnatural and hard to pull off without practice is to get into the butter mode. No worries though, the whole game is made to cut to training modes and even those who may never have played a game like this should be able to learn it pretty easily.

Xbox Live

Here is where 2K made a big mistake. The only thing you can use XBL for is to save records and times. It’s a scoreboard and nothing more. If they would have added an online mode, this wacky but cool game would have been worth the price in a heartbeat. Instead it will likely appeal to those who enjoy the extreme genre only. As a launch title it seems a bit odd to not make use of the 360’s online power.

Graphics / Presentation

Once you get used to the funky graphics and the puppets, you’ll find the rest of the graphics are good. They don’t come anywhere near pushing the 360’s power and really were never meant to which is odd since the game is in HD. It seems they decided to make use of the HD graphics in certain areas and switch back and fourth. Nothing looks horrible but I was really waiting for a realistic mountain to shred and at times I got my wish. Then other times the game turns and looks a bit dull or unpolished. There are a few issues like after a run, you get to the lift and you will fall through the solid floor. A minor graphics issue but still this is a 360 title and to leave that in the final version had me shaking my head wondering, how?

Amped 3 Xbox 360 Screenshot

Amped 3 Xbox 360 Screenshots

Audio

Here the title makes up a bit for the lack of graphical effects. The soundtrack alone has over 300 songs and that is just to start off. You unlock more and find secret stashes later in the game. Rock, Pop, Grunge and Rap are covered and then some. A mix of well known artists and some unsigned groups make up the play list. Impressive for any game! Changing the songs is really easy as you can go in and switch on or off what types of music you like then hit the slopes without having to exit the game. Of course as huge as the soundtrack is, the game really is best when played with your own favorite tracks that get you in the mood to hit the slopes and shred for huge points. The voice-over artists are talented and do a good job but at times the storylines are a bit too corny. They manage to stay in character and for the most part. All of the sound effects and voice talents are great.

Replay Value

While having no online mode hurts the overall game, the gameplay makes up for it. Challenging courses and some insane stunts makes Amped 3 hard not to enjoy. Beating everything will take a while but the game is not as hard as I had hoped for and this may also cause a few fans of this genre to get bored a bit. They added the snowmobiles and sleds for more challenges and of course special ones are hidden and need unlocked to participate in those challenges. 2K and Indie went for a Grateful Dead fantasy story line mix with the real sport and almost pull it off. The only problem is after gamers beat the game the only thing left is to do it better or go for the top records on the score board.

Overall Score

Overall Score: 7.5/10 [not an average]

Additional Comments

I enjoyed the game and especially trying to unlock everything, but then again I like the unusual types of games. For the right gamers this one will provide laughter and the snowboarding experience, just not in the normal way you may be used to. I liked the idea and what they tried to do here with this title. They may have overdone the 60’s look and references a bit. It’s not the best Snowboarding game I have played (hint; Amped 2), but it is original and you need to allow the story and zaniness to play out before writing this one off. Not the most solid of the launch titles but has a certain charm and is fun to play!

XBox Solution