Amped
Ampedby Microsoft
Platform: Xbox
ESRB Rating: Everyone
ASIN: B00005Q5CW
Check price @ amazon.com
Features:
• Freestyle riding down real mountains
• Jib and spin off a huge variety of jumps and rails
• A different ride each time
• Puts gameplay on the mountain, not in a menu
• 120 different runs packed with rails, kickers, and half-pipes
Amazon.com: Amped: Freestyle Snowboarding ditches the conventional racing modes of other snowboarding games and instead focuses on freestyle action--in other words, executing tricks with style. The excellent trick system and accurate physics make for tight gameplay across the board. The game sports a robust career mode as well as quick start and multiplayer modes.
Career mode is divided into four parts: High Score, Media, Sponsor, and Pro Ride. High Score challenges the player to pile on as many tricks as possible. Media requires the player to execute tricks at certain points where a photographer is waiting. Sponsor mode focuses on a particular group of tricks. For instance, one sponsor may favor grinds over airs, so players better make sure to grind everything in site to win the sponsor's gear. This mode is also the least forgiving, as it's the only one where mistakes detract from the overall score. Finally, Pro Ride has the player follow and out-trick one of 17 professional riders in a follow-the-leader manner. Multiplayer mode allows up to four players to participate in a round robin tournament with numerous selectable conditions.
Graphically, the game isn't as sharp as EA's SSX Tricky, nor are the physics and pace as extreme. That isn't to say the game looks bad. The real-life locations of Stratton, Brighton, Snow Summit, and more look great. The soundtrack features more than 50 songs in a wide array of genres, including electronica, emo, hip-hop, rap, punk, ska, and reggae. Players can also opt to use their own soundtracks off the Xbox hard drive, letting them snowboard to Journey and Air Supply as nature intended. --Raymond M. Padilla
Pros:
Excellent career mode
Strong physics and trick system
Vast soundtrack
Cons:
Might be too slow for typical extreme-sports fans
Weaker graphics than the competition
Boring sound effects
Amazon.com Product Description: Amped: Freestyle Snowboarding is the first snowboarding game focused on freestyle riding down real mountains. Jib and spin off a huge variety of jumps and rails for a different ride each time. Pull insane tricks in front of roaming sponsors and camera crews to get your face on magazine covers and in videos. Your goal: get enough international exposure to become one of the world's snowboarding media superstars.
Trick off of a huge variety of jumps and rails on wide-open mountain runs. Jib, bonk, or spin between runs to hidden areas and cool jump sequences designed for trick combos. Mountains are alive with crashing boarders, flying pros, and roaming photographers.
Ride the runs on real mountain resorts: Utah's Brighton, Vermont's Stratton, and California's Snow Summit. See jaw-dropping mountain graphics built for Xbox. If reality isn't your thing, you can unlock international fantasy venues designed by world-renowned terrain architect Chris Gunnerson.
Earn exposure points to become one of the world's top-10 snowboarding media superstars. Pull tricks in front of roaming spectators to gain exposure--multipliers depend on who sees you and how good you look.
Make your gameplay choices on the mountain, not in a menu of disconnected events. Start at the top of a peak and decide how you want to win.
Jump between 120 different runs packed with rails, kickers, and half-pipes, each with six unique challenges, hidden areas, and a rotating stream of spectators. When you're not showing off, taunt or throw snowballs at your friends in the freestyle multiplayer competition.
Customer Reviews:
WAY better than the competition, November 13, 2002
Reviewer: skeedatl from Corona, CA United States
The power behind the XBox is shown clearly in Amped. While PS2 and Nintendo titles blur backgrounds with snowy fog, XBox with it's included harddrive provides enough memory to show the entire run. It plays excellent and the graphics are unsurpassed. And with Amped getting cheaper and cheaper there is no reason to pass up this fun game.
Great Then Bad, November 9, 2002
Reviewer: A gamer from Portland, Or, USA
This game is a awsome rental but don't buy it. You will get board.
Great Snowboarding Game, October 15, 2002
Reviewer: chip1978
Amped follows the line of snowboarding games that originated back on PS1 with "coolboarders" and its progeny. It is NOT like those "arcade-style" snowboarding games like SSX Trickey or Dark Summit. OK, sure, it stretches the limits of reality; but it's more reality based than other snowboarding games.
It also has a soundtrack edit. In other words, you can record songs on your x-box and play them back over the game. It's pretty cool to be playing this game while your favorite tunes are playing in the background. If enjoy snowboard games, but you don't like the weird arcade-ish stuff, this is a game for you.
Fun for a while, but...., September 18, 2002
Reviewer: Bryan from Omaha, NE UsA
This game had a lot of potential, and is still a must buy now that you can find it for less then $$$. But it had so much potential...and in so many ways, it was wasted.
First off: the graphics were magnificent. The use of graphics is fantastic! When u grind a rail, u really think your seeing a replay of a competition. The snow dust and tracks behind you is incredible. This was the first game I saw for Xbox, and it really showed the graphics it could support. The mountains, people, you look so realistic, you'll think you really did get dropped off on a slope.
The gameplay is ok...up to a point. In the game, your ranked from beggining to end. The goal is to get ranked as the #1 boarder in the world. You start out at 150. I got up to 75, then I was just stuck. The goals they set inside the rank of 80 are incredibly hard...up to a frustrating point. But hey, if you think u can master it, go for it. The creativity, I must admit, in the gameplay is fantastic. The use of sponsers and media is pretty cool. During the game u unlock sponsers. Sponsers (:Dragon's Wear: for example) give u new clothes (jackets, hats), gear (gogles, snowboards), and new parks to board in. This game would have been a blast and ground breaking if it wasn't so hard. This is one of 2 things that really killed the game.
The options: thankfully, one of the things this game lacked was not options. U can do single run (just a run down any mountain you've opened with any pro u pick), multiplayer (which really [...]), career, and preferences (where u baslicly decide what music u want to listen to; your own soundtrack or the game's). In career, u can board down any mountain you've unlocked. Pick your outfit from what clothes you;ve been given (by a sponser), board against a pro. This game may be quite hard, but at least it had enough options.
WHAT RUINED IT: Two things changed this game from a 5 star to a 3 star. The first was the difficulty. It just gets to hard! The second was absolutely HUGE! The multiplayer in this game was horrible! There is no split screen, no racing. All u can do is board down a mountain one at a time, trying to get the best score. But the stupid part is, the second player has to match or out do the 1st player's trick! I mean, come on. This game could have been an awsome multiplayer if u could race down a hill with these types of graphics, and or a split screen trick game. This game would have flown off the shelves if there would have been some sort of multiplayer creativity.
Thats my review on this game, and for it's price, you might want to counsider getting it. But don't expect anything ground breaking. This is an average game for an excellent system.
I hope this helped!
Amped- A Great Realistic Snowboarding Game, August 24, 2002
Reviewer: An 11-year old gamer
Amped has a great variety of music. Great graphics and hundreds of different ways down the mountain. You can also unlock different starting points on the mountain. A lot of levels, too. Plus you get trick points and media points (points for photos). Also, you can spin while you jib(grind). I reccommend this to anybody who likes snowboarding games.
One of My Favorites, August 23, 2002
Reviewer: ajcar1992 from Baltimore, MD USA
This is probably one of my favorite games. The career mode is superb and the replay action is fun. All of that together = a brilliant game. It will be hard to find a game (excluding Halo) that will come up better than this one. Highly recomended to anybody.
its alright, August 9, 2002
Reviewer: An 11-year old gamer
this game is alright not that great the graphics are really good same goes for sound thx to the xbox.the controlls [are bad] so much.if they gave u a tutorial first i wouldve been a lot better. i think ssx tricky looked better anyway.
No limit to what you can do!!!!!!!!!!!!, August 9, 2002
Reviewer: A gamer from New York, NY, USA
This game allows you to do over 1000 tricks and moves and combinations of rails and jumps that you'll be experimenting for hours! Every time you go down the mountain it is a different ride and there are over 120 different courses to choose from! You can also do a career mode in which you take a snowboarder that you create through differnt courses, to meet the pros, and to even get some free stuff along the way! IN career mode you can get a higher ranking for breaking a point record or pleasing a sponser. For every rank you go up you get to choose a skill point in either Spin, Balance, Jump, Speed, Switch.
1. Spin: How fast you spin and flip.
2. Balance: How well you balance on rails and grinds.
3. Jump: How much air you get off jumps.
4. Speed: How fast you go.
5. Switch: How well you can handle it if your feet are switched.
You can also get more points if a photographers take pictures of your differnt moves. PLus this game has over 150 music soundtracks or you can play your own tracks on it!
This game is a must get for everyone!!!!!!!
Amped is the most realistic snowboarding game ever., July 22, 2002
Reviewer: A gamer
Because i am a snowboarder i wanted the most realistic snowboarding game on the market. Amped has given me ever thing i need. SSX Tricky is so totally off what a real snowboarder does it makes me sick.The people and trails almost look real, and with over 20 different snow textures i felt like i was right on the slopes. So for your next x box game i urge you to buy Amped!
Hours of Ripping, July 19, 2002
Reviewer: Devin C Jones from Ellensburg, Washington United States
Amped blows all other snowboarding games out of the water. It's mix of realistic graphics and life like physics make it a beautiful game. The replay value is amazing. Like an RPG it is addictive as you find yourself spending hours just to become a pro boarder (the object of the game). Huge mountains with multiple runs to choose from make exploring for big air a delight. There are several different types of gameplay to keep gamers interested. Some may not like how multiplayer isn't simultaneous, but how it is eliminates screen confusion. The soundtracks are all no name bands so making your own tracks will enance gameplay. Style your boarders with several different big name brands like Forum, Blend, K2, Burton and others.
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