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"A great snowboarding game that shouldn't be called a Tony Hawk clone"

Remember how those Cool Boarder games for the Playstation would have been good if [insert feature or bug fix] was included? Are the Tony Hawk Pro Skater incarnations becoming stale and boring? Would you like a top-tier alternative to the unrealistic SSX Tricky? Well in Amped: Freestyle Snowboarding, you get to become a snowboarder trying to make a name for himself.

Gameplay
In this game, you have the ability to freely explore unlocked maps using professional snowboarders or you can start a new career and create your own snowboarder. When creating your snowboarder, you have the ability to assign attribute points to various categories such as Jump, Speed, Spin, Balance and Switch. You can then choose your snowboarder's clothing such as what jacket, pants, hat and goggles he will wear. You also choose his gear such as his snowboard, his bindings and his boots. Note that his gear will add bonus attribute points to your snowboarder's repertoire.

Each snow resort is accurately modeled after their real life counterparts. In each resort, there are multiple ''drop points'' where your snowboarder will start his run. In average, there are about 7 drop points in a map. 3 drop points will be used where sponsers from various companies will scout and evaluate you. If you successfully impress the scouts, he/she/they will become your sponsers and give you free clothing and gear. Eventually, a specialized snowboarding shop will sponsor you. Pro snowboarders who visit that shop will challenge you. When participating in the challenge, the Pro snowboarder will perform a series of tricks and grinds in which you will have to try and replicate. You can't miss more than 3 tricks/grinds. If you are successful, you can earn attribute points, new tricks and special snowboards.

The other drop points are used for obtaining points. Like Tony Hawk's Pro Skater series of games, your objective is to rack up as many Points and Media Points you can. Points are a <u>cumulative</u> of regular points obtained when doing tricks and grinds performed when the media isn't around and Media Points. Media Points are obtained when you perform tricks and stunts while a cameraman is taking your picture.

In each resort, there are multiple goals to obtain. For instance, your goals are to reach a certain high score for your Media and Regular Points. You also can go around a resort searching for 8 snowmen and knocking them down.

Your ultimate goal is to become the #1 ranked snowboarder in the world.

Gameplay Rating: 9.5

Graphics
One word: Beautiful. Amped's graphics really make you feel as if you're really going snowboarding in real life. The snow is textured beautifully. You can see your own snowboard's ''footprint'' when you start moving. While moving, you can see the snow blowing from behind your snowboard. The trees look very realistic from far away and close up. If your snowboarder crashes into a tree, you can see snow falling from the free! Minute details such as fellow snowboarders snowboarding (you can even crash into them!), advertisements from companies such as Taco Bell, cabin housing, rock solid ice (yes you can snowboard on ice in this game!) and weather conditions make you feel like you're actually snowboarding in real life.

My only real gripes with the graphics are the player models and the snow blowing from behind your snowboard. The playermodels aren't as detailed as they could have been. The snow blowing from behind your snowboard also feels poorly animated in some ways. The blowing snow feels ''choppy'' as if it were running at 30fps while the rest of the game was running at 60fps.

Graphics Rating: 9

Player models and minor annoyances keep this game from receiving a 10.

Sound
The in-game sound in this game is good. The sound of you moving through snow, landing on snow, falling face first/bottom first onto the snow, the sound of the camera men taking your picture, etc. It's all pretty good and you'll never get bored of repetitive noises.

The music is deep and fantastic. There are over 225 songs from independant groups specializing in Emo, Electronic, Hip Hop, Rock, Punk and Ska categories. You can also import your own music tracks by ripping songs from audio cds.

Sound Rating: 8.5

The sheer amount of music tracks included with this game is unbelievable. The sound is good too, but there's nothing to write home about nor is there anything bad about the sound.

Controls
Left Thumbstick - Move your snowboarder
D-Pad - Move your snowboarder
Right Thumbstick - Performs various grab tricks
A,X,Y - Performs various grab tricks
B - jib and grind
Left Trigger - Tweak your snowboard to the left
Right Trigger - Tweak your snowboard to the right

The controls are frustrating at first. It will take the average gamer an hour or two to start getting used to the controls. However, gamers should persevere and endure the hassle of learning the controls because once you get used to 'em, the game becomes VERY fun and addicting.

A small problem with the controls is that sometimes a button won't register when you press it. It happens once in a while after you jump off a hill and try to do a grab trick via the A,X,Y buttons and not the right thumbstick, your snowboarder won't grab and you'll end up gaining minimal points. To counter this ''bug'', you gotta press the grab button again and he'll grab it this time.

Controls Rating: 7.5

Controls are frustrating and once in a while, buttons won't register unless you press it twice. Just remember to maintain self control and not throw your controller against the wall unless you have an abundant amount of cash. :)

Presentation
The menus are nicely designed but they are slow. Moving the highlighted button through the menu feels laggy. Choosing an option (such as ''Level Select'' or ''Clothing Select'', it will take about 2 seconds until the actual new ''Level Select'' window shows up. This is probably because the game has to load all the images from the DVD disc.

Presentation Rating: 7

Menus are nice but are slow and unresponsive. The menus themselves look nicer than some menus from other X-Box games, though.

Replay Value
Rarely are people able to become the #1 ranked snowboarder in this game (it's very difficult!). As long as you haven't reached #1 yet, you will probably keep on trying. However, there isn't much to do after you've beat the game by reaching #1...unless of course you want to create another snowboarder and start from scratch.

Multiplayer is pretty stupid to say the least. It's basically: choose your snowboarder and one at a time a snowboarder will ride and try to rack up as many points as he or she could. Then the next person will try and rack as many points as they could. Whoever ends up with the most points will win. Remember: there is no split screen multiplayer...one player goes at a time.

Replay Value Rating: 8

The difficulty of becoming the #1 snowboarder keeps the replay value at a nice solid 8. Multiplayer feels rushed in favor of singleplayer due to lack of features.

Conclusion
The good outweighs the bad in this game. The gameplay is VERY fun and addicting once you start learning the controls. You'll learn to forget about the other minor nuisances present in this game. Heck I think Amped: Freestyle Snowboarding is much more fun than Tony Hawk Pro Skater 3 simply because Amped has much more depth with the career mode. With the game currently being priced around $20 - $30 US dollars, you can't go wrong with Amped: Freestyle Snowboarding.

Final Rating: 9

Minor nuisances, frustrating controls and poor multiplayer keep this game from being the best X-Treme sports game on the market, in my opinion. For around $20 - $30, you can get a quality title that parallels Tony Hawk's Pro Skater 3 in X-Treme Greatness.

Reviewer's Score: 9/10, Originally Posted: 08/11/02, Updated 08/11/02