Product Description

Could this be SSXbox? Amped: Freestyle Snowboarding is the first snowboarding game which focuses on freestyle riding rather than structured courses, races and tricks. You'll be able to take to the mountains to rip the ultimate line, grind the rails and perform some killer tricks. The bigger, better and more daring tricks you manage to pull off in front of the world's media will get your face on video and magazine covers. If you get enough international exposure, you'll become one of the international snowboarding superstars. Expect cool music to go with the even cooler tracks.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #11277 in Computer & Video Games
• Brand: Microsoft
• Released on: 2002-03-14
• Platform: Xbox

Amazon.co.uk Review
Amped ditches the conventional race mode of other snowboard games and instead focuses on snowboard freestyle--executing tricks with style. The excellent trick system and accurate physics make for tight game play across the board. It 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 favour 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 since 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, Altibahn and more look great. The soundtrack features more than 50 songs in a wide array of genres including electronica, hip-hop, rap, punk, ska and reggae. Players can also opt to use their own soundtrack off the Xbox hard drive, so they can snowboard to Journey and Air Supply as nature intended. --Raymond M Padilla

Customer Reviews

It's far more real than any other snowboarding game!
I am a competitive snowboarder and this game is the closest thing you'll get to riding a snowboard while sitting in front of the TV, it's almost perfect!
The graphics are excellent, the detail of real 01/02 season equipment and riders is well researched (the developers must be boarders!). The games contols are slighly difficult but thats a positive thing its more realistic and when you pull off something like a "Corked 900 Palm air" its very satisfying. So if your snowboard or interested in snowboarding this is the ONLY game worth considering at this point in time!

My only gripe is the game's depth (there's no sense of real acheivement probably to lack of competition mode). No proper multiplayer mode (what's the point of owning console if you can't play it with your mates in realtime?) Oh and the photographers really can get on your nerves!

Could be a perfect game with the addition of the above but still from a snowboarder's/gamer's point of view far far better than SSX Tricky.

Tough but rewarding
I bought Amped with my Xbox and it sat at the back of the shelf until I'd finished Halo and Jet Set Radio because, the first couple of times I put the game on, it was just so darned difficult to do anything. However, work your way past the tough start, and learn the controls, and you'll find a game that is both rewarding and fun to play.

Amped isn't the standard race down a hill pulling the occasional stunt kind of snowboarding game we're used to. The closest thing to it previously would have been 1080 Snowboarding on the N64, but the game is even more free form than that. Yes, there are set runs down hillsides, but they interlink with each other and give a great deal of freedom of movement to the player. Obviously, they're liberally sprinkled with bumps and ramps and rails and jumps for you to trick away on and the control system - once mastered - allows you to pull off outrageous stunts. It all feels quite realistic - you have to learn to land your stunts correctly to pick up points, you have to balance your board while jibbing or grinding rails (or whatever it's called), you have to learn to rotate fully when spinning or looping. The game doesn't do much automatically. But that's what makes it rewarding - when you pull off a great sequence of tricks and land a massive score, you know it's because you've done it, not the game.

Graphically, it's OK. There's no slowdown, the boarders move well, the lens flare is pretty, but it isn't Halo or JSRF. The soundtrack has loads of tunes on it but you'll probably find yourself using the "rip" option on your Xbox and compiling your own soundtrack after a short while.

I thought it was dull as dishwater the first couple of times I played it, but I love Amped now. It ain't a game for rental - buy it and perservere.

Hard but Fantastic
I have played a few snowboard games on different platforms and have to say that this game is easily the best. Freeform cruising down a choice of mountains, popping some tough tricks which although hard to pull off at times, feel very rewarding when you do manage them. I found some of the follow the pro levels almost impossible to start with but with some perseverence you do get there and appreciate it all the more.

My only gripes with this game(and they're tiny ones really) are that having put time in to complete the "explore" levels, you find that it is a waste of time and you get no reward other than 1 step up in your grading - quite simply not worth it, a new board or something would be nice!!! Other than that, great though the photographers' waffle can be bloody annoying at times.

That said, this game is intensely addictive, all the more for being a bit tough. Once you get passed the "cant pull a trick for trying" point and get to trying serious stunts such as grinding the cable car cables, you'll be hard pressed to switch off.

Great gameplay, great graphics, great tunes, big big game and a novel format from the usual type of snowboard game.

5* game definately.