Amped 3 – Review

Rock on Dude!! This is a Hippy Trippy Game – It’s ‘Amped’ Jim, but not as you know it. I wasn’t a big fan of the other Amped titles, but I bought them because I’m an SSX Tricky nut and the Xbox was in dire need of some snowboarding madness. Sadly the first two Amped titles did nothing for me, I reverted to the PS2 and Tricky. They seemed to take themselves far too seriously and the controls never seemed quite as polished as they should have been. When I realized that with the release of the Xbox 360 comes Amped 3, I was a little concerned. Seems that I was wrong however, this game is everything that the previous Amped titles only hoped they could be. They’ve dumped the snowboarding sim style gameplay of previous titles and come up with what can only be described as acid trip insanity snowboarding. It’s mad.. but so much fun. It’s a shame the previous titles may tarnish sales of this one.. I hope not.

There are a variety of ways to play this game, it isn’t entirely linear. You basically choose your own character and head to the customisation screen to get them looking exactly how you want them to. I love this aspect of games and they’ve done it really well here. There’s a ton of options and as you progress through the game further enhancements can be made to your character. You then hit the slopes and start working your way through a variety of challenges and tasks. Your overall goal is to get to Chile and when your crew take off without you thinking that you’ve stolen their money, it’s time to get your groove on and make some cash. You can do this in various ways. Mainly you have the choice to pose for media shots, undertake hoop challenges, gate challenges and more. Each of these will boost your cash as well as your reputation. The more you do, the further you travel basically as new mountains and areas will become available to you. That’s the overall point of Amped 3 and although it may not sound that exciting, trust me, it’s absolutely brilliant fun.

“Risk Utter Obliviousness”
One of the reasons that this game is so fantastic is of course down to the Xbox 360 graphics. Snow never looked so powdered and fine. For the first few hours of playing this game I just couldn’t stop staring at the lines in the snow I was making when travelling down the slopes. Amped 3 is lovely to look at and very polished to an arcade sheen. Environments are huge and there’s plenty to do. The addition of sledding and other mountain madness (snowmobiles and weird paragliding) just adds to this titles charm. Character models are ‘sweet dude’ (you’ve been playing it too long – Ed.) and the overall retro styling of the menu systems and various mid game cut sequences just add to the charm. The little vignettes between levels are so damn weird, they truly have to be seen to be believed, they’re cheesetastic man! Gone are the days of blank loading screens or games with little imagination. The developers of Amped 3 have gone all out to provide original and interesting cut scenes and load screens. They vary from the truly bizarre (the pig who talks without a body) to a trippy 60s feel (the Sergeant Pepper like Magic guy). It’s all brilliant and the Ninja storyline that pits you against the baddies is inspired. There really is something to be said for the effort that’s been put into making this game stand out from the rest. And it does.

“The duelling Serpents of Fangar”
What’s this.. I’ve plugged my iPod Shuffle into that little USB doohicky on the front of the 360 and now I’m taking to the slopes to the sweet sweet tunes of the sheer brilliance of Marla Sokoloff? Does gaming get any better than this? Ahh I think not. As with the aforementioned character models, the character voices are very in keeping with the style of the game and all have their own personalities, it’s all done very well. You even get to choose what kind of personality you want for your own rider. You can choose between the cheeky chirpy sounds of the cheerleader type character or the laidback chilled sounds of the surfer type. The other characters in the game who make up your crew all have their own amusing characteristics and voices and they’re all brilliantly acted. Even though you have the option of listening to your own tunes as you ride around, there’s no need to use your iPod or HD ripped tunes because the ingame soundtrack is more than worthy. There’s a good mix of funky songs to keep most people happy and I did on occasion state ‘that is a really good song, who sings it’.

”The Death Drop of Death”
Female gamers smile with delight, in Amped 3 you can make you own character to your very own specifics. The options aren’t endless, but there’s enough here so that you can have fun and make a cool snowboarding chick to your liking, hell you can even make her ‘curvy’ if you want. It’s also nice to see you can give the character any skin shade. The female characters in the title are all mad, but then so is the game overall. Yes they’re flat stomached beauties, but it’s not done so it’s all a bit forced or unrealistic, Hunter kicks ass and is very cool. Heck, they’re all very cool. It’s so odd just how different this is to the other Amped titles… Oh I said that already didn’t I (a few times now – Ed.) Absolutely no complaints here with regards to the female gamer. It is completely equal and I take my cute little beenie hat off to the makers over at Take 2 for that.

“Let’s ride and celebrate the awesomeness coming from thy buttocks”
This game really surprised me and in the best possible way. The trippy arcade nature of the graphics and the amusing sound effects and voice acting really stand out. They keep the game interesting and you will find yourself laughing out loud at some of the action. It’s a well laid out game, the learning curve isn’t too frustrating (as it has been in the previous titles) and it’s a game that most people are going to enjoy. This title may get overlooked due to the high quality initial release schedule for the 360. It would be a real shame for this to happen as it can provide hours of entertainment. Finding all the unlockables is a really enjoyable task. One complaint I must mention is that there’s no Live play for this title and it is this that brings the overall rating down. It is a travesty as the option to go head to head with other players would have made this game even sweeter. Still, it is a great single player title if you’re just not in the mood to be sociable. Check this out.

Review by Tracy