Even if in some fantasy realm you managed to beat Amped 2, Amped 3 is not a game for you. The same goes for fans of the initial game in this series. As such, the radical departure from the realistic snowboarding action portrayed in the entries on the original Xbox has been wiped clean, and what we're left with is a goofy, strange, oddball, wacky, and easy-playing title that wants a bigger portion of the market to experience it.
Assuming you've slaughtered hundreds of hookers in GTA, understood the storyline in both Katamari Damacy's, and track down the latest Cho Aniki title from Japan when they're released, you've never seen anything like Amped 3. Characters in this game's disturbingly funny cinematics include a Russian talking hand (complete with beard) and a pig's head on a platter. There may be some story to it all, but you're either laughing too hard to remember what happened or so turned off by zaniness you find yourself continually reaching for the start button to skip them all.
To reject the game based solely on the storyline is missing out on a game that will struggle desperately to gain its due. While the tricks are easier to pull off, this is still Amped underneath. Frustrating challenges from the first two games have been removed, and in their place are different frustrating challenges. You've never truly experienced a controller-tossing game until you've attempted to earn gold in the Magic Rings challenges, complete with trippy, almost taunting music reminding you of how evil this product truly is.
Aside from the story, you'll compete in a variety of challenges, some of which even encourage smashing your body to earn points. Yes, this is that big of a departure for the series. What's easily missed is the technological feat of Amped 3. Make all the arguments about how the games don't look like a major leap, but this is what next-gen gaming can do, and it has nothing to with graphics.
There's a distinct lack of menus in Amped. Aside from character item swapping and mountain moving, you'll never see one once in a game. Entire mountains are loaded in a matter of seconds, and the map isn't just a 2-D picture. It's the same thing you'll be shredding on in a matter of seconds, complete with every tree, ramp, and challenge. Zoom in and take a look if you're not sure. It's incredibly cohesive as an experience, and it's something the Xbox never could have done.
Article comments
1 - BlackBeard269
Hey! I have the old xbox and its kicked up. I have the X-BIT chip insla;;ed and a 120GB drive installed and evry emulater and rom ever made installed and i have about 35 Xbox games on root f/HDD And a totel of well over 5,000 games. And its a lot other things you can also do with it. My question is i know the graphix are better but is it really worth it to get the xbox360 man another box to hack:} I just can't see buying it but i know how i am i have every console ever made but one and i cant remember the name. I play the xbox like evry day right now playing call of duty 2 and the graphix look like they match the 360. Now if they could do that to all there games and give us more first person real life games that would be great. But i also play Nintendo on the xbox i love the side scroll games.
2 - Ken Edwards
BlackBeard - I don't know where you are going with that. But why are you asking us if it is worth it? It is. Not only are the retail games system sellers, the Arcade titles are too.
Matt - There is very little tree clipping in this game. Less then SSX (name the version) and far less then Amped 1 or 2. But I do agree that the snowmobile-for-10-miles-to-get-to-the-next-challenge thing gets to a be a bit much. Especially when you need to snowmobile up hill because you careened off the mountain trying to get to the challenge in the first place. Those frustrating moments are far and few between. And if you actually take the correct rout to the challenge, it is rather painless. Finding the correct rout sometimes becomes a challenge, however.
But the challenges on the second mountain are not hard, once you get to the seventh mountain they get a bit rough - but by no means Tony Hawk frustrating.
The story alone sells this game. The controls are very forgiving, even more so than SSX, and the amount and variety of challenges is staggering.
The fact that they themselves make fun of Amped 2 so much in the game is just brilliant.
Online play would most likely only consist of trick challenges. Those get boring really fast. The game is not setup like SSX 3 where racing online was such fun.
Not having an online mode in SSX On Tour was a crime, not Amped 3. Although in this day and age, it does seam a bit odd, doesn't it.
I cannot fault a game for features it does not have. Amped 3 has brought with it many hours of game play, many times in sessions of more then four hours. When I completed the main story, taking me about 15 hrs. to do, I still had 50% of the game to complete.
The 180 degree turn and the very accessible game play deserve more then 3/5. It has flaws that drop it from a 5/5, however. My score is 4/5.