Amped 2

Ignore the tutorial if you can help it, it’s a great way to get your hopes down instead of building them up.

A must-have title. It's not as fast or unrealistically fun as "SSX3" but it wasn’t meant to be. This is serious snowboarding that almost takes the sport into its own niche sub-genre.

If you're a fan of the original Amped, then you should feel right at home with this game. The improved controls and added gameplay elements only make the game less frustrating and more fun.

Gives you a bit more "professionalism" than the arcade feel of SSX so it’s a nice blend of arcade fun and authenticity.

While some will take a while to get used to the different control style, the game is one of the best out there of its kind. Challenging enough for those who love a challenge and fun for those who just want to have a good time.

It is not as razzle or dazzle as "SSX 3," but it brings a more realistic snowboarding feel to the table. You can even go online with 7 other people and help each other or compete against each other.

The backgrounds look as gorgeous as any snowboarding game I've seen, with lots of lush snow, trees, houses and lodges, and other objects strewn about. The mountain courses are linked together, and well built.

It's also refreshing that, instead of a wilder arcade-like approach, the game portrays the sport more realistically; it’s a bit more work to pull off a dizzying spin or flip, as it would be in real life.

With great graphics, a more forgiving control scheme, great music and fantastic online play, videogaming snowboarders can't go wrong.

Amped 2 continues the tradition established by the original, but adds a few new twists to keep gamers interested.

A solid title. This is the Tony Hawk of snowboarding; the tricks are huge, the musical score is unique and solid, and the graphics are extremely well done. This title has ‘steez."

It lacks the sheer exhilaration of the SSX series, but scores high marks for a deep career mode and solid level design.

Solid, entertaining, and graphically attractive, without ever leaping into risky territory. Unfortunately, that's exactly what's keeping the series from being truly great. [Dec 2003, p.150]

This is a great online experience!

Not only does its game system encourage players to think out their moves and concentrate on realistic tricks, but it also does this while still keeping the game addictive as you put more time into it. Quite a feat.

"Quite challenging" is quite right. Casual freeriders should stay off these slopes: If you're not serious about nailing those sick-scoring combos, you won't get very far in this game. [Dec 2003, p.222]

With all-or-nothing rail and jump placement, the game can sometimes feel shorter and more difficult than it really is, while at other times a bit too easy. [Dec/Jan 2004, p.91]

Amped 2 is Amped with the right trigger gently pressed: it's tweaked. Balance meters take away some of the series' grace, but make it more of a game, like Tony Hawk's tilted downwards. [Christmas 2003, p.122]

The focus on realism obviously isn't for everyone, but the lengthy career mode coupled with the satisfying Xbox Live support, make for an overall great experience.

Realistic to the extreme meaning it’s almost impossible to land your kickass tricks and do those combos that can blow the competition out the water.

Rejects spectacle in favour of the sort of satisfaction that results from a slow culmination of small triumphs—a video unlocked here, a trickbook completed there. In the end, though, it's because of this very process that Amped 2 fails to evoke the butterflies-in-the-stomach level of excitement that I get from playing the very best video games.

The main problem with Amped 2 is its controls...In practice, most players will find it difficult to learn at best and frustrating at worse.

Limited multiplayer options, the paucity of single-player goals and the determinedly difficult nature of the game will discourage more casual gamers looking for a quick alternative sports fix.

Factor in the need to half-push the left stick and left and right triggers in order to get style bonuses, and you can see why intuitiveness completely disappears.

Microsoft's biggest mistake with Amped 2 was not in shunning its chief competitor's vivacious aerial antics, but in failing to mimic its ease of control and combo structure - areas where the "less is more" idiom could most do with application.

Features a number of flaws at a control level that stop it becoming an essential title.

It adds a couple of new control features to the original game, but it doesn't address the underlying flaws of the system.

Call us old fashioned, but shouldn't a game be tougher at the end than the start? Amped 2 does start to pick up after several stages, and once the methods have been mastered there is some serious enjoyment to be had.

Playing Amped 2 is like eating a yellow snowball... Due to its inconsistencies and problematic gameplay, frustration abounds in Amped 2. Do me a favor, avoid the frostbite and stick with "SSX." [Nov 2003, p.164]

Amped 2's thick, slow riding and terrible controls are simply unforgettable, whether the aim is arcade speed or serious realism.

Horrible aerial physics, the trying control system, and the gradual build-up of stats make sure that the "Amped" series still has plenty of room for improvement. Amped 2 plays second fiddle to the "SSX" series as the most exciting snowboarding game on the mountain.

There are also issues with the questionable collision detection, which often results in your character slamming into a nearby pole that you had apparently avoided.