Amped 3
Amped 3 was a launch title for the Xbox 360 and therefore by Xbox 360 standards is really old even though it still looks pretty good. The riders look decent enough and the snow looks and acts real snowy, which makes the textures that happen to horrendous even more obvious. This is incredibly present in the rocks, which on some mountains are everywhere. Those rocks by the way despite their ugly appearance are amazing for creating huge combos but I’ll get to tricks later .
But despite the fact that Amped 3 will be five years old this fall, there are a couple of things in this game that haven’t been seen since. The best example of this being the lets call them “unique” cutscenes. These downright wacky scenes range anywhere from Robot Chicken like stop motion, to anime, and sock puppets (I’ll post a link where you can watch all the cutscenes at the bottom of this review). The other thing that Amped does great is basically ripping off the Tony Hawk Underground formula when it comes to gameplay.
Flying down a mountain in Amped 3 feels great the system they have in place for carving makes you feel like you’re watching a really good snowboarding video. Also like I said I would mention the trick system is basically a Tony Hawk game weather it’s pulling off insanely long grinds, 1080 seatbelt grab airs, and the always classic aerial trick into nose butter (the snowboard equivalent of a manual) then back up a ramp into another crazy aerial. It also sticks with the theme of the later Tony Hawk games that were good by adding a snowmobile that you can ride whenever you want and sleds. The only issue I have with the snowmobiles and sleds is the missions where you have a short amount of time to fly down the mountain on one of these deathtraps. Since they really seem like an afterthought and handle like you would expect for something that seems thrown in.
Amped 3 is really a good example of how to do a launch game. Because even though it is dated it still looks good and the gameplay still feels better then any of the newer snowboarding games around. Even if it doesn’t end with the insane boss battle you’ll expect from the very beginning of the game.
-Dan J Bailey
Watch the cutscenes! http://www.giantbomb.com/quick-look-amped-3/17-2076/
