Quick Look: Amplitude

Important note: Freezepop sound great nowadays. Their album from last year is siiiiiiiiiick

I'm a backer of this game and I never played the previous Haramonix games of this type. So far I'm not sure how I feel about it. I kind of wish there were four note paths instead of three. I think my biggest concern is the music. I'm down for Freezepop and Crypt of the NecroDancer, but there are some tracks in there I'm not really into.

This looks reaaaaaaaaaaaaally cool, but if I was being honest with myself, I'd rather just be playing Rock Band Blitz.

Yup, the Skullgirls soundtrack was one of the best of 2013 by far. Go do yourself a favor and listen to the Gravity Rush soundtrack while you're at it.

Great question. I feel like it's totally impossible on the hard songs because you can't even see what note you have to play is before you're there. Tragic oversight.

Not an oversight, part of the strategy. It's only hard to see what note starts the lane you're going to if that lane is too far away (even then, not impossible), so you have to prevent that from happening and train your peripheral vision.

I tried the R1, L1, O approach when I was trying to play the original Amplitude on my friends backwards compatible PS3 and hated it. It just felt wrong. Granted, I probably put 100+ hours into the first Amplitude so maybe it is a situation that I could get over but I felt like I would have to go to a lower difficulty level to readjust my technique and that sounds tedious and boring. Or maybe I'm just a giant baby.

I haven't looked into it but I'm sure there's a third-party controller that would have bumpers instead of triggers for L2 and R2.

Amen brother. If I wanted my computer to play me music I'd give it hands and a guitar. And the capacity for love since that's like 83% of what goes into playing the guitar.

No. You just don't see the tracks sometimes, they're too far to the left or right. Unless you've memorized the damn song, it's literally impossible to keep your combo going.

I love it when Vinny & the gang go off on "come up with an entire, surprisingly good movie" tangents.

See also: The Iron Grid

That's what I'm saying. Part of the strategy is to avoid making the next track you're going to be too far away by choosing which ones to tackle first.

This seems like a game that would play much better with an arcade stick over a controller.

Or some crazy variant of the Pop 'n Music Controller.

Not really. Part of the strategy for the high score chase of these games has always consisted of clearing lanes in such a way as to never create too large a gap. It's more than hitting all the notes and getting a perfect score; there's a degree of planning and routing as well. Then for any instance where you put yourself into a situation where you actually can't get to another lane in time, that's where the power-up that clears the lane comes in handy. If you use it on a lane you couldn't get to quickly enough, it'll count as having cleared it, therefore giving you until the next measure to get over to another lane and continue the combo. It can be hard for sure, but it takes a little planning and extemporaneous thinking and is pretty rewarding when you do it well. It's a different beast from a lot of other rhythm games for that reason and a great part of why I like it so much.

I have no experience with the original, aside from hearing about it, but this looks good. I haven't played stuff on my PS4 for quite a while so it might take a while before I pick it up, though.

Man, that Skullgirls song at the end. Just makes ya wanna yell "MUSHROOM HUNTINNG" out loud

used to play this on a custom box using pop'n music buttons, not sure i can play this game any other way, also just used a pop'n music controller and used the bottom row. not sure if you could make a box for ps4 havent really looked into building custom stuff

I backed this and the code they gave me (and everyone in Australia/NZ it seems) doesn't work. Hooray!

Sweet, I love these rhythm game videos.

One that might be fun to look at for a future one is Superbeat: Xonic. Pretty sweet and flying fairly low under the radar.

Cut to about three minute into this video. Alex plays the track and the only one left after that is the one on the far left. From there, he immediately has to go to the far right. He has no other options. The only way he could have avoided that is by knowing IN ADVANCE that the only track he'd have available after clearing the two he had to go would be the far right one. And that's on an easy song.

You can tell me that's part of the design and I'll tell you that's shit design.

"IF THAT BASE DROPS, HE'S DEAD"

Their narrative needs to be expanded on in it's own podcast.

Just before that he used the lane clearing power-up on that instrument, which almost always offsets things in such a way as to make it hard to keep a combo going. If you're going for score you will never use these power-ups in that way; you either use it right after you make a mistake to keep your combo going or you use it when you can't get to a lane fast enough. Getting those and hanging on to them is a large part of the strategy of this game. Popping one off before the measure starts tends to only ruin how things are laid out for you. Making mistakes has the same effect.

But yes, it does take more than one play through of a song to optimize your path. If this isn't an appealing thing to you there are probably somewhere in the hundreds of rhythm games out that don't adhere to this design principle. I happen to be quite fond of this one series that does it. I've never wanted to put in enough time into these games to develop strategies on how to get perfect scores, but that doesn't bother me.

Also, losing a combo just isn't a big deal anyway. You gain them back quickly.

I've only played the first four campaign songs so far, but I'm actively disliking the music, which kind of kills a game like this. I honestly can't remember very many songs from Frequency and OG Amplitude, but I remember enjoying them.

Great commentary Austin and Vinny! :D

Pretty cool that I get this game for free from paying to see John Drake sing Barkerville. Great deal, imo.

bassline! bassline!

Lesson:

It's easier pass through the Tannhauser Gate than it is to reach the Nuclear Throne.

This seems like it needs to be on PC where it can benefit from custom songs and such. Especially if there's no plans for DLC.
*sigh*

I paused this quick look 10 minutes in, bought the game, completed the entire campaign thinking I'm some kind of badass for 3-barring every song in it on Intermediate, then reluctantly pulled myself away to watch the rest of this quick look only to have Alex put me to shame with the last two tracks he played.

Maybe it's the 8 hour work day earlier wearing my mind down now but I have a hard time even thinking fast enough to keep up with those notes. Playing it is a whole 'nother problem. I need practice.

Any sign of John Drake's "Barkerville" making an appearance?

This game is so awesome. Played Frequency and the original Amplitude to death.

Was having trouble initially hitting notes in this game due to being colourblind but after changing my ship to the yellow one my accuracy has greatly increased.

Damn Alex is really good, even while talking.

People, Upper Hand configuration is the best and should be everyone's default. It gives you an L1=left,X=center,R1=right layout that makes sense to your brain and avoids the squishy triggers. It feels right to have the outside lanes on the R1 L1 buttons. Try it!

"We're losing him. Look at that DROP!"

Goddammit Vinny is a genius.

@alex Is this coming to PC?

Welp. I'm going to buy the shit out of this. I've been wanting to play a rhythm game but I couldn't quite bring myself to get rockband for PS4. This will do nicely.

Hey, this seems alright. Multiplayer might be some drunk fun.

"The Drake of country" is a phrase I thought I'd never hear.

Is Skullgirls ska?

Sony IP, so it's not going to happen.

why was I not aware @austin_walker was a Jet Set fan?

Vinny: "I should watch more Cowboy Bebop."

Brings a tear to my eye. :')

For $20, I should check this out. Never played the original Amplitude, so why not.

Please let me watch premium livestreams from ps4?

I'm enjoying the game but I have two main problem with it.

1.When you try to streak from one end of the board to another it's almost impossible to react to the notes. I don't understand why they leave empty spaces between instruments. You should always be able to see the next board you're going to switch to.

2. I wish the offbeat notes had a different color or any visual element really.

Alex is really good at this game! I remember being okay at Amplitude back in the day, but all that muscle memory is gone. Some of this stuff looks impossible to do for me now.

I was a massive fan of Frequency - it was a sharper game than Amplitude with a more notable and varied soundtrack (DANGER IS GO! - WHAT IS THE FREQUENCY!! - Science Genius Girl and so on)

This seems to have a less varied soundtrack again - it doesn't have to be licensed/well-known music (tho Harmonix have access to TONNES of that) but this seems to be a mix of niche electronoodling with some D&B/Dubstep-lite which doesn't stand-out that well?

Anyone who misses these games should know that "Rock Band Unplugged" on the PSP was effectively Frequency with proper licenced tracks - it's my favourite Rock Band and whilst it's RSI-inducing torture on the PSP itself, PSPs are long-since emulated *hint*

Note: it's WAY better than the Rock Band Blitz too - that was a real let-down...

If you can't find a control mapping to your liking, find one that is close and then change the button mapping on the DS4 through accessibility options in the PS4 menu. I play the game by L2 as left, Square as center and R2 as Right. I chose the Upper configuration and swapped the buttons in accessibility. Just remember that you have to turn the option off after you leave the game. That's the only catch to doing it this way.