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Throwback Thursday: Amped: Freestyle Snowboarding
We fondly remember the original Xbox’s answer to SSX, and how calmer can sometimes be better.
Amped: Freestyle snowboarding
© Microsoft Game Studios
It’s hard to believe it’s been nearly 14 years since the birth of the original Xbox, back in 2001. No one could have guessed at the time that Microsoft would go on to become the massive gaming juggernaut it is today, and when the first Xboxes hit store shelves it was a clear underdog. Going up against the mighty and already established PlayStation 2, as well as the launch of Nintendo’s GameCube, the big MS had almost everything stacked against it, with only its games to rely on to pull it through.
Each console seemed to have its own AAA genre offerings, whether that was an exclusive shooter, such as Microsoft’s Halo to Sony’s Killzone, or platformer, such as Jak & Daxter vs Super Mario Sunshine, against, say, Grabbed by the Ghoulies. But while many multiplatform games would let you play the same as everyone else, when the Xbox debuted it was left lacking in the extreme sports department: SSX – a title that the PlayStation 2 debuted with back in 2000 – was nowhere to be seen (the GameCube, meanwhile, would go on to receive the excellent 1080 Avalanche later in life). SSX’s plethora of tricks, sense of speed, adrenaline-pumping racing and brilliant soundtrack made it a must have title, but Xbox gamers were, for a while, left off-piste until its sequel, SSX Tricky, launched on all major consoles later on in 2001.
Luckily, launch gamers who picked up Microsoft’s gargantuan console (and dealt with its equally massive controller) could turn to Amped: Freestyle Snowboarding to fill that void. Amped was a snow sports title that focused purely on tricks, rather than on the racing that SSX was known for, and it launched to positive reception. It made full use of some of the Xbox’s pioneering features like its built-in hard drive, which allowed for entire mountain ranges to be loaded up at once, letting you throw down a full freestyle run from top to bottom in any direction you chose. That’s rather than plowing through a linear downhill course set out by the developers, as was the case with Shaun Palmer's Pro Snowboarder or SSX.
Amped: Freestyle snowboarding
© Microsoft Game Studios
As a result, the levels are enormous, and they each took full advantage of the Xbox’s extra graphical grunt. The result was a brilliant looking game with tight details, real time lighting and a draw distance that spanned almost the entire mountain – if you could see it, you could ride it. Amped also brought a unique perspective to the action sports genre; instead of playing as a professional right from the get-go, or being able to unleash gravity defying, over-the-top tricks like in SSX Tricky, the game put you in the snowshoes of a rank amatuer, making it your job to find fame among the powder.
Not unlike an RPG, your goal was to boost your stats, unlock new clothing from sponsors and beat out other snowboarders to be number one – and it was a refreshing take on a genre that usually favoured pure, arcade racing. Amped was simply about the joy of exploring mountains, each of which were large enough that you’d spend plenty of time finding new sections and new runs each time you played.
Four real mountains were packed into the game, alongside one dreamed up by developer, Indie Built, and as you progressed through the game you unlocked different sections of each one, opening up new and varied runs. That meant that while you may have started off on short runs that don’t take too long to finish, you’d soon be unleashed on epic descents that span the entire level, requiring every drop of your hard-earned memory, skill and timing.
Unlike Tony Hawk’s dial-a-combo controls, Amped did things slightly differently: you’d tweak your tricks in the air with the Xbox controller’s triggers, grind with a dedicated button and deftly flick the right analogue stick in sync with three other face buttons for grabs. It was a unique approach and, while it doesn’t match up the slick flick controls that EA’s Skate employed, it did the job and let you shred how you wanted – and there was nothing more satisfying than snapping a huge spin before you cracked a big jump. The dev’s decision to eschew a time limit, even when during missions, let you really relax and get into just carving up snow, making Amped a much more mellow experience than SSX’s fast and frenetic gameplay. It was the snow-capped equivalent of casually flicking tricks in Skate.
The game’s sequel, Amped 2, launched in 2003 and improved on the original’s formula by including online play via Xbox Live. It enhanced the first title’s realistic depiction of snowboarding, refining almost every element of the gameplay, making it look even better and adding tweaks like being able to link up tricks together for huge combos. The addition of a snowskate mode mixed up the dynamic, too, adding a fresh challenge that saw you have to grab your board in mid air to stop it from escaping, and enabling more tricks, such as kickflips.
The Amped series later made its way onto the Xbox 360 in the form of Amped 3, published by 2K Sports (Microsoft having sold the studio to Take-Two Interactive), but this new iteration took a different tone to its forebearers. While Amped 3 was even bigger than previous efforts – seven new resorts, which were each up to three times larger than the levels found in the first two games – along with new snowmobile, sledding and hang glider features, critics noted that it felt too different to previous installments. Its focus on crass humor, linking up massive, superhuman combos and grabbing multipliers made it feel a little more like SSX than a serious sim, while its graphics weren’t as groundbreaking as the first two games’ visuals had been, and the controls were altered to boot.
We haven’t seen an Amped game since, which is a real shame. Just as Skate revolutionised the stagnant skateboarding game genre, Amped gave the market-leading SSX a run for its money by dropping gamers into a refreshingly authentic snowboarding experience, gifting a true feeling of awe when shredding its digital slopes that stood in stark contrast to the over-the-top extremities that SSX offered.
Sadly, it doesn’t look like we’ll be receiving a new game in the series any time soon, either – Take-Two suddenly shuttered studio Indie Built in 2006, and Amped 4, which was in the works for both the Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3, got cancelled in the process. Still, with Take-Two and 2K Sports still churning out top-notch sports titles, and with the publisher still retaining the rights to the franchise, we could still see something on the cards for the Xbox One or PlayStation 4 – and if SSX’s 2012 revival on the Xbox 360 and PS3 proved anything, it’s that we’re all eager to shred more digital slopes.
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