Imagination Meets Xtreme Sports - but is it love at first site or an awkward blind date? by StewXX

November 19, 2005 - In what can only be considered a semi-serious departure from the previous games, Amped 3 might disappoint those who were hoping for a continuation of the series proper. Snowboarding is buried in here somewhere but it's sandwiched between Mountain Dew 'tude', insane fratboy party visuals and some gameplay completely unrelated to snowboarding. Fans will be quick to lash out at Indie Built for what they might consider a dismantling of what is really the only realistic snowboard game available these days, but most of the development team at Indie Built worked on previous Amped games, which means they should know better than to screw with what works.

For starters, Amped was known for it's innovative use of the analog sticks for it's trick system. This has been removed in favor of a more conventional face button (ala Tony Hawk) configuration which might have Amped purists up in arms. I can only assume the change was implemented to make Amped's gameplay more accessible to the average gamer. I know that personally it took me hours to get the hang of the original Amped when I first played it years ago. The only thing that kept me coming back was the addictiveness of it all and eventually I mastered the controls. The new control isn't bad, but it is completely new and will throw those familiar with Amped 1 & 2 for quite a bit of a loop. Next is the removal of the online multiplayer. I'm not sure why this was removed and I am definitely mourning its absense. If it couldn't have been implemented at this juncture the game should have been put on hold until such time as online was ready. Was having Amped 3 ready at launch that much of a dealbreaker?

If you want to shred freestyle (sandbox) everywhere that Amped 3 features - Snowbird, Northstar, Valle Nevado to name a couple, but still no Whistler Vaughn (Vaughn lives about an hour away from Whistler....lucky %$#@!) you'll have to play Story Mode. Story Mode is filled with classic objectives that you'll remember from previous games in the series and you'll also have to complete some interesting new ones. Once you complete the Story mode you will gain a trail map that indicates all of the lifts and runs on a particular mountain. There are lots of real-world resorts and slopes in addition to real-world gear and real-world snowboarders such as Gigi Ruef and Marc Frank Montoya. Impressing those around you has always been a consistent theme in Amped and while the third game is no different it does manage to take it to the Xtreme. Continue to impress those around the slopes and your "awesomeness" will start to show. Literally. Personally I thought it was so ****ed up that I kinda dug the bizarre trails of dimentia eminating from my boarder, but if you don't share my insane tastes, the Awesomeness effect can be turned off.

If you give the new controls half a chance (sorry guys, we checked and there is no "classic" control config) you'll realize there is some depth here, but it will be a shock to the system nevertheless. Using the buttons for easy grabs only requires one button, but attempting to execute harder tricks will have you mastering a slew of button combos, not unlike those you'd find in a fighting game like Tekken. The availability to chain combos together with the butter and carving moves adds a lot of strategy for those who want to bust all of the insane trick scores. The tweaking of the Left Analog stick has been retained from previous games and getting air isn't a problem thanks to the generous amount of moguls and other natural and manmade obstacles that will provide you with necessary height.