GAMEPLAY: 4.5 Stars

Amped 2 has a great trick system that has a fast learning curve to pull off tricks, but that doesn’t mean you can pull off monster tricks right away. The Career mode is good, you create a character and start with low stats and earn attribute points as you get farther into the game, like spin/flip, ollie, and balance points. There is also a great selection of gear and clothing, brands like Burton and Volcom along with many more. You’ll start unlocking new mountains in the game, real-life mountains around the world. I ride at Big Bear mountain and it looks really good with the real runs!!! Gameplay is definatley challeging but can be mastered with practice. Oh, did I mention XBOX LIVE???

GRAPHICS: 5 stars
Graphics are awesome, mountains are detailed, with ability to ride almost anywhere on them. A mountain I’m familiar with I actually ride the runs that I ride in real life, with the same rails and everything!

UNLOCKABLES: 5 stars
There is real life boards, bindings, boots, goggles, and clothes in the game. along with the real life mountains, this is as realistic as you can get.

FUN FACTOR: 5 stars
Though this is meant to be a simulation snowboarding game, it is very fun and you’ll find yourself playing for hours just to unlock new things and increase your player stats. OH< AND YOU CAN RIDE TO YOUR OWN CUSTOM SOUNDTRACKS. IMAGINE LISTENING TO YOUR FAVORITE MUSIC WHILE SHREDDING DOW THE MOUNTAIN!

If you are looking for a realistic Snowboarding game, get this one. If you are looking for an arcade style of snowboarding game, with avalanches, trees falling in your path, and huge jumps, look elsewhere, possibly SSX Tricky.

1) Single Player: This game is similar to the original in terms of single player. You start out at rank 250, and work your way up to #1. Only this time, there are more challenges, more tracks, and several new ways to board. There are now 8 grabs (instead of the 2 in the first), and the ability to do a butter. What a butter does is connect 2 moves. So you can do a backflip, do a butter, then pull of a grind. It combines the 2 tricks for a better score. This can lead to a lot more customization. Not to mention the extra 6 grabs…

Amped 2 brings back High Score, Media Score, and trying to find all the Snow Men. It also adds finding the 5 gaps, and pulling off 5 special tricks. Once completing all of this, you can try to out-trick 3 pros, win over 3 sponsors, and do 3 photoshoots (very cool). Each thing you complete increases your rank, and once up to a certain rank (say 200), you can unlock a new track.

One thing about the single player is that it can get incredibly hard. Scoring hundreds of thousands of points, pulling off insane tricks, or trying to impress a very tough sponsor. Fortunantly, with each rank come new trick “point(s)”, which you can use to improve your snowboarder. You can increase speed, rotation, air time, blance, and switch (similar to the Tony Hawk series). Spending the points wisely may be the difference between beating and failing the game…

The problem in single player though, is thats its so long, and so hard at times that you just want to give up (like the original). If you do keep trying though, you can beat it. It can just get a bit frustrating at times…

2) Online Play~ The online play is a blast in this game. You can race with up to 8 people in several game types: high score, king of the mountain (pulling off the best tricks on certain hills), and a tournament (which averages out everyones best tricks, high scores, media, etc.. #1, 2, 3…). The cool thing is that you can take you single player character online. So all that work you put in to beating the game is finally worth it. The graphics are great, there are rankings. So online play in this game is awsome. Especially if u love snowboarding

3) Graphics~ The graphics in this game are…amazing. Your character looks almost real (you can customize his or her hair, clothes, snowboard, etc.. And the color of everything). As you board, the snow shoots out from behind. You leave a trail of where you’ve been. When you grind, sparks fly out from the board. When you hit a tree, you knock snow off. The snow looks real, fun, exicting. Its a blast to board through and pave your way. The tricks look cool and realistic. The mountains you race on have birds, trees, tons of snow, camera men, rails, and buildings. It really does look like a boarding mountain, and adds to the game.

Overall this game is a blast. Better than the first, the online play and extremely long single player make this a great game that will last you for awhile. Reccomended for anyone who loves snowboarding (I might wait a month or 2 and wait for the price to drop tho). A good game that won’t dissapoint.

Thx!

obryanstars*