The super wackiest snowboarding game ever!!!
Now I myself am a snowboarder, no joke. I have played Amped 2 to death on th xbox pretty much because it is a almost perfectly realistic game with no SSX style jump-off-your-board-doing-a-backflip tricks in it and its all 'stylish' per say. Now of course if i reviewed this game as a snowboarder looking for realism that would be unfair to the vast majoriy of people who do not snowboard, so for the most part i will be writing this review as a casual gamer and put in the snowboarding review at the end.
The gameplay has significantly changed from the previous installments. Like before the aim is still to rack up points with tricks but now there are loads of other side quests, which though they are optional, the sheer number of them means you'll be doing them quite often. These include getting high scores and jumping / riding through circles to collecting Kitty 'Glitter'. Each challenge has a threshold for Bronze, Silver and Gold medals which earn you all sorts of things such as new clothes and boards and even hairstyles. You also gain Respect which opens up new areas and coin wtih which you can buy new gear. The levels have also changed as they are considerably bigger and also sectioned. This means there are different areas you can visit which join up such as back country and freestyle areas. However this only applies to the first three of the seven levels which is dissapointig as the the last four all very small. Aside from the extra side-quests the freestyling has changed as well. Instead of being in full control of how you spin you now simply press in a direction and the spin will happen. Some spins have also been moved to the Bumber buttom on the controller which trigger when you press them with a direction. The grabs have also been relocated by pressing button combos to trigger them. Rails have been set in a similar way by pressing buttom combos when your grinding a rail. Aside from snowboarding players can now access snowmobiles and sleds for more fun and diversity in the game play. There also the new build mode where players can lay down objects such as rails and kickers (jumps) on the slope. This can be used to help players if they can't do a challenge or reach an area. There is also no multiplayer or Online like in Amped 2. There is also the new feature of stoking people, its similar to Tony hawk's special bar. You do enough tricks to fill the awsomeness bar and then when its full if you trick in front of people well enough they get stoked. When you get everyone yoo own the mountain so to say. As you can tell the game has changed alot.
The graphics in the game have taken a change as well. The game has this new sort cut and stick lay-out (not in the snowboarding) which is surrounded by vibrant colours everywhere and its really cool. The in game graphics are really nothing to be amazed about but the characters look and the draw distance is fairly impressive. There are also cut scenes in the game with socks and toy figures and other crazy stuff and its really funny.
The sounds are also really convincing. There the standard emo / electronic / hip-hop music mix in the game but the voices are fine and the snowboard sound are realistically done.
The lifespan. It really depends on how you play it. I played it to get every side challenge with a Gold and do everything and it lasted 13 hours. However if you play to do just the story missions and get no-upgrades which you won't need anyway and do just enough to move on to the next levelthen i suspect that the game could be done in under 5 hours. The replay factor is pretty much non-existent and you'll only come back for the the tricks not the annoyingly repititive missions.
The problems... This could be long. The missions are really repetitive after the first 2 or 3 levels.
The 4 -7 levels are tiny in comparison to the first 3, maybe Indie built got bored half way through making it.
There is almost no way to bail (crash) apart from landing upside down.
How ridiculously short it is and the random lack of a proper plot until the last 5 or so missions of 40.
How easy it is.
Theres no Multiplayer or Online at all apart from leaderboards and you know how fun they are.
Not being able to find enough people to stoke.
It is a fun game but its let down by the short lifespan and repetitiveness of the gameplay.
Snowboard Review
In short its horrific as a realistic snowboard game. Theres no more control over the spins and the grabs. Though some of the grabs look good you cant change between them quick enough. The rails are terrible and there are no...i repeat no stylish slides at all. The manualling is also ridiculous with some of the moves you can do being stupid. The ability to do some 2160 spins also removes the realism.
Its annoying to see the best realistic snowboard game turn into this mock of snowboarding almost. Its a fun game but you'll get annoyed quickly.