There are few things more depressing to a game critic than when an excellent game slips through the cracks without much notice from the general game-playing population. For this reason, it's with a bit of regret that we give Amplitude the award for Best Game No One Played.

Amplitude is the follow-up to Frequency, an inspired music rhythm game from rookie developer Harmonix. The concept boils down to using timed button presses to build up different components of a song--vocals, guitars, percussion, and so on--until it all comes to a full-bodied crescendo. It can be deliciously challenging, and your fingers will move so fast on the higher difficultly levels, you almost reach a Zen-like state of meditation. The game's unique visual style matches its one-of-a-kind gameplay premise, and it looks something like a high-speed autobahn in a glowing, acid-soaked technoscape.

Despite the presence of recognizable musical acts like Pink, blink-182, and Weezer on the Amplitude roster, the reasons for Amplitude's mainstream failure are pretty apparent. Most Americans associate rhythm action with bizarre, quirky, intensely Japanese games like PaRappa the Rapper and Dance Dance Revolution, and though it shares very little in common with these games, Amplitude is guilty by association. The game can be a little intimidating, too, as the interface is quite abstract, and most people will end up walking away before they get a full grasp of what's going on.

It's been lauded by the critics and ignored by the masses, but we still maintain a tiny bit of hope that one day people will recognize what a truly incredible game Amplitude is. Though, even if they do, it will still remain our choice for the Best Game No One Played in 2003.