Snow gods, sock puppets and a crazy story. Whats not to like?
The story starts off normal. You start out at Northstar, where it's Easter weekend and the resort is about to close for the season. You and your crew J-Dawg (Aspiring Pro), Hunter (Thrill seeking "Hottie"), Sebastian (Buddha Border), and Weiner Boy (Kung Fu Apprentice) - have been saving your pennies for a trip to exotic Chile, Where the five of you will keep riding all year long...or until the money runs out. It's a good plan...that goes right down the toilet by the end of Act 1. Then everything gets really, really insane.
The controls have been changed for the better and for the worse. The button layout is different this time. You no longer use the Analog stick to do tricks. You now use the buttons to do the tricks. The controls now feel more like a Tony Hawk game then a previous Amped game. The only main problem with the new controls is their is no grind button. This means if you jump and their is a rail next to where you are jumping you are going to cling towards the rail. The controls are now less sluggish and tight. But now its just to easy to land insane jumps. The controls make the game feel less realistic. But the controls for the sleds are really good. But the snowmobile controls feel like your driving a tank instead of a snowmobile.
The graphics are good but not great. The game doesn't take full capability of the Xbox 360's power. This game could have been put on the Xbox. There is more detail then graphics. Now instead of the blobs of snow being kicked up from the board, now its more separated and looks more realistic. You can also see grooves in the snow.
The sound is where this game does great in. There are tons of music tracks. A lot of the tracks are from bands that are on Independent record labels. There is music for everyone from Rap to Punk to Heavy Metal. The tracks cover a lot of genres. But the sound effects sound like they have been rehashed from old Amped games.
One of the best parts are of the game is the cut scenes. These cut scenes are just wacky and bizarre. But the style of the cut scenes and the game go really well together. These scenes range from sock puppets, toys, 8-bit characters and more. Just the menus of the game feel artistic and fun.
Sadly, there is no multiplayer. I was really hoping to tear up the mountains with friends. There is always Amped 4 to look forward too. The only things that come close to multiplayer are the leader boards. Which you can only get if you have Xbox Live and some sled challenges which aren't all that fun to play with a friend. Sure smashing your guy down the mountain is fun. But it can only be fun for so long. Then it just gets repetitive.
Another cool thing they added this year is the park builder. The only time you will be using this is if you can't get a high score. I never had to use this because it’s just too easy to get high score. So this ends up being a cool but useless tool.
Overall this is a good game with a great story. But falls short in some areas. This is a rent or a buy. It just depends on your tastes of these types of games.