Amped 3

The extreme-sports snowboarding game leaps onto Xbox 360.

The original Amped game made a name for itself by eschewing all the generation-X nonsense that pervaded other extreme sports titles and instead tried to provide a realistic look at the sport of snowboarding. If that approach was what made Amped a great game for you, you're in for something of a shock with the direction the game has taken in this third iteration.

The action has now been wrapped up in a story mode that introduces a variety of characters. You take the role of a nameless snowboarder on the mountain with a bunch of friends. And that's about the most normal thing I can say about the story. Before long you're framed for stealing the groups money and become immersed in a plot that features ninjas, soviets, boy bands and all manner of other weird stuff.

The way the story is told is unique. It's interesting that both major snowboard games have gone for very different presentation styles recently. The way hand drawn doodles are used in SSX On Tour is inspired. Here the artwork is even more dramatic with all manner of different styles being thrown together such as 8-bit graphics, stop motion, education film and the like.

Truth be told the artistic style is something that you're either going to love or hate. I found it very pleasing on the eye, and it's great to see games developers getting away from purely computer generated imagery in games. The actual gaming sections, where you control your rider, are more traditional but the artistic style still makes an appearance in the form of Awesomeness. When you perform impressive tricks you'll see some of this mad art flying off your avatar.

Yet for all this amazing artwork Amped 3 doesn't look particularly amazing when you first get onto the snow. Certainly you won't be wowed and feel that the full power of the Xbox 360 is being unleashed before your very eyes. But the world does draw you in, six mountains of snow to play on with a huge draw distance is no mean feat. There are moments with a whole valley laid out below you that seem impressive, but for all the bump-mapping and long view-distance it's never jaw dropping. The animation isn't from the top draw either, with some noticeable problems when shifting from one trick to another.

But we've become bogged down here in the games art, let's take a look at the actual gameplay. Now it's at this point you'll realise why I've spent so long talking about the game's artistic style. The art is the best thing about the game and the actual play on the snow isn't quite up to scratch. Now I do prefer it to the first two games in the series, which tended to be very unforgiving, however the focus is still on tricks and it makes the game less exciting than the more race-focused SSX.

At least the trick system is easier this time around, Amped 3 is much more forgiving than the previous games. The A-Button is used to add some extra air to each jump which can then be manipulated into a variety of tricks using the stick and the controller's B, X and Y buttons. Big scores are achieved by linking air and grinding tricks together with butter, which is just a fancy way of saying balancing on the board using the right stick.

One area where the game can't be faulted is in the variety of challenges on offer as you move through the game and visit the different mountains. However purists may baulk at some of the tasks you have to do. Sometimes riding the mountains on a snowboard or sled are more enjoyable than the traditional sections on a snowboard. So if you're after a purely snowboarding game you'll have to look elsewhere than Amped 3. For me, not wedded to snowboarding in any sense, the sled sections were great fun, especially the challenges to throw my avatar of his sled in the most dramatic and dangerous looking ways.

I haven't said much yet about online support, that's because there isn't really any proper multiplayer action in the game. It would have been great if you could have met folks on the mountains like some kind of snowy MMO, but instead there's nothing here for social gaming. In the end we're left with a game that does feel lacking. The wonderfully wacky art style will draw you in and keep you interested for quite a while. But the actual gameplay itself, the challenges, the controls etc. just aren't on a part with the wonderful job done in presenting the story.

Amped 3 brought lots of smiles to my face, but these were down to the wacky presentation rather than anything else. Riding on the snow made me miss SSX On Tour, which presented the challenges in a much more interesting and fun way. In some ways it reminded me of GTA: San Andreas, as both games are great to mess around in, just playing without trying to make progress, but then both become less fun when you try to actually progress through the game. Amped 3 is not a poor game, it's just not a particularly great one.

This review comes courtesy of our friends at www.boomtown.net . The home of harcore PC, Xbox, PS2, GameCube and handheld gaming news, previews, features and reviews.