Yet right from the start it’s apparent that development effort went not into looking cool, but into the raw game play mechanics as well. As Miyamoto always preaches: control is the most important thing and it’s something that Amped 2 nails head on. The feeling of moving your snowboarder around the digital mountains is spot on. It’s a little odd, but the right analog stick is used for grabs. I won’t lie: it takes a while to get used to using an analog stick for grabs instead of "button + direction pad." However, I eventually came to realize this setup is better for the XBox controller, because the Xbox controller doesn’t have four shoulder buttons. By using the right analog stick for grabs Microsoft frees up the left stick to rotate/flip, and the shoulder triggers to tweak. Tapping down on the right analog stick to do a tail grab becomes second nature after about the first hour.

Letting go of that grab is a little harder. Thankfully landing in one piece is much easier than the first Amped, but there are still times you’ll swear to a console god you were clear to land. It really hurts because THPS at least gives you multiple difficulties; "unable to fall off my board" being one of them. There’s only one way through the gauntlet of challenges and it’s the hard way. If I had to put a finger on what makes Amped 2 so much harder than SSX3 I’d say it’s the fact that your character starts off so weak stat wise. You really have to work for the extra points it will take to pass some of the challenges, and this can put off some people. However, every single additional point really makes a noticeable difference. Thankfully, if you get frustrated at something the game has a plethora of challenges set up for you: photo-shoots, sponsor challenges, beat the pro, and event battles are all included in the game on top of the normal "get a buncha points" mode. The media point challenge returns from the first game and remains an interesting concept.

The big new addition for Amped 2 is "the butter," or better described, the manual. It works just as advertised; letting you combo up moves into one big fat score. A half pull on the right shoulder trigger will do a crooked butter, and a tap on the shoulder will swing your rider back around. The butter becomes a nice way to add a couple extra points to a slick run, but even with your balance stat maxed out it’s rather hard to pull off for any significant length of time. So far from unbalancing the game it adds a little something to the game, and gives you something to do when you’re cruising down a flat stretch of the mountain.

Not that you’re going to want to just la-di-da your frozen butt down the mountain, because looking good for your adoring public has never been more stylish. Amped 2 takes the idea of tweaked grabs to the next level with style points. These extra points are added when you do spin/flip/grab - slowly. It’s a real challenge to land a style laden "360 mute," and defiantly brings a sense of satisfaction to your face when done right. If you’re too greedy though, you’ll just eat snow. Hopefully it’s not yellow snow.

If you’re tough enough to step up for the challenge you’ll find Amped 2 is the first game to offer up the new and exciting sport of snow skating. Basically it’s a wheel-less skateboard with a short ski stapled on to the bottom. With this you can do kickflips and wicked one legged grinds. Oddly it’s somewhat of a tacked on feature: only available on certain runs on certain mountains, and online only in certain modes. I think it’s safe to say we’ll be seeing more of the snow skate in Amped 3.

For all your hard work you’re rewarded with a series of short videos of pros and sponsors talking about snowboarding. The videos are pretty good, but there are a lot artifacts and nasty Gamecube-ish compression problems. Many of the videos also feel like they were cut off early for space reasons. Finally, many of the early videos are just people talking... no snowboarding to be seen. In fact you’ve got to unlock a lot of stuff to see any decent amount of real snowboarding... which is very annoying given the amount of effort it takes to open them up.

Grainy videos aside, the graphics in Amped 2 are just as slick as the original. So much so that it’s hard to see the changes but they are there. Character models are now rendered in a healthy bit of detail, and clothing is bump mapped to the nth degree. Much to our joy this time around there is a very healthy selection of gear to deck your rider with right from the get go. So much so that I felt like calling the Queer Eye guys for some fashion tips. Strangely however numerous the options are you can’t do something as simple as choose what t-shirt goes under the half zipped hoodie you want to wear.

Most distressing is the lack of any snowboard customization. While there is a very big list of boards to choose from you can’t for example; pick the face from one board and the back of another. Forget adding stickers to the board because it’s just not going to happen this time around. Nor can you choose your own bindings. In fact the customization options all around feel very weak. If the series is to grow then it really needs to take a page from THPS, and open up things to users ala "create-a-whatchamacallit."

Of course bump-mapped baggy pants aside the real star of the show is the mountains. Not every mountain is alike. Each expansive snow covered behemoth a character in its own right. They range from snow parks, realistic resorts to sheer cliff dropping "by chopper only" backcountry. The detail and draw distance at every location is simply amazing, and something SSX3 just can’t touch. Those of you with HDTVs will enjoy 720p support! Jaw dropping. Simply jaw dropping. Yes, it does take a fair amount of work to unlock each mountain, but it’s worth it. Once you hit New Zealand and see for your own eyes the huge drops and complete lack of manufactured ramps or rails... you’ll understand why they filmed the Lord of the Rings over there!

Not that you’ll be falling off the sides of mountains in silence. Nope. The game packs in over 300 songs. That’s right, three hundred! Sure they’re all "indie" but that doesn’t mean there aren’t some real gems. Of course if you wish you can use your own soundtracks. Amped 2 deserves praise for the wonderful use of the white and black buttons for navigating the songs. No pausing, opening up a menu, selecting a song and then backtracking to the game. Although, if you have surround sound set up you might just want to turn off the music and sit back and enjoy the crisp sounds of snow upon snowboard. Sounds echo and twist realistically, and you’ll hear the snowmen (back with a vengeance) taunting you from afar. Amped 2 is such a beauty to behold for the ears that one can only be giddy about the prospects for the upcoming Project Gotham Racing 2.

Like the soon to be racing champ Amped 2 features seamless integration of Xbox Live play. Seamless means that signing on is transparent and playing online feels just like playing alone. There was no lag to be found, even on my sorry ass connection. The "Just Ride" option is a nice break from the competition heavy games that make up 99% of the Live library. Although some people do take it pretty seriously, these are the same people who hit 300,000 points in the first minute... so it’s best to ignore them and enjoy yourself.

While it’s not as rigidly realistic as it was last year, Amped 2 is definitely more realistic than SSX3 could ever hope to be. For some of you this is just what you were looking for. Others may wish to stick with SSX3 because Amped 2 doesn’t reward your hard work with fireworks. Instead your painstaking efforts will be rewarded with the silent satisfaction that must come to a real snowboarder... only without the broken bones and horrible life altering scars. In the end I find that I can whole heartedly recommend Amped 2 to any "extreme sports" fans that found themselves turned off by SSX3’s "over the top"-ness. And for you SSX3 fans I say "come on. Come on. come on. Ehh?"

· · · Zondaro