Operation Sports:

Shreddin’ with Style

By Shawn Drotar

Winter’s upon us, and with snowfall comes the excitement and anticipation of a day on the slopes. Amped® 2 provides Xbox gamers with all the thrills and spills of real snowboarding for less than the cost of most lift tickets—and definitely less than a trip to the mountainside hospital!

Amped 2 improves upon its predecessor in every way and brings the most realistic and addictive winter sports game to your Xbox. With stunningly rendered mountains and slopes modeled from real resorts, Amped 2 will have you thinking and acting like a professional snowboarder. Speaking of which, there are 14 pros in the game, including stars like Bobby Meeks, Seth Huot, Jeremy Jones, and Torah Bright. These pro shredders are available as playable characters, and during your career (more on that in a bit), you’ll see many of them turn up from time to time.

The controls are simple and intuitive—even for the beginner. Your face buttons will control your ollies (jumps to you two-plankers), rail slides, and lip tricks. The left thumbstick will control not only your movements on the snow, but also your spins and flips above it. The right thumbstick controls your mid-air grabs, and the combination of the two sticks makes it easy to pull off even the sickest of tricks. It’s a well-designed system that translates the feel of snowboarding to the Xbox controller very well. Trust me; it’s not as hard as it sounds. Take a spin through the helpful Tutorial mode, and you’ll be ready to shred in no time.

Xbox-style winter sports!

The heart of Amped 2 is its robust Career mode, and it’s likely where you’ll spend the majority of your offline playing time. The first step is to create your own digital alter ego. With thousands of possible combinations to choose from, you can make your ‘boarder look just like you or as outrageous as you can imagine. You can choose your ride from a wide selection of real boards from Burton, K2, and more. When you’re happy with your creation, it’s time to hit the slopes!

You’ll pick a starting mountain, and from there, your long climb to the top of the snowboarding world begins. There are different runs on each mountain, and each will offer you different opportunities and challenges. There are many varied (and fun) challenges in Amped 2, and meeting them will improve both your rider’s abilities and standing in the professional ranks.

The obvious first challenges are the High Score and Media Score, and there are three tiers in each. The High Score is exactly what you’d expect: Perform as many tricks as you can, and watch the numbers pile up. The Media Score, however, takes a different approach. Photographers are spread across the mountain, usually near a large kicker or rail where you’ll have the opportunity to pull off an especially impressive trick. The tricks you perform in front of these photographers determine your Media Score. As you play, new challenges are unlocked. Sponsor Events will test specific skills to impress potential sponsors for your career. Perform tricks they like, and you’ll continue to climb up the ranks. Photo Shoots provide a chance for some magazine exposure. They’ll give you a line. Look good on it, and you’ll find yourself on the cover! As you improve, you may grab the attention of one of the 14 pros in Amped 2. If he takes a shine to you, he’ll invite you to ride with him in the Pro challenge. If you can follow his line and outscore his tricks, your reputation is sure to grow—along with your skills.

Can you cut it?

When you get good enough, Event challenges may become open to you. This is the big time. You’ll compete with other pros in a head-to-head competition. If you can win it, you’ll take the next big step up the career ladder. Now that you’ve played all of these, you think you know this hill, right? Then prove it. Own the Mountain provides a non-linear challenge that will encourage you to explore the amazing mountains of Amped 2. Find five gaps to jump, finish the five unique tricks, and knock down the eight pesky (and often hard-to-find) snowmen, and you’ve done it! Only six more mountains to go …

Career mode is both challenging and satisfying, and it’ll provide hours upon hours of fun—but it also adds one more perk. If you have Xbox Live (and if you don’t, you should!), you can take your ‘boarder online and bring all of your new skills to bear against the best shredders on the planet—other Xbox gamers!

You’d better hurry, too because they’re only improving as you sit around reading this. So what are you waiting for? Pick up Amped 2 today, and I’ll see you on the slopes!