The massive jumps, awesome graphics and the freedom to board almost anywhere thanks to the gigantic mountains means that Amped is a must for all snowboarding fans. Snuggle up on your nice warm sofa in front of your heater, and watch your character battle through temperatures in the negative in order to become a pro snowboarder. Bring the blood, bring the sweat, bring the tears, and you might just have a chance of becoming the number 1 snowboarder in the world.

Amped has everything that you'd expect in a well made snow boarding game. You're on a mountain and the first objectives you have to do are beat the high scores and impress the media. This may seem easy at first, but it gets very challenging very quickly. As you progress through those objectives, the "beat the pro” mode and "Sponsor” modes gradually become unlocked. These 2 modes are even more challenging, and they'll all be explained in more depth later on.

Once you get out there onto the mountain, you'll find that moving around on the ground is not terribly hard to do at all, because the developers tried to portray a realistic aspect to the game. You won't go soaring 10 metres in the air off tiny jumps. In fact, when you're in a half-pipe it's actually quite tough to increase your thrust. There's no meter when you're grinding down poles, logs, fences, chairlifts, and whatever else is available, which also adds to the realism of Amped. It means you can't just grind all the way down a mountain and gain some whopping score. With all of that said, Amped is probably one of the most realistic snowboarding games ever made.

Amped is HARD. I can not stress to you enough just how challenging this game is. If you decide to pick it up this winter, now that it's in the "Classics” title list, I suggest you purchase another controller in case you break your current one. But don't forget, along with the frustration comes pride when you finally become number 1 in the world. If you can just keep your wits about you, you'll be a megastar in no time at all. With 12 different snowboarders to choose from, you'll surely find one suitable for your requirements.

Amped only really has 2 modes of gameplay:

Career – Start as an amateur boarder, and work your way up to become the next big name in snowboarding! There's only 1 level of difficulty, and that's going to mess with your mind and suck you in until you become the number 1 snowboarder in the world.

Quick Start – This mode is more for your best High Scores mode. There are default high scores set, which aren't particularly hard to beat... But once your mates come around and start beating your scores, you may be more inclined to work on this mode a bit.

Amped also has a Replay Theatre mode, where you can watch your best runs (that you must have saved when you pulled them off!). You can also challenge the score that was achieved in that replay, just by selecting to challenge it in the Replay Theatre mode.

Amped is a very interactive game. You won't be able to go down the mountain without being told if you suck, or if you're "cool dude” by the photographers standing around the runs. The media will all be interested for you to show them your stuff, and the other snowboarders will spray you with snow if you get too close to them, blinding you from what's up ahead! Along with all that, there's the snowmen. This is sort of like the Easter egg of the game. On each mountain, there's 8 of them, and you have to look very hard to find them all. They're VERY well hidden, and you'll be struggling to find them all with or without a guide.

The graphics in Amped are brilliant. Without boasting the game, when I first looked at the screenshots for Amped, I said to myself, "That looks real..” and it does. Minus a few aspects to the graphics, Amped will delight any snowboarder. Amped also features over 1500 moves, which will surely give you a few ideas if you're heading to the snow this season. Just don't blame Microsoft when you break every bone in your body attempting a 60ft cliff drop.

The trees take a large part of the game in Amped, and from afar they look quite good, but if you get too close to them, you can see how they are just like any other tree in a game of 2002. After you're done scaling a mountain, for some reason when it cuts to the scores screen, the background pixels get all messed up. I have no idea why they did it, but it's very off putting considering how good the graphics are when you're screaming down the mountain.

It would be impossible to dislike the music that is given to you when you find yourself a copy of Amped. You can select from 6 different styles of music, you can turn them all off, or turn them all on, or have some off and some on! The different styles include: Electronic, Emo, Hip Hop / Rap, Punk, Rock and Ska / Reggae / Surf Rock. Of course, you're not going to hear your favourite song, (Although I'm not ruling out that possibility, especially if you like indie music.)

So if there's not enough noise for you with over 200 tracks, you can rip your own music onto the Xbox and have it pumpin' as you cruise down those mountains, or even as you select what clothes to wear in the gear shop. Also, the clear button, or the white button if you want to call it that, is dedicated entirely to changing the current song that's on. Even when you're in the main menu, you can still change it using that one button.

The multiplayer is a bit of a downer in Amped, as you can't have 2 people on the mountain at the same time. You go down, get a high score etc, then your mate goes down and tries to beat it. Amped is still a 4-player game though, but don't let that fool you, you all have to take your turns. This can be fun however, because watching your mate go snowboarding and bagging him every time he stuffs up can prove to make the game more fun and challenging! What's a good knock of your mate's elbow going to do? ;-)