Amplitude

Amplitude Description

Follow up to last year's musical extravaganza Frequency, Amplitude continues in the same vein, offering the bizarre-yet-brilliantly-innovative concept of live song remixing, via what can only be described as a racing game interface (or possibly roller coaster) and fattening it up with a host of extras, additions and new features. The game sees players take on the role of a DJ travelling through cyberspace on a mission to guide their beat blaster ship through each song/level, playing some funky beats along the way. The main idea is to race through the level blasting note capsules, which in turn release the music within and energise the ship. One of the key aspects in a game such as this is obviously the accompanying music. Throughout the game's 20+ levels, there's a massive selection of tunes from major recording artists to mix/remix, including music from the likes of Garbage, Pink, Bowie, Blink 182, and emo/geek rock legends Weezer. The most notable addition to Amplitude's feature set has got to be its online support. Anyone in possession of Sony's network adapter can hook up to the net and compete with up to three other players in head-to-head matches. Players can also challenge the online community to play their custom remixes, as well as make use of an assortment of other online features, such as full chat support, ladder rankings, remix uploads and friends and song search. One particular interesting aspect to the online functionality enables remix repositories to be playable online, where artists can choose the best track created and then do their own remix online for people to play. All in all, Amplitude is an original and innovative concept that brings a welcome addition to the small yet popular music utility/bemani genre. The inclusion of online support means that there's plenty of replay value, as well as the opportunity to join a worldwide community of fellow fans. Bonus!