Amped: Freestyle Snowboarding is an entirely new approach to the tired racing genre that snowboarding games have been accustomed too. With other racers, like SSX for example, you battle against 5 other people down a racecourse to the finish. While that is fun, it doesn’t truly capture the feeling of going to a resort and actually snowboarding. That’s where Amped comes in. In Amped, you actually go to real resorts in California, Vermont, and Utah. Every single run (totaling approximately 120 runs) is in the game. Here’s the really cool part. You don’t select your course in a menu screen either. Rather, you start at the top of the mountain, and choose what run you want as you go along. I don’t know about you people, but that’s what I call true snowboarding. The visuals are nothing less than breathtaking. A lot of people were concerned after that “concept art” photo of Amped was released during the time of Gamestock. However, rest assured that the game now looks even better than the supposed “touched-up” shot. Some people just like to nit-pick at nothing, ya know?

The way you board isn’t the only innovation to this upcoming killer. The concept behind the game isn’t your standard snowboard affair either. Instead of racing against others in a series of races to the championship, there is in fact no racing at all. There might be though, unofficially. While cruising down the slopes, you’ll encounter other boarders like yourself doing pretty much what snowboarders do on a run. Among these many other riders on the hill are people with cameras, this is where the goal of the game comes into play.

You aren’t competing for a place in a race. No my friend, you are aiming as something much grander than a simple victory. You are attempting to gain enough exposure to appear on magazines, have sponsors, and generally be an all around stud in the snowboarding realm. You gain this exposure by collecting enough points to advance up and up the scale. By doing fancy tricks and flashy moves in eyesight of the people with the cannons, you raise your points. The more people see you, the more word gets around that there is a new sheriff in town. Pretty cool huh?

One thing most closely related to snowboard games generally is the music. This is where Amped literally kicks the crap out of everything else. On current snowboarders, the music is good enough. Upbeat, catchy, and fits with the theme generally well. The only problem is there just isn’t enough music? For instance, SSX had a whopping 5 or 6 in-race songs, and 1080 had 3. I’m sorry, but that will and does get repetitive very, very quickly. Amped though, has a monstrous 150 tracks in the game, and no, I am not making that up. That amount of music is enough to keep any boarder more than happy, but Microsoft didn’t stop there. Using the new CD-ripping feature on the Xbox, if you don’t like the music on offer, add your own. Yes, now you can grind, shred, and bail to the likes of Rage Against The Machine, Tool, or even DMX. Anything you want is totally fair game. Does that kick ass, or does that kick much ass?

All of this though, means nothing if the game is impossible to control, which is why I hate these previews where I have no hands-on experience with the game. However, I am told that the controls are tight, and very easy to control. As with anything new, the game will take some getting used to, but very minimal I understand. Also, the replay value on this thing is utter genius. With all those runs, and complete freedom (no invisible walls here people) to roam anywhere, basically, there is no limit to your range. If you see it, you can shred it, so every time you go down the slopes is a different experience. One word: awesome.