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The right frequency
Sometimes the most basic games, although lacking extraordinary graphics or vast story lines, turn out to be real blockbusters. Did Tetris need a 256MB DDR graphic controller or did Pong offer thousands and thousands of lines of dialogue? After all it comes down to gameplay, and about two years ago a graphically very basic game, and worst of all a music game hit the PS2: Frequency. And, surprise - it was still successful.
In the homeland of Video Games – Japan - karaoke, dancing and music games were already popular for many a year but until recently – we witness an increasing interest in e.g. DDR games lately – there was no big money to be made in America or Europe with a music title.
Sony’s Frequency was the first title in this genre that had quite some impact on the market - partly thanks to the fact that no user singing was involved...
Controlling some sort of space ship racing down a tunnel that represents a song you unlocked the different instrumental and non-instrumental tracks of this song by means of hitting the right buttons at the right time, which would unlock the single notes of the track one by one and in the end would unlock each track and thereby the whole song. So far the theory....
The higher the level of difficult got, the harder it was hitting the buttons in the right pattern, and in time, to unlock each track. Only a handful of songs would keep you – and friends if you play against each other or together – busy for many hours. And yet after the last song was unlocked, the last track mastered and once they had every single pattern in their blood most people still continued to play.
And now the sequel...
Amplitude
In my opinion the name already gives away much: Amplitude. It perhaps didn’t get louder, but it got even better in most aspects. Besides obviously a big bundle of new great songs and a little tweaking here and there, Amplitude features some new ideas as well. The without doubt biggest and most exciting new feature is the Online capability – but more on this later.
A look at the new songs alone will make many music fans happy. Pink, Quarashi to name only a few of the artists that contributed over 20 songs should be a good excuse to go for the Frequency sequel.
The basics changed
In Frequency we had a tunnel; in Amplitude we have sort of a very broad half-pipe. While the feeling is totally different, now both the pros and the cons are more obvious. Having to watch only the horizon you will earlier make out interesting powerups and still locked tracks, with the downside that you won’t see them if they are on a track very far on the right or very far on the left of you. This also makes switching tracks quick – needed to keep up your so called “streak” a.k.a. making not a single mistake while unlocking tracks all the time, and hence getting a multiplier for your score – sometimes impossible because if you are on the right you have to go all the way back to the first track if you intend to continue there. Often you will have to wave goodbye to your multiplier not because your are too slow or made a mistake, but simply because there is no chance to get to the desired track in time.
New are also the powerups. Essentially the custom scratch tracks were removed and replaced by a special power up. Instead of using an additional track once you've unlocked all tracks of a song segment you now can collect a powerup called “Freestlye” and literally “take off” the main course and while flying above the other tracks you can scratch as much as you want for a limited time. Other powerups like the multiplier and the auto blaster are well known to experienced Frequency players. Noticeable is only the “SloMo” powerup – obviously short for slow motion – that slows down the music, making it way easier to unlock complex patterns.
Two powerups remain, but they are only available online. So let’s take Amplitude online and have a totally new experience...
Legal Online Music
Once you setup your network adapter and network configuration, you are set to go to take the PS2 online. Poor Europeans like us only since recently have access to the online world of the PS2 - but the competition (i.e. Xbox. - Editor) is doing even worse, still not online at this time. But don’t fear friends of the “little” black and green box the end of this month will see you “Live” online too.
In the different Amplitude lobbies you can then look for an already existing game or host one of your own. The choice of song, level of difficult and density of powerups is up to the hoster after all.
Once you've found 1 to 3 co-players the online battle will start. The main idea is still the same – unlock tracks to gain points. Only this time others will try to do this first, and gain more points than you while at this. Things get complicated once you leave your starting track (after unlocking it for example). If another player is on the track you can do nothing; you will be behind him and won't be able to unlock any notes. But we still have the powerups. Two mean little bastard are available only online and they will help you driving your opponents nuts (and they will try the same on you). The Crippler is the more harmless of the two. If deployed behind an enemy his track will start to rumble like after an earthquake, wave after wave rippling through the track making it extremely difficult to hit the notes correctly. Even meaner is the Bumper. And really simple to describe: it kicks your opponent off track. Want to have the track your opponent is on? Move behind him, deploy the Bumper and watch him fly. Still not mean enough? Well think of the basic powerups. Imagine the following situation. You are behind your opponent, he almost finished a REALLY hard track but you happen to have an AutoBlaster in your inventory. The press of a button, a crying opponent.... life is only really good if you can be mean in a game :-) .
Conclusion:
A simple game but with a lot of Gameplay. I personally don’t like the new layout of the tracks, but the new music and even more important the great Online battles make Amplitude a must have addition to every collection containing Frequency.
