Editor’s Note: In the wake of Rock Band 2, and with GH: World Tour just around the corner, now is a perfect time pay homage to one of Harmonix’ first titles, the ambitious “Amplitude” for PS2.
Nowadays, games like “Guitar Hero” rule the music gaming scene but, believe it or not, Harmonix had another amazingly addictive title before that behemoth franchise. The name of the game is Amplitude, and I’m here to bring you back to its glory days. Well, perhaps glory isn’t quite the right term. Amplitude never experienced great commercial success, but it deserved it!
Amplitude features the “notes on a track” gameplay most gamers have grown familiar with. Sure, there are only three buttons, and you use the standard controller (L1 for the left note, R1 for the center note, and R2 for the right note), but Amplitude definitely serves as enough of a challenge for even the most adept rhythm gamers. Each song contains roughly 5 different tracks. Yes, you read that right, there are 5. One for Drums, Guitar, Bass, Synthesizer, and Vocals respectively.
You must go from track to track, hitting phrases (a few notes in a row, much like star power) so you can activate tracks, then move to the next without breaking your streak to earn up to an 8 times score multiplier. The more notes in a phrase, and the faster the songs play, the more intense the experience becomes.
Every time you hit a note, a sound is released (again like “Guitar Hero”) but since you can activate different tracks at any time you desire, you can really make the songs sound groovy. Of course, if you are not that coordinated, you could always remix any song in the game to your liking. Amplitude comes with an easy-to-use, and easy-to-get-lost-in-for-hours Remix mode. Meaning, you can put any progression of preset sounds on any track you want at any time you want (unlike “Guitar Hero”). The ability to remix as many times as you like can make up for the fact that the game only includes a now dismal 25 songs. Even though there are few, there is a great variety of songs, so practically everyone will enjoy the set list.
Amplitude also features Multiplayer modes like Duel, (Horse with notes) Versus, (score duel) and you can even fire up the Remix mode together, with up to 4 players for every mode. It even had online play for cryin’ out loud! Unfortunately, the US servers were shut down so unless you play in Europe, you won’t be seeing any online action nowadays.
Verdict: If you can find it, Buy it. Do yourself a favor, you music nerds!
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