2/25/2007: Xbox 360: Amped 3, Kameo, Table Tennis

[VideoGameCritic]

Wow - three C's!  That may be a first.  Please comment on these reviews.

[Adamant1]

Actually having played all three games, I think you nailed them fairly well. Amped has a horribly bizarre setup, and I felt myself constantly longing for some sort of menu I could actually understand.
Kameo is just generic and unspectacular, and shows perfectly how Rare has fallen. Why they Nintendo fanboys out there constantly moan about how the evil Microsoft stole the reincarnation of Jesus from Nintendo (or whatever they're babbling about) is beyond me - sure, they probably haven't tried Rare's Xbox games (the console they're on suck because it doesn't say Nintendo on it, you know), but their Starfox game for the GC was just as dull as this thing, and they all definitly tried that. Ah well, fanboy mentality.
As for Table Tennis, while it's certainly not the first game in it's genre, no matter how much praise Rockstar get for creating the first-ever table tennis game, there's a reason for the sport not being overrepresented in video game form - it's not suited for it, and all the bells and whistles Rockstar throws into this disc doesn't change this fact. It's good for a table tennis game, sure, but most people would rather play something that's not a table tennis game in the first place. If some other company had developed this game, it wouldn't have gotten nearly as much attention.

[Linkdude]

Whew Critic, you are right about these three games. They are really that bad, in which Table Tennis looks great but doesn't play great. Kameo is overrated completely, it's just one of those games you could say "Blah". Amped 3 I've heard about and it sounds like a SSX ripoff.

[bluemonkey1]

You have got to be kidding me.

 

First of all to the previous poster Amped 3 plays nothing like SSX because SSX sucks and Amped 3 is great.  As a massive fan of the hardcore Ampeds I was worried about this change of style but it nails it.

 

Anyone on to the VGC's review.  First of all how hard is it to find the 2 player challenges?  They have a symbol with 2 people on it!  I could work that out on a standard def screen.  And when you click on it it brings up a description for each event.  Click on it again and it takes you to the nearest drop point and provides a pretty rainbow pointing to the location.  They have made an open ended game as idiot proof as well.  Considering EVERYONE who has played this game always mentions how they managed to blast throught it really quickly (check any 360 forum to verify this) I really don't get the gripes here.  I really didn't find the inventive, hilarious and varied cutscenes immature.  And nothing has ever felt as much of a reward for finishing a game as the grand musical finale.  My personal favourites were the ending, the Yeti hunter (this guy should have a show) and the Ski Patrol ones.  I'd say the graphics were pretty good given that the 360 renders the entire mountain in one go when selecting the challenges.  Zooming in and out and moving around demonstrates what a huge amoutn of stuff is being rendered.  Also the Amped games have never had racing in them because racing really doesn't feature prominantly in the snowboarding scene so I am not sure why this is a surprise.  They aren't really mini games as the bulk of the game is made up by the varied challenges.

 

The game should be lauded for changing up the snowboarding game style.  This is an example of one of the most innovative things of the next generation.  Where else do you have levels where you have to avoid the snow sharks to reach the evil geniuses zepelin.  The game really feels like it is made with love.  Even the loading screens and menus are made interesting with amazing graphics and fun little amusing posters. 

 

Never had a problem with collision detection in the game so don't know what you are on about here (though I have only played it for 12 hours or so).

 

This is by far the most off base review I have seen.

[Dennis]

I haven't played Table Tennis, but if there ever was a game that falls into the "why not just play the real thing?" category, I think this would be it. 

Many people have tables, and the real game is so much fun I can't imagine how playing a game would be better.  It's not like Madden or Guitar Hero, where the game allows you to do things you can't actually do in real life.

[Michael Danehy]

[QUOTE=Dennis]

I haven't played Table Tennis, but if there ever was a game that falls into the "why not just play the real thing?" category, I think this would be it. 

Many people have tables, and the real game is so much fun I can't imagine how playing a game would be better.  It's not like Madden or Guitar Hero, where the game allows you to do things you can't actually do in real life.[/QUOTE]

 

I feel the same way about bowling games. Utterly pointless.