If you're lucky enough to have been snowboarding, you'll know that the first couple of days strapped to a plank can be painfully frustrating. And then, suddenly, like a dislocated knee it all clicks into place.
Amped is without doubt one of the best extreme sports titles yet to grace a mobile phone, but like the real-life pastime it represents, your introduction to the game can make you feel like your able mind has little control over your floundering limbs.
The controls you see, while very nicely applied to a numeric pad, require a certain deftness of touch most likely familiar to pianists, or those who solder microcircuits, meaning often the messages from head to hand get a little confused as you carve through the virtual piste.
The pleasure in playing any game of course comes from overcoming challenges, and when you finally develop a delicacy as light on the keys as a typist, you really are in for a treat.
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It's rare that mobile releases feel like the 'fully-fledged' gaming experiences of home consoles, but Amped breaks that rule. It is stunning to look at, proving the worth of visual design alongside graphical power, and throughout it is very well put together and constantly defined by tidy production values. |