This product is like new. At NexWave Games, like new means:
Additionally, all discs at NexWave Games are carefully inspected and assessed for quality. When discs arrive, we do not accept any that are so badly damaged that they are unlikely to work. We only accept discs with light scratches at most. Discs with scratches are then treated in our professional disc repair machine. By warming the disc and polishing it with soft brushes, these machines can remove a very thin layer from the disc. This removes the layer containing surface scratches and improves the disc’s readability. This ensures the disc works properly, even on consoles with ageing lasers that have difficulty reading games! Great news for the player.
Amped 2 for Xbox Original
Amped 2 for the Xbox Original is a snowboarding game in which you develop your own rider on mountains with different jumps, rails and descents. You find a line through the snow and build points with spins, grabs and slides over obstacles. In the career, you attract sponsors and photographers. Reaching an endpoint is therefore not all that matters: where you perform a trick and how convincingly you land also count.
The Style system rewards controlled, flowing movements. Pushing the stick fully to one side therefore does not automatically give you the best execution. Butters connect tricks over the snow into longer combinations, while rails require balance. Besides a regular snowboard, you can use a snowskate without bindings, with its own moves and different requirements during flips. Locations such as Laax and Mt. Buller give you room to retry routes and adjust your approach.
You play the career alone. In Just Ride and Session, two players can ride simultaneously on one Xbox in split screen, each with their own controller. That does not mean four simultaneous riders on one console. This is 2003’s Amped 2 for the original Xbox, not Amped 3 for Xbox 360. The official Xbox Live service for original Xbox games stopped on 15 April 2010; old online matches, rankings and downloads are not promised as working services.
Region and language
Our Xbox Original games are PAL editions and come with a Dutch or English box, unless stated otherwise. By default, you receive the version for the European market. We note it in the product details if the region is different or the box is in another language. In almost all cases, the game is playable at least in English, and often in the other five common European languages too.
Manual
Amped 2 for Xbox Original includes the manual unless the product title states otherwise. If the booklet is missing, the title says “No Manual”. This lets you see before ordering whether the game comes with a manual.
The manuals included with our games usually contain at least English and often around six European languages. The exact languages vary by edition, so Dutch is not always included. The booklet explains the controls and the main rules. You can use it to check how to control the game, which actions are available and how its different features work.
The history of Amped 2
Microsoft Game Studios released Amped 2 for Xbox in 2003. The Salt Lake City team built on Amped: Freestyle Snowboarding, part of the early Xbox generation. The developers had already collected sequel ideas during the first project. In a March 2003 developer interview, they described greater career depth and better animations among their aims. The goal was not just adding mountains, but also changing how a rider built a reputation.
The media challenges therefore took different forms. You could pose for a photograph, fill a sequence of shots or put together a demonstration reel. That reflected the role of magazines and snowboarding videos within the sport. Choosing real locations, including Laax in Switzerland, supported that approach. The new combination system also made linking individual tricks more important. The sporting presentation and point scoring thus came closer together than in a simple downhill race.
Amped 2 was also part of Microsoft’s XSN Sports plans, in which online matches and rankings connected sports games. That is now historical context, not a current service. The series later continued under another publisher with Amped 3 on Xbox 360. That sequel changed the presentation and belongs to a different console version. Within the original Xbox series, Amped 2 remains the instalment that expanded snowboarding with Style, longer combinations, snowskates and more attention to photographers and sponsors.
Similar games for Xbox Original
Amped: Freestyle Snowboarding also lets you build a career through tricks and sponsor attention on Xbox Original. Amped 2 expands that foundation with butters for longer combinations, the Style system and snowskates. Both focus on finding lines on real mountains. The sequel more often asks for controlled execution and different media challenges, rather than simply repeating the same tricks on new descents.
SSX 3 connects races, trick competitions and free riding on one huge mountain on Xbox Original. Amped 2 spreads its career across different real snowboarding locations and gives photographers and sponsors central roles. Both reward discovering routes and linking tricks. SSX 3 adds exaggerated jumps and fast races; Amped 2 pursues a different kind of scoring through flowing movements and controlled landings.
SSX Tricky uses striking courses and impossible Uber tricks to make snowboarding spectacular on Xbox Original. Tricks also provide fuel for extra speed. Amped 2 focuses more on lines through mountain areas and the way you perform a movement. Both give grabs and spins plenty of room, but in Amped 2, a calm, controlled jump can be especially valuable because of Style points.
Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater 4 gives you free-roaming skate areas on Xbox Original in which you choose challenges and connect tricks into combinations. Amped 2 also asks you to read obstacles and maintain balance. The terrain differs: snow and slopes shape your snowboard’s movement, while Tony Hawk uses rails, streets and skateparks. Amped 2’s butters play a similar role in linking tricks to balancing movements on a skateboard.
Tony Hawk’s Underground, like Amped 2, lets you start with a custom athlete seeking fame on Xbox Original. Underground builds a continuous story around that and also lets you leave the board, run and climb. Amped 2 keeps its career closer to snowboarding, with challenges for sponsors and cameras. Both therefore follow a path towards recognition, but one uses a character-driven story and the other mainly mountain performances.
