Amplitude (2003 video game)

In Amplitude, the player controls a ship (referred to as a "Beat Blaster") moving down a path of varying shapes and lengths, containing up to six tracks. Each color-coded track corresponds to a different aspect of the song, such as percussion, synth, bass, or vocals, and contains a sequence of notes. As the player hits buttons corresponding to the note placement on the track, the notes activate a small portion of the track. If the player successfully activates enough notes in sequence, the track is "captured" and the section will play automatically for a number of bars, freeing the player to capture another section.

The object of the game is to capture a sufficient number of sections to reach the end of the song. If the player continually misses notes, an energy meter empties until the game is over.

There are several different powerups available to the player to make gameplay easier. Powerups are gained by activating a series of specially shaped and colored notes. Such powerups allow immediate capturing of tracks, doubling of points scored, slowing down the speed of play, and jumping into freestyle mode (which allows the player to riff to the music, gaining points without the difficulty of playing predefined tracks).

There are 26 songs in Amplitude, the majority of which are tracks by popular music artists, with genres ranging from electronica and dance to hip hop and alternative rock. Some of the tracks, however, were produced "in-house" specifically for Amplitude. Kasson Crooker, who served as the musical director for the game, contributed the songs "Cool Baby", "Synthesized", "Robot Rockerz" and "Spaztik", as well as "Super Sprøde" as performed by his band Freezepop.

The following is a list of artists who contributed songs to the game, with a corresponding song title, in order of gameplay. The fourth song in each section is a "boss" song while the fifth is an unlockable bonus song. "Spaztik" is unlockable only in the Insane difficulty.

Amplitude is the sequel to Harmonix's previous title, Frequency, released in 2001. Frequency was funded and published by Sony, and while not a commercial success, was considered by Harmonix's Ryan Lesser as the game that helped to give Harmonix a positive reputation in the game industry.[7] Sony funded and published the game's sequel.[7]

In making the sequel, the team considered lessons they learned from Frequency to make Amplitude more enjoyable. One aspect was the "tunnel" approach they used in Frequency; this was borne out from trying to create a cyberspace-like environment based on concepts from the movie Tron as to help create a synaesthesia for the player. However, on reflection, they found this tunnel to be limiting and claustrophobic; further, in testing an initial prototype for Amplitude, they found that when they left the tunnel, the experience of seeing the tunnel from the outside inspired the idea of vaster landscapes. The tunnel approach also limited an effective means for local multiplayer. This prompted the team to change from the tunnel to a spread-out track for Amplitude.[8] The flatter track enabled players to have a better concept of where they were on the instrument spread, though the decision was criticized by fans of FreQuency.

The second factor they considered was that both Frequency and Amplitude, published at a time where most video game coverage was based on print media, did not come off clearly in static screenshots. The screens appeared confusing and had little personality to them, according to Lesser. They came up with the idea of the "FreQ", an avatar that would be on-screen, performing with the music, as to help create some personality with the game; the FreQs would also help to emphasise the player-vs-player nature during multi-player.[8]

Amplitude sold more copies than its predecessor, Frequency, but it wasn't considered a financial success for Harmonix.[7] The game received "favorable" reviews according to the review aggregation website Metacritic.[9] GameSpot named it the best PlayStation 2 game of March 2003.[24]

The game won the award for "Best Game No One Played" in GameSpot's Best and Worst of 2003 Awards.[25] During the AIAS' 7th Annual Interactive Achievement Awards, Amplitude received nominations for "Console Family Game of the Year", "Outstanding Achievement in Game Design", and "Outstanding Achievement in Sound Design".[26]

A reboot of the game was released for PlayStation 4 in January 2016, and for PlayStation 3 in April 2016.[27]

• Harmonix website
• Amplitude (PlayStation 2) at MobyGames
• Amplitude (PlayStation 3, PlayStation 4) at MobyGames