Amplitude Brings the Beat Back on 5th January

Sound of the underground

by Sammy Barker Thu 3rd Dec 2015

Cult PlayStation 2 classic Amplitude will finally return in rebooted form on the PlayStation 4 this 5th January. You may recall Harmonix crowd funding this revival – well, it's finally ready for release. The title will include "high-fidelity visuals, new songs, and a sci-fi narrative" all set to the title's trance-inducing lane switching gameplay loop.

"Amplitude features a single player campaign along with competitive and cooperative local multiplayer modes," explained publishing associate Nick Murdy on the PlayStation Blog. "The campaign is presented in the form of a sci-fi concept album with a narrative that surfaces through the game's visuals, music, and lyrics." As they'd say in Bloodborne: reeks of pretentiousness.

The title will feature a full 30 songs, including some from Insomniac Games, Minecraft, and Harmonix's in-house composers. Fortunately, there's no P.O.D. this time, so you can rest easy. There's a brand new trailer embedded below showing off all of the release's modes. The game will beat $19.99 out of your wallet, so you may want to start saving now.

[source blog.us.playstation.com]

As the Editor of Push Square, Sammy has over 15 years of experience analysing the world of PlayStation, from PS3 through PS5 and everything in between. He’s an expert on PS Studios and industry matters, as well as sports games and simulators. He also enjoys RPGs when he has the time to dedicate to them, and is a bit of a gacha whale.

1
Quintumply
Thu 3rd Dec 2015

This is relevant to my interests.

2
Melucine
Thu 3rd Dec 2015

It smells like a Plus game!

3
ztpayne7
Thu 3rd Dec 2015

As someone who plays rock band regularly, I can't understand why this is appealing. But for those who enjoy the series, I'm glad it's coming out soon!

One thing I read that the article didn't point out is that those who paid 40+ in the Kickstarter get the game early. I think it was on December 23rd.

4
get2sammyb
Thu 3rd Dec 2015

@ztpayne7 Yeah, that's correct. As for why this series is popular, it's just fun. Imagine playing all of the instruments in Rock Band at once. That's essentially what you're doing here.

5
Quintumply
Thu 3rd Dec 2015

@ztpayne7 For me, rhythm games in this style are great because it's far more arcadey and there's a little bit more to think about. Rather than just playing the guitar track, say, in Amplitude/Frequency you're constantly shifting between tracks. So it starts off with next to no audio, and then as you fill in the blanks by playing the drums, the bass line, the vocals etc, it layers the music up and by the end it's playing the whole song. It's a very satisfying game to play and get better at, similar to Rock Band/GH.

These games have also always been great to look at as well as listen to, with lots of trippy visuals that evolve as the music does. It also throws in power ups, like one that lets you clear a track if you find it tricky, or score multipliers, ones that trigger slow-mo to make hitting notes easier, you get the idea.

Don't get me wrong, I love Rock Band too, but these alternative rhythm games definitely have their place. Frequency and Gitaroo Man are two of my favourite PS2 games, and I'm glad that Harmonix has been able to bring Amplitude back because it's a fun series that deserves more love.