Got the fever to trick out a snowboard run down a pristine mountain? Think you can do an invert-360 while some clown yells about your lack of skill?

Then maybe you should snap on a board and hit the slopes with Microsoft’s Amped for the Xbox. It’s about amplitude and what you do with it; it’s about carving through powder, hitting jumps, riding rails and spraying snow in the face of those watching too closely; it’s about excellent graphics, sterling sound and challenges. Oh, and it’s about fun.

This game is essentially about freestyle snowboarding and scoring points. In that regard, the program has depth of play, and a nice progression of events. At its simplest, you pick a snowboarder from a list of 12 pros to act as your avatar. Then, depending on your ability, you pick a slope and carve down it, hitting the hills and throwing as many tricks as you can. The difficulty of the trick determines the points awarded for a successful landing. Mess up the landing, and you will see the points you would have scored cast in ice across the bottom of the screen.

There are various apparatus scattered along the route, which will enable you to pull some special tricks, like sliding a rail. Media types dot the course and will holler at you to come their way and throw a trick. If you do an impressive enough one, you will be rewarded. If you fail, you will be ridiculed.

Become a consistently high scorer, beat the media scores and sponsors will come looking for you, and you will become entered in the sponsor challenge portion of the program. Do well there, and pros will challenge you to a little one-against-one competition. There is also an "explore" challenge, where you carve down a slope, looking for the eight snowmen scattered throughout the course. Take them out to win this challenge.

When it comes to the features in this game, it is the epitome of ‘going huge.’ The game allows players to pull more than 1,000 tricks with 100 different ways of coming down a mountain. The terrain his more than 1,500 jumps and rails to use. The soundtrack, which can be customized between six musical styles, has 150 Indie music tracks.

At first glance, the controls seem to have been designed for ease of use. But when it comes to actually performing the tricks, it quickly becomes apparent that there is a learning curve here. This game utilizes all the controls, including both thumbsticks, in performing the wide range of tricks.

Graphically this game is a delight. The snow reflects runs through it; the boarder animation is excellent. If it falls down in any areas, it occurs in minor clipping problems with the board, and the way it will be cut it two at a 45-degree angle as the nose sinks into the snow when standing still. It resembles more of a clipping problem than realistic obscuring by the snow. The environmental graphics are simply superb.

The sound track is exceptional. The music is solid, the vocal abuse is crisp, and the sound effects are exactly what one would expect to hear.

This program is rated for Everyone.

Amped is a tricked-out thrill ride, offering challenge and visual, as well as audio, delight.

Gameplay: 8.8
The player interface is user friendly, and once you launch a run, aside from operator error that will stall the boarder, this is a fast-paced, well-conceived program.

Graphics: 9
Once you get sponsored you will begin to receive gear that will separate you from the rookies on the slope. The animations are excellent; the mountain slopes are very well designed. Even the snow has some texture and does not look like a blank white plain.

Sound: 9.5
All the ridicule over beginner ineptitude aside, this program features one of the best soundtracks of any game released on any platform.

Difficulty: 8.5
This game has a learning curve of about 15-20 minutes before you will begin to feel comfortable with the controls.

Concept: 8.5
Boarding (whether on snow or hard surface) is not a new genre to platform gaming. However, when you combine it with the options that Amped features, you have a game that has separated itself from the field.

Multiplayer: 8
This program supports up to four players in a round-based match. While this doesn’t have quite the depth of the single player game ­ in terms of moving up the ranks ­ it still is fun to see if you can out-trick your boarding buddies.

Overall: 8.9
While the concept of the game is rather simplistic, Microsoft has loaded it with other elements ­ like the 150-song score ­ to boost this program. Graphically it is excellent and the program is quite challenging.