PS4's Amplitude stays gloriously true to the spirit of the original

Rock that beat

Ever have one of those conversations with a friend about remakes? The one that always starts with, "Bro, they should remake [insert favorite old game here] on [preferred system], dude"? It seems lots of Amplitude fans had those exact thoughts, because the Amplitude Kickstarter was fully funded back in May, and the project is in full swing.

Fans of the classic future-rhythm gameplay won't find any frills here, just more of what made the original game a classic. The core gameplay is similar to the scrolling beat-matching in Guitar Hero or Just Dance. But rather than simply imitating in the notes, you're using a blaster (a music-powered ship) to choose a track and add the musical phrase to the melody. Once you complete a phrase, you switch from one track to the next to keep the music flowing and maintain your combo multiplier.

Each lane corresponds to a different piece of the track. You decide when to drop in the baseline or the high hats, allowing you to customize the music on the fly as you build the song piece by piece. You've got 20 songs to choose from, and the co-op for the original PS2 game is back, now with up to four players.

For more info and images, check out the following slides

As you progress through a song, you'll get powerups.

Some powerups clear the notes for you, slow time, or distract your opponents.