Amplitude follows the nearly exact same gameplay model as the original Frequency. You start the game by designing your "FreQ", which is basically an avatar that represents you during the game. Your FreQ can be tricked out with all sorts of clothing designs, facial features and even headgear. Once you've saved your FreQ, you jump right into the action.

In Amplitude, you pilot a Beat Blaster, a ship used to blast away at the musical notes appearing in the tracks. The whole goal of the game is to destroy the musical notes in proper sequence so that you can complete a track. Each track is associated with beats of a particular mixing instrument; be it synth, bass, drums or guitar. Combined, the tracks make up a remix of a popular song by artists such as Pink, Quarashi and Garbage. After you blow away all the beats on one track, you'll have to jump over to another track and continue blasting. Certain beats function as power-ups, so if you destroy all those beats in sequence and end their track, you will pick up one of the many Beat Blaster power-ups. The basic power up wipes a track completely, while later power ups allow you to "go freestyle", jumping off of all the tracks and just mixing music at whim. The power-ups change depending upon the game's difficulty level and whether you're in single or multi-player mode.

In single player mode, you race through different levels trying to defeat all the tracks and finish all the songs. Each level ends with a "Boss" song, one far more rhythmically challenging than the ones before it. While it seems odd to have a Boss element in a game like this, it actually makes it really fun and introduces you to some tunes you may not have heard before. While single player is fun, multiplayer, especially online, is where Amplitude really shines.

The multiplayer mode allows you and up to three friends to play against one another on one screen. There's no need for split-screen mode since Harmonix has cleverly designed the game so that you're all together on the same level competing for tracks. No more than one player at a time can be on a particular track, which means plenty of frenzied jockeying for position, which makes Amplitude a blast to play as a party game. There's also a Duel Mode, which works kind of like the basketball game of "Horse". One player sets up a track by laying down beats, and his opponent must then blast them away in the proper sequence. If your opponent succeeds, he gets one letter from the word "Amplitude", if he fails; the letter goes to you. Spell the whole word to win the game, it's that simple.

Online play in Frequency is probably the main reason you should consider this game. It's incredibly fun and amazingly addictive. To play online, you'll need the PS2 Network Adapter and an Internet connection. Unlike Auto Modellista, which only allowed broadband players to play online, Amplitude is more than accommodating to 56k modem users. Due to the admittedly low-grade graphics, there's not a lot of data to be sent over the network connection, which means even modem users can enjoy a relatively lag-free game. The online game format for Amplitude follows that of the basic multiplayer mode, except of course, it's online. Once you sign into the well-designed lobby system, you can hook up with other players to fire up a game or just chat. Chatting is done through a USB keyboard or the on-screen virtual keyboard. I can't stress how useful a keyboard is if you're going to take your PS2 online.

There's an online ranking system in Amplitude, which allows you to quickly see the caliber of player you're up against and decide if you dare challenge them. The game lobbies are designed to show you all the details of the game at a glance, including the difficulty setting of the tracks (I'm too rhythmically-challenged to take on an "Insane" level yet), the number of players, and the players' connection speeds. Don't want to play against modem users? Well, you can simply scroll through the list and choose a broadband only game.No muss, no fuss.

One last item I can't forget to mention is the ability to upload/download remixes you and other players make. There's a Remix mode in Amplitude which allows you to take the built-in tracks and throw your own bass lines, drumbeats and guitar licks on top of them, forming almost completely new songs. While this mode is pretty fun, the best part is sharing your new mixes with other players online. Make sure you have a fresh memory card in your PS2 though, as all these mixes have to be saved somewhere. Thankfully, you're only saving the beats you've added to a title, not the whole song, so remixes don't take up excessive amounts of memory.

In Amplitude, the music is the focus of the game, and this is reflected in the pretty low-quality graphics within the game. The tracks are flat, the notes are geometric blocks, and the Beat Blaster lacks any detail. The only real high point in the graphics is the backgrounds and environments themselves, which are as bright and colorful as a Teletubbies episode show during a Grateful Dead concert. Most of the levels border on psychedelic, which works well to convey the overall hipness factor of the game. Let's be honest though, you're not going to pick up Amplitude for the graphics, it's all about the tunes.

Amplitude is all about the music, and it shows. The soundtrack is a varied collection of artists including:

• Pink
• P.O.D
• Blink 182
• Baldwin Brothers
• Run-DMC
• Garbage

Along with the standard collection of bands, there are unannounced surprises that appear in the form of the previously mentioned "Boss" tracks, including an appearance by David Bowie. Also, the Remix mode allows you to enjoy the songs in a completely new way, either by making your own mixes of the existing tracks, or downloading mixes made by other players.

After some time, you're probably going to tire of the single player mode, as I did. That's where the goodness that is the online and multiplayer mode comes into play. You can enjoy Amplitude pretty much indefinitely as you take on other players over the Internet, or invite your friends over for a mixup party. The ability to build or download remixes ensures the game stays fresh for everyone involved and allows you to show the world that you are truly a mixmaster.

While Amplitude is no longer a fresh idea (it is a sequel after all) and certainly is no graphical wonder, it's still an incredibly accessible title for every type of gamer, and is just a good time for anyone who picks it up. Single player mode can get a bit tiring, but that's what the online mode is for! So grab a copy of Amplitude, get online, and show the world your freshest beat mixes. I definitely recommend Amplitude to anyone looking for something a little different or anyone looking for a fun party game.