14 DAY TRIAL // Harmonix has launched a Kickstarter campaign, trying to reboot the 2003 rhythm-action game Amplitude, in order to deliver it to modern gaming consoles.
The developer is most notably known for their many music-related video game projects, the most successful of which being Dance Central and its sequel Rock Band, Guitar Hero, and the cult classic they want to reinvent, Amplitude.
Harmonix aims to create a new rhythm-action music game for the PlayStation 3 and PlayStation 4 platforms, based on the PlayStation 2 hit Amplitude, taking the zen-like flow, amazing soundtracks and frenetic action and recreating it for modern consoles.
The team is confident they can rebuild Amplitude for current consoles and deliver an even more amazing experience, by taking advantage of the huge improvements in technology and the studio's extensive expertise, as noted on the Kickstarter project page.
The reboot will feature an updated soundtrack, striking visuals and fine-tuned controls, designed especially for the ultimate controller experience, on Harmonix' proprietary engine, which has been 10 years in the making.
The upcoming game will support both single-player as well as local mutiplayer modes, with online leaderboards for bragging rights.
The entire world will be designed so that every pixel on screen can be driven by the underlying music, coming to life with the "beatmatching" methodology that the team perfected while working on Rock Band.
The core of Amplitude is its high-octane music, and the all-new soundtrack will focus on songs with a powerful electronic-based feel, with tones varying from dark and atmospheric to bright and bouncing.
The original game also gained the fans' respect through its high level of difficulty, and fans of the old PlayStation 2 edition will surely be expecting the same level of challenge in the new version, and Harmonix aims to please.
The team is confident that the years spent developing rhythm-based games have turned them into masters at making them fun for everybody, and, while the Amplitude reboot is designed to appeal to a more hardcore player base and fans of the original, Harmonix also wants to make fans of their more recent products feel right at home with the new game.
Although the devs have a lot of crazy ideas for the project, their main goal is to faithfully recreate the core Amplitude experience, redeveloped in HD for modern gaming devices.
For now, Harmonix intends to create original music to fill the game with, custom renditions from the original Amplitude, but if they end up with a significant amount of over-funding, they also intend to pursue some licensed electronic tracks from popular artists.