Alongside the song itself, the video shows off some gameplay from the upcoming rogue-lite tactical action game, as well as some of the game’s quieter moments, like characters hanging out at the bar or reading a letter.

Endless Dungeon was announced all the way back in December 2020. Originally planned for release in May, the game has since been delayed to its current October 19 release date. According to the studio, the decision to delay the game was made because the developers didn’t feel like it was at the level of quality that it needed to be.

The game is a rogue-lite dungeon crawler, and supports online co-op. It is coming to PC, PS4, PS5, Xbox One and Xbox Series X/S. There are also plans for a Nintendo Switch release, but there is no release date yet.

There was no special guitar or peripheral used alongside Amplitude on PS2, it was purely done on the DualShock 2 controller — though, to be fair, this isn’t about an instrument keeping up with the beat but rather a space ship (or something like it) running along a track full of tunes. What was fun in the original Amplitude does make a return for the most part, with fluid controls and precise handling, but a game from long in the past such as this was dying for innovation, and Amplitude for the PS4 just didn’t carry the beat.

The game starts off by giving a simple training course as the ship flies around in a black backdrop with a few different rhythm paths to trek through. Its left, center, and right beats fall into a sequence that must be clicked through constantly changing rhythms and tracks in order to advance the ship further along the track before it runs out of energy. Each successful round of score is rewarded with a slight refill of drained energy to continue pushing the ship forward.

Energy is often depleted by skipping, or missing a beat, not following through to a new track after the completion of the last track or simply hitting the wrong button at the wrong time. After the necessarily short training session, going into campaign from the main menu is almost exactly the same. Luckily the controls, tracking and handling are precise and run smoothly. Choosing between difficulties is really the only difference as the gameplay is a repeat of clicking certain buttons at the right time, over and over again.

"What was fun in the original Amplitude does make a return for the most part, but a game from long in the past such as this was dying for innovation, and Amplitude for the PS4 just didn’t carry the beat."

The controls are defaulted at L1 (left beat), R1 (middle beat), and R2 (right beat). For me, these controls were a little awkward going from two different triggers on one side of the controller. Luckily, Amplitude had this covered from the start. There are several, and I mean several variations and options to change the controls around for what most players would prefer. Though, it’s a bit odd that a “custom” option to program the buttons in any style was not available. Either way, there are so many controller options there is little to complain about there. After changing out the controller options I found myself laying down the beats like a pro (On intermediate difficulty, don’t judge!) in no time.

A spaceship in outer space seems fit to travel through an infinitely black backdrop. However, Amplitude just uses the luxury a spaceship for no real apparent reason. Sure, it was cool looking back in the PS2 days when we were still new to experiencing “realistic” 3D graphics at the time. Whatever the case may be, a spaceship is acceptable for this lower budget game (less than a million dollars to develop in fact). What was left out from the original are the crazy and often thrown-out-there backgrounds that showed waves of colors, images, videos and so on. With the PS4 version it’s mostly black with a few rich colors thrown in here and there and sometimes, much further along some shapes. Nothing exciting, but when immersed in the continually amplifying difficulty, especially on Hard or above, the backgrounds become of little mind when all eyes are concentrated on the current beat and the next one thereafter.

Who can make a good rhythm and beats game without an amazing soundtrack to keep it interesting and overall exciting? Boasting over 30 tracks, Amplitude stretches out to showcase an appreciation for custom mixed tracks that really bring energy to the whole experience. Many of these tracks are custom created by Harmonix themselves as well as other video game composers. Traveling with the spaceship along the Vocals track and experiencing what the artist is singing, or drums track, bass track, etc. expands those instruments in new and interesting ways. The opening soundtrack “Perfect Brain” created by Harmonix themselves, is a fitting intro song to the entire experience. Many other artists join in on these custom tracks, but no majorly known big hitting artists like there were in the original Amplitude. This is indeed a shortcoming probably associated by budget constraints.

"What was left out from the original are the crazy and often thrown-out-there backgrounds that showed waves of colors, images, videos and so on. With the PS4 version it’s mostly black with a few rich colors thrown in here and there."

Surprisingly enough, Amplitude has a 4-player couch co-op feature attached from the start. Friends are welcomed to join in and help keep the rhythm and beats flowing smoothly by following along on the beat tracks. Much like most other games of this genre, there is a versus co-op mode as well. Challenging friends to find out who has the quickest hands and can lay down the jam is more fun and amps up the experience that much more. Playing with or against a helping hand(s) takes what little this game offers and at least makes it feel as though the developers did try their hardest with what hand was dealt to them. It’s very obvious that Amplitude was indeed a passion project from the start and that should be respected.

Amplitude is little more than an indie-class rhythm and beats game that really tried to cover that fact up with an ample soundtrack, extensive campaign mode, couch co-op and a nice controller selection. But for its asking price (under $20.00), it really didn’t need to be anything more. It’s a very acceptable game for the price and what is offered, though with no online co-op or versus, this game is little more than a house party activity that won’t hold anyone’s attention for very long.

This game was reviewed on the PlayStation 4.

Harmonix’s reboot of Amplitude will feature an homage to FreQuency with a mode named after the game. FreQuency mode turns the flat tracks of Amplitude into tunnels that require different means to navigate.

As Harmonix explains, “In the original Amplitude, we got away from the tunnel design of FreQuency and flattened out the tracks. We did this with the intention of better track recognition, allowing the player to have a better mental map of the music. We felt flattening out the tracks allowed the players to recognize that, in a certain song, the drums were always the leftmost track.

“This also allowed us to show off more of the world environments. Little did we know this change would divide gamers (and the in-house team) into two camps: those who thought the tunnel was superior and those who preferred the wide highway of tracks.

“Even after 12+ years we are still divided! So, with some slick engineering work, we thought we’d make it an option to play either way. It’s up to you now to decide which mode is more fun.”

Amplitude will be releasing for PS4 on January 5th and will feature more than 30 songs. What are your thoughts on FreQuency mode? Let us know in the comments.

Harmonix’s crowd-funded rhythmic action game Amplitude will be releasing on January 5th 2016 for the PS4. It will retail for $19.99 though Kickstarter backers will be able to get the game on December 23rd (if they pledged $40 or higher).

Amplitude will feature its own narrative, relying on a “concept album approach” and features more than 30 songs composed by the team at Harmonix. Of course, you can also expect some guest composers like Darren Korb (Transistor) and Jim Guthrie). Some backers like Insomniac Games and Lab Zero will also have tracks featured in the final release.

The PS3 version of Amplitude is expected to release “shortly behind” the PS4 version and the final game will include competitive and co-op multiplayer, local multiplayer support and leaderboards. Considering the game’s original release date was March 2015, it’s great to see it finally nearing release. Will you be picking it up? Let us know in the comments and stay tuned for more information.

Harminix may be known now as the creators of Guitar Hero and the upcoming Rock Band (which is getting revived with the upcoming Rock Band 4 for Xbox One and PlayStation 4), but they originally started out with a little game called Amplitude which they released for the PlayStation 2; they are now reviving that game with their Kickstarted Amplitude project for current generation PlayStation consoles, and if you have been curious about how the new game looks, then you have to wonder no more- here is 20 minutes of footage from the new game.

Moreover, this video shows us multiplayer gameplay, and four player multiplayer gameplay at that. It honestly looks pretty damn cool, and I am pretty eager to see what the full game will be like.

Amplitude launches for the PlayStation 3 and PlayStation 4; later this year, Harmonix will also be launching Rock Band 4, on PlayStation 4 and on Xbox One.

Stay tuned to GamingBolt for more coverage and information.

Unless you are living under a rock, Harmonix is rebooting Amplitude for the PlayStation 4 and PlayStation 3. Set to arrive this year, Amplitude will try and utilize the PS4’s processing power to push the game to run at 1080p at 60 frames per second.

“That’s the plan, absolutely! A steady frame rate is really important when it come to this style of beatmatch gameplay. We had that up and running already in the build we brought to the PlayStation Experience and it looks and feels great,” Nick Chester, PR and Communications Lead at Harmonix said to GamingBolt.

He also praised the PS4’s processing power and how it has helped them to achieve the game’s vision. “One of the key things is obviously we’re able to push the visuals way further than we’d been able to in the past. The look of the original Amplitude was informed a bit by the hardware limitations of the PlayStation 2, whereas now we’re creating a game that’s much closer to the vision our artists have in their head. The concept art we’d released during the Kickstarter, for example, is already coming to life on the hardware and we’re not even done polishing it up yet!”

Stay tuned for our full interview with Harmonix in the coming days.

The game is being released as an exclusive to Sony platforms, but there’s no exact release date that has been confirmed yet. When Amplitude does launch, it will be a digital download only and will be available on the PlayStation 3 and the PlayStation 4 via the PlayStation Store.

• 1. Development
• 2. Campaign
• 3. Gameplay
• 4. Tracks

Development

The newest Amplitude game came into being after Harmonix Music Systems decided to launch a Kickstarter Campaign for the game in an attempt to secure funding. The asking price for the games successful funding was $775,000 US.

As of May 22nd of 2014, the game was successfully funded, but only by the narrowest of margins with the final pledges being made with the last 24 hours of the campaigns time. The final total for the Amplitude campaign came to $840,000 which was pledged by more than 14,000 people. One of the people that pledged the most to the game was Ted Price, the CEO of Insomniac Games who developed Sunset Overdrive and Ratchet & Clank: Into the Nexus. 9 Days away from the campaigns completion, it sat as having gathered only 30% of its $775,000 goal.

Prior to going down the route of Kickstarter, Harmonix tried to find other means of funding the game, but found no success. John Drak, Harmonix’s Director of Publishing and PR said, “A bunch of you have been asking questions along the lines of, ‘Hey, why does Harmonix need to do a Kickstarter? Isn’t Harmonix rich from all of that Rock Band / Dance Central money? Can’t you fund this yourselves?’ The short answer is: nope,”. He went on to say, “Make no mistake — without this Kickstarter, there’s no clear path to getting Amplitudemade or a clear scenario where we can afford to fund the team ourselves and release it. It’s not a ploy — with the current landscape, without your support, this game won’t exist,”

This latest game in the series is to be considered an official “reboot” of the series, and not a sequel or remake of the original. The overall goal of the reboot is to make a game similar to the original with the same addictive gameplay but to make use of new music, modern graphical capabilities and new hardware features, specifically those afforded to the developers by the PlayStation 4’s Dualshock Touchpad.

Developers said, “This is our first time working on PlayStation 4, and it’s been a big learning experience for the team. We’ve put a lot of work into our proprietary engine to support some of the new, awesome content we’re bringing to the reboot. These factors combined have bumped production out a few additional months.”

The game was originally given a target release date of some time in March of 2015, but due to a lack of experience working on the somewhat newly released PlayStation 4 platform, Harmonix was forced to delay the game until some time in Mid-2015. They’re now targeting a “summer” release window to give the developers more time to improve and further refine the game. Harmonix have also said that when the PAX East convention rolls around in March 2015, the game would be available in a playable form on the show floor.

Campaign

Amplitude is highly unlikely to feature any sort of story mode per-say, but the game will likely feature a campaign mode that will take the player through a series of increasingly more difficult tracks, similar to how the player progressed through the Guitar Hero and Rock Band games that were also developed by Harmonix.

Gameplay

The gameplay that we’ve been shown of the game thus far doesn’t differ in any significant way from the previous games in the series. The most notable improvements to the game take the form of visual upgrades.The power offered to the developers by the PlayStation 3 and PlayStation 4 means they can have improved visuals and have the game look and feel faster than the PS2 builds of the game.

While specific game modes haven’t been detailed, Harmonix has commented on the game saying that it will feature a “far more polished” multiplayer mode which at least points to its return. Previous Amplitude games featured 4 play modes, Single Player, Remix, Multiplayer and Online modes.

Tracks

Thus far, an official tracklisting hasn’t been confirmed for the game, but we do know that groups like Freezepop and Kasson Crooker, who previously worked on the original Amplitude, will be returning to work on music for the game alongside Anamanaguchi, Danny Baranowsky, and Jim Guthrie.

Note: This wiki will be updated once we have more information about the game.

Harmonix, who have been diligently working at bringing back Amplitude, their first hit from the early PS2 era, to the PS3 and PS4- they had a full Kickstarter for it, that managed to get the required funding and everything. The game was originally due out in March, but it appears it has been delayed slightly, and will now be releasing in the summer instead.

“This is our first time working on PlayStation 4, and it’s been a big learning experience for the team,” the developer said on Kickstarter. “We’ve put a lot of work into our proprietary engine to support some of the new, awesome content we’re bringing to the reboot. These factors combined have bumped production out a few additional months.

“With Amplitude and our promise of open development, you’ve given us the opportunity to create the game we want to make and, more importantly, make the game that you want,” the post continued. “In order to meet that goal, we don’t want to cut any corners, and we want to stay true to our vision and deliver the best Amplitude experience possible.”

Okay, see, that last part makes it all okay, as far as I am concerned.

Take your time, guys, and make it the best game possible.

After a successful Kickstarter campaign, Harmonix’s Amplitude has received its first gameplay footage with creative lead Ryan Lesser talking about the overall direction and tone, along with how it stays close to the spirit of the original.

So what is Amplitude? Basically, it’s Audiosurf on steroids. Still unsure? Well it’s up to you, the player, to properly play the music as it appears on the screen by inputting the correct button command at the correct time, Guitar Hero style. It’s intriguing though the game is still very much in development.

Amplitude is essentially a reboot of the original PS2 game but includes new songs, including one from Insomniac Games’ Ted Price who contributed a large sum to the Kickstarter campaign. It will be out on PS4 and PS3 but a concrete release date hasn’t been announced yet. Stay tuned for more information on the same and let us know what you think of the game in the comments.

Harmonix’s Amplitude saw a wave of support in the last few hours of its crowd-funding campaign on Kickstarter that helped it reach its goal. Now that the dust is settled and the game is being made, Harmonix director of communications and brand management John Drake explained to GameSpot why Amplitude is exclusive to PS3 and PS4.

“Our desire to make Amplitude ourselves and publish it with the help of fans didn’t mean that we could just go out and do what we want. Sony published and funded development of the original titles in the early 2000s, and their ownership stake in the franchise is deeper than just the name of the game.

“So revisiting Amplitude meant we were exclusive to Sony consoles. This definitely gave us pause, as we would have loved to bring the fun of Amplitude to as many platforms as possible, and because Kickstarter is known for its propensity to launch PC-driven experiences.

“But at the end of the day, we couldn’t shake our desire to make Amplitude. Once it crawled into our studio’s consciousness, it was clear that we had to give it a chance to be made. That we had to take the risk that the audience wouldn’t be there to fund it because it was exclusive to PlayStation or because the original games hadn’t reached as broad an audience as we thought…luckily, the audience showed up and we were fortunate enough to fund the project.”

Drake also clarified that it wasn’t simply a matter of changing the name and slightly altering the gameplay. “To be direct, just changing the name and altering a bit of the visual style wouldn’t have divorced the new title from its predecessor to the degree that we’d be able to bring it to other platforms.

“Working alongside Sony, who have been really supportive of our efforts to secure crowdfunding for the title, was our best bet to make Amplitude that both we and the fans want from a dream into a reality.”

Amplitude is currently slated to release in March 2015.