Amplitude

Amplitude built on the concept of its predecessor Frequency and expanded it with more elaborate visuals, a wider range of musical styles, and more accessible controls, making it a more polished and balanced version of the original idea of remixing tracks on the fly. The player again flies through a futuristic tunnel and activates individual music tracks, from drums through bass to vocal lines, while successfully maintaining the rhythm builds the complete song and failure returns the track to an inactive state, requiring constant switching of attention between several parallel rhythmic patterns.

Compared to Frequency, the playing field expanded from a closed cylinder into a more open, flatter track that makes it easier to see what's coming, and new bonuses were added that temporarily slow the game down, auto-complete a track, or multiply the score, adding a tactical layer to the songs. Multiplayer for several players on one console, where opponents could trip each other up with sabotage bonuses, ranked among the most entertaining parts of the game. The soundtrack this time was even more varied and included tracks from acclaimed artists across the genres of electronic music, rock, and pop, moving the game closer to a mainstream audience.

The game also offered an editor that let players create their own levels and share them, putting it ahead of its time in terms of user-generated content for rhythm games. The visual design remained faithful to its predecessor's neon, futuristic aesthetic, but with improved effects and smoother animation making full use of the PlayStation 2's power. Although Amplitude never achieved commercial success comparable to the later Guitar Hero, its musical innovations and emphasis on remixing are still valued today as an important stepping stone in the development of the entire music game genre. The game received a modern remake for PlayStation 4 in 2016, confirming that the concept of remixing music tracks had lost none of its originality even after all those years.