Harmonix Launches ‘Amplitude’ Kickstarter

In unexpected and exciting news, Harmonix has announced a new Kickstarter campaign to revive one of their classic titles from the PS2 era, Amplitude.

For those unfamiliar with this gem, Frequency and Amplitude were the baby steps that would eventually grow into the gaming juggernauts known as Guitar Hero and Rock Band, (or at least they were, until over saturation sent the music genre back to niche status as quickly as it rose to prominence). Anyway, rather than playing a single instrument, players would have to switch between different tracks mid song to get a whole song to play. For example, getting a sixteen beat combo on the guitar track would trigger it to play on its own for a set time. The idea was to move to the next instrument and keep the combo going. It was an innovative, rewarding system that proved to be ahead of its time.

Since Amplitude‘s release, we haven’t seen the slightest hint of its return since the PSP release of Rock Band Unplugged, (which eventually got ported to Xbox Live Arcade and PSN). With this announcement, it looks like Harmonix is heading back to basics before it resumes work on Rock Band and Dance Central, and I couldn’t be happier.