6. Amped
In the early noughties all eyes were firmly fixated on Sony, as coming hot off the success of the first PlayStation they garnered one hell of a successful launch and rollout of games for the PS2, a highlight being SSX. The impact of both that and the overwhelming influx of 'extreme sports' across the board hadn't passed Microsoft by, and so they decided to get in on the action - putting the power of their new hardware behind a new exclusive; Amped. Taking the focus away from competition by way of racing opponents head-to-head, Amped would prioritise the 'feel' of snowboarding, rather like what Thrasher had done to Tony Hawk, or Dave Mirra to Mat Hoffman (more on them in a minute). By building a game engine from the ground up that had a real sense of weight and propulsion behind your actions, Amped completely perfected the risk-reward nature of snowboarding as a sport. Hurtling yourself off a gargantuan ravine was met with a mix of trepidation and "I can do this!" resolve, the result being something that purposefully avoided SSX's more arcade sensibilities, but found a devoted following because of it.