"Simple fun, but mediocre controls and the bells and whistles cause it to come crashing down like the buildings in the game"

From reading my tagline, you are probably asking "GreenShyguy, are you nuts? How can bells and whistles possibly hurt a game?" Simple, most of the "cool" features thrown in to make it slightly less like previous installments end up contradicting each other.

I suppose a list of said bells and whistles would be useful here. Essentially, the game is divided into seven levels, each taking place in a major city. Each city consists of several blocks, all of which allow you to perform special challenges, ranging from finding a certain number of the same item hidden in buildings, to eating a certain number of mimes, to destroying a certain number of tanks, etc. At the end of each city, you can earn stars for successfully destroying every block, meeting all the special challenges, earning enough points to beat the par score, and unlocking all the monsters.

How do you beat par score, you ask? Simple. You can earn 5,000 points for completing special challenges, and sometimes up to 3,000 for executing a combo on a building, which causes several floors to collapse at once. Yes, it is possible to cause floors to collapse without destroying a building. However, imagine what this would do to your chances of finding an item in a building should you accidentally trigger a combo. Yeah, you get the idea. Nothing is more aggravating than finding three out of four aces, only to get screwed out of finding the fourth ace because you inadvertently caused several floors to collapse, one of which contains the last precious ace.

Also, your monster has the ability to go into rampage mode, which causes him/her to move faster, and cause more damage to the buildings. However, this feature is completely useless if you are looking for an item needed to finish a special challenge, as you will more often than not cause multiple floors to collapse by mistake. Even when you are not gunning for the special challenge, it's still not that helpful. It's another gimmick that was thrown in for no other reason than to make it different from previous titles.

Why am I making a big deal about these special challenges? Aren't they just bonuses thrown in for fun? Well, yes and no. In order to unlock one of four special moves for your monster, you'll need to beat special challenges. These moves are almost essential for the later cities and even some of the bosses. Not having them is a severe handicap. Also, finding all four for one monster is not enough if you want everyone to have them. You must find all four for EVERY monster, and there are 30 monsters total. And don't think you will get offered the chance to earn a new move on every block. For some monsters, you can literally go through three or four cities without getting an opportunity to earn a new move. This is not replay value folks; this is sheer redundancy.

Then there are the controls. Now, I have no problem with having to move against a building instead of pressing up in order to climb it; it actually feels intuitive after a few minutes. Executing all the attacks is simple. The problem with the controls is the pacing and sluggishness.

First of all, let's talk about pacing. I know Midway wanted to add some humor, and they attempt this by including animations mid-game, such as your monster belching after eating, your monster tossing a human in the air and catching him/her with his mouth, etc. The problem with these animations is they slow down the pacing considerably. It wouldn't be bad if you could still move after eating food like in the original, but the your monster stops for a couple of seconds to carry out said animation. This wouldn't be so bad in itself if you weren't also racing against the clock to finish each block. That's right, the game only gives you a certain amount of time to demolish a block before planes come in, destroy it, and cost you a life. It's not so bad early in the game, but from Chicago on, you'll barely have enough time to clear each block. The last thing you need are a bunch of goofy, unnecessary animations that impede your progress.

Second, controls can be sluggish, particularly when you need to take evasive action and avoid missiles fired by helicopters. Your monster doesn't seem to want to respond quickly enough, and as a result, you'll get hit, lose time because of the stupid animation, and lose some health. Also, it's totally unfair that tanks and helicopters can camp on the edge of the screen, shoot you, yet you can't hit them.

As much as I've ranted and raved about all the problems, there is some good, simple fun to be found here. The learning curve for the game is extremely short, so any player can pick this up and master all the basics in just minutes. The challenge progression is about right; the first two or three cities are pretty easy, but then the difficulty starts to ramp up a bit.

Of course, the real reason we play a game like Rampage is to vent some frustration. There are plenty of targets to destroy, from all the buildings, to helicopters, to trains, and even traffic. Sometimes it's fun to just run in middle of traffic and start randomly kicking cars. Also, you can now pick up cars and hurl them at buildings.

Those of you who own the GameCube version have the option of playing with up to three other friends. Now, I've never tried the multi-player modes myself, but I imagine there is some good fun to be found there.

The biggest bonus however, is that the original arcade versions of Rampage and Rampage: World Tour are accessible from the start. That's almost worth $20 alone. And yes, you do get unlimited continues.

I wanted to like this game. I really did. I haven't played some of the newer installments in the series, but I do enjoy the arcade and NES versions. I had really high expectations for this game, but too many of the bells and whistles seem thrown in randomly because someone thought they would be cool. They end up contradicting each other, so it's as if this game wasn't well thought out, or tested thoroughly. Is this game worth $20? It depends. If you have some friends, then the multi-player might be worth it. Also, the arcade versions of Rampage and Rampage: World Tour are included, so if you are a fan of those games, you might get this just to play those.

Reviewer's Score: 6/10, Originally Posted: 05/03/06