"If you're looking for a revival of the classics, you don't want to look here."

I've been a fan of the Rampage games for years now, from NES to N64, so it seemed like great news when one was to be released for the current generation. Unfortunately, I found that the game had undergone some pretty hefty changes, which I found were not to my liking.

Gameplay: 3

The concept of Rampage has remained the same: Destroy everything in sight, and eat. There are a few new twists to this gameplay, but there are also several pratfalls to accompany the new features. I'll start you out with the positives, and end with the negatives.

First of all, there are many new monsters to play as. Rather than the roughly 3-10 of previous games, there is a huge variety in this game. Each monster has its own specialties, but unfortunately, some of the monsters are unbalanced, and much more powerful than others. Some of them also have a very similar feel when using them. There are also a couple new modes to play in. First, there's the King of the City mode, in which 2-4 people compete to see who can do the most damage in a given city. You'll receive points based on building destruction, number of people eaten, and other things. There's also King of the World, in which you'll play through the game's "Campaign Mode" with 2-4 people until somebody has gained the most points in half of the cities. It's basically a longer version of King of the City. The Campaign mode is what the previous games have been; you rampage across the world, destroying it one city at a time, and sometimes rescuing new monsters to play with.

Unfortunately, there are many downsides to this game. One such downside is that only a maximum of two people may play the game's main Campaign mode, as opposed to the possible three of the N64 versions. This isn't extremely bad though, as you can still play King of the City/World with 2-4 people or even bots.

Another problem comes from the game's new city style. In the past, you'd be in a city that would loop infinitely if you walked to the left or right of the screen. In this one, you're in an enclosed area, and you can't go a certain distance left or right. Also, rather than sticking with the classic 2-dimensional setup, they brought a third dimension into the game, making it possible to walk toward or away from the screen. It's a good idea, but the range of motion in those directions is very constricted, and it just causes more problems in the game. For example, it is now very difficult to make your monster face just the right direction when you're trying to hit something small, like a person or a car on the ground. You'll have to take a few steps away from them, then turn around and directly approach them so that you're appropriately lined up to punch them or grab them or whatever.

Grabbing onto a building has even become more difficult. You may walk straight into one and not grab on, or you may jump toward the building and just slide down the side without grabbing. The actual function of the buttons isn't drastically different from previous games, with a punch button, jump button, kick button, and a few others for special moves. This game added a grab button though, allowing you to pick up cars and throw them at buildings, which can be pretty fun. You can also pick up people and carry them around, but this serves little, if any purpose. It just makes you have to press another button before eating the person. You can't even throw a person once they're picked up.

As many have heard, it's now possible to climb the front of a building as well as the sides. Again, this is a good idea, but it will generally be more awkward than helpful. You have to position your monster just right so that you'll either strike the spot to your left or to your right. Sometimes you'll just want to turn your monster to hit left rather than right (or vice versa) and end up moving to the side instead.

Another area I find lacking is the variety of things you'll find inside buildings. I looked in the manual, saw a dozen or two items listed, and thought "Well, the last games had tons of things. I guess they just couldn't list everything on two pages." Apparently, I was wrong. There's a small variety of foods, a small variety of hazardous things, and even fewer valuables. In previous Rampage games, you might find a diamond or a dollar bill in a building, and be rewarded bonus points for grabbing it. In this one, you might break a hole in a building, and find a big, white "250." And grabbing it will give you 250 points. No imagination at all.

Graphics: 4

The graphics have obviously received an upgrade since earlier installments. You won't be seeing a bunch of cities composed of the same recycled buildings anymore. Of course, there are downsides in this area as well. For instance, the people you see seem a lot less detailed than before. In the older games, you could say "Oh, that's an Elvis impersonator," or "Hey, there's a cop! I should eat him before he starts shooting me a lot." Now the people seem very tiny, and very un-detailed. It becomes hard to tell what kind of person you're seeing until you eat them.

That brings me to another point. The entire style of the game's graphics has been shifted to a cartoony appearance, obviously targeted toward little kids, with goofy characters, funny sounds, and other annoying things. You'll frequently hear helicopters spit out such phrases as "Traffic is crack-a-lackin', people!" And anytime you pick up a person, they'll shout things that wouldn't come to a normal person's mind if a huge, vicious monster planned to eat them. Things like "You can't eat me, I'm a lawyer!" In addition to a cartoonish opening cutscene, you'll also see childish things such as your monster belching or farting every time he/she eats something. And I mean EVERY TIME. You'll either quickly get tired of it or just have to block it out.

Replay Value: 7

If this is the kind of game you'd like, then you'll be playing it plenty. You only start out with 6 creatures, and special moves have to be unlocked for each, so you'd have to play the Campaign mode several times to unlock everything. However, if you're like me, you won't want to play through everything more than once. The multiplayer modes (other than the 2-player campaign) offer some nice variety, but the whole game could really be better. I consider the best feature of this game to be the fact that the classic Arcade version of Rampage as well as Rampage: World Tour are included with the game.

Buy or Rent?

I say you should definitely rent this one before purchasing it. If you're looking for an excellent continuation of the classics, you may find that RTD comes up shorthanded. But maybe you can get used to awkward controls and cartoonish graphics and repetitive canned phrases. If you liked the NES or Arcade Rampage (they're pretty similar) or Rampage: World Tour, but don't own either one yourself, this game is probably worth it just to have those two at the low price of $20. Also, it only takes up 2 blocks on your memory card, which is pretty nice.

Reviewer's Score: 4/10, Originally Posted: 05/11/06