"They can make sequels of bad games. But good ones? Obviously not!"

OPENING STATEMENT
Rampart is an simple idea, done on a grand scale. The object is to destroy your enemies castle or attack boats, all while building your castle up, and giving yourself room for cannons to boost your attack power.

GAMEPLAY--10
The gameplay is surprisingly simple, yet complex, at the same time. The gameplay premises is simple. Blow up your opponents boats, or as many of their castle walls as you can before the time runs out. Then repair and add on to your walls. Yet, you will always have to make some strategies up to survive. Against the boats, it is pretty much hit, hit, hit, but against the castles, you can develop intricate strategies to make your opponents cringe.

GRAPHICS--7
The graphics are beginning 3D style. Most of the games done like this were done later, on the SNES. This is one of the first games I have seen on the NES with 3D graphics. The castle walls look sort of 3D. Everything is clear and colorful. The reds and blues of the walls in multiplayer show up perfectly against the bright green grass. The water does not look very realistic, but think of when the game first was released. But, it still looks like a bucket of bright blue paint spilled all over a large portion of the maps. The boats in the one-player mode, though, do look very realistic for such an early game.

MUSIC--8
SOUND--8
The music is better than the typical NES bleeps and beeps. The music is actually, well, music. For a game from this time that is amazing. The songs prepare you for battle, and make you want to beat them in this cannon war of the ages. This music could be on the PlayStation today, in a new game, and they would think it is great music. Just a tad bit “old school”.

The sound effects are great for an NES game, also. The cannons sound fairly realistic (or at least what I think a cannon would sound like; The war movies do not always do it right, but this sound like a cannon from a war movie), but the sound for building the walls, are just typical bleeps and beeps. The menu noises, though, are well done bleeps and beeps, not typical ones.

CONTROL--9
At first, the control is kind of confusing. Placing cannons the first time you play will take you a while. But, if you play this game a lot, it will become second nature. Aiming your cannonballs is simple, even from the start. It takes practice to figure out how to calculate the boats’ speeds in the 1-player game, but practice makes perfect. One problem is, that after you play the game A LOT and get really good, it can get to be the tiniest bit easy. Then the 1-player mode can be practice for the 2-player mode, which is where the real challenge lies. Your opponents can think of strategies, while the computer just seems to blast in general.

FUN--10
Even though after playing it extensively, it can get a tad easy, this game will still entertain you as long as that ancient Nintendo Entertainment System works. Why? The two player mode will always be fun, as long as you have friends. You have to have strategy to beat your opponent. They can see where you are attacking, and you them. This creates an interesting dilemma. You know what is coming, but you have no way of stopping it. All you can do is try to inflict more damage on them, than them you.

CHALLENGE--LOW TO MEDIUM
This game just is not that difficult. The computer boats just do not seem to fire all of the time that they could, or else they just have really bad aim. Plus, the boats do not move very fast, which makes them very easy to sink. The only way this game is very difficult at all, is to use the two-player mode, where you both will fire all of the time, and aim better (hopefully) than the computer boats.

REPLAY VALUE--HIGH
This game has great replay value. Even after playing it a long time in the single player mode, the two-player mode will be enough different to make the game a new experience. And vice versa. Since the one player game is fairly short, you can play through it in an hour or so, if you only have that long. Each two-player battle is done in about five minutes at the most, since everything in the game is timed to a certain number (which is different for each thing they time)

PROS
*Attempted to use three dimensional graphics.
*Destroying things with cannons is very addicting.
*Audio is spectacular.

CONS
*Too easy.
*Too short.
*Takes a while to learn how to place the cannons.

CLOSING STATEMENT
This game, even with it’s few flaws, is one of the best on the NES. Imagine a good sequel on the Dreamcast or PS2. I shudder at the thought. I shudder in happiness. Jaleco has made an addicting cross between strategy, puzzle, and action.

OVERALL--9

Reviewer's Score: 9/10, Originally Posted: 11/16/00, Updated 07/18/01