Rampage World Tour

The Short


Pros
- Authentic to the arcade version
- Reboot/rerelease of the NES Rampage
- Three player co-op
- Unlimited continues

Cons
- Monotonous
- Repetitive in both gameplay and levels
- Graphics and sound are ho-hum
- Overall, doesn't stand the test of time

Smashing buildings in 64 bits

The Long

Rampage World Tour is one of the only two arcade games my local Wal-Mart had growing up, the other being the excellent fighter Samurai Shodown. Growing up I'd watch the demo play while my mother checked out at the store, wishing I had some quarters. Years later, I found out the game had come out on the N64, I figured it was time to finally fulfill my lifelong dream. \

And, just like Loopz, my childhood nostalgia was shattered. 

Rampage World Tour kind of sucks. A lot. 

So everybody's played this game's predecessor, Rampage, in its original arcade iteration, or at least heard of it and it's mediocre NES port. Here, I'll even give you a screenshot. 

GRAPHICS!

The basic premise of the original game is to climb buildings, punch them 'til they explode, and then move on to the next. After smashing all the buildings in an area you move on to punch some more. It gets tricky as the army and air force get pissed that you are leveling L.A., so they send tanks and planes and you have to punch those too. Also you can eat people. And that's about it. 

If it sounds tedious...it is. But this was back in a time of crappy arcade games that kept things simple and just adhered to an easy theme. You'd think that, two generations of consoles later, we'd have evolved this formula into something awesome. Well...no.

I honestly think this game is uglier than the 8-bit version. 

All you do is the same stuff. Punch buildings, punch planes, punch tanks, die a lot and have to continue. There really isn't anything unique or new in the whole system. You eat some things that heal you, and other things that hurt you. Pinnacle of gameplay. 

As for the "World Tour" aspect, that basically is just that you slowly work your way around different countries, smashing up similar looking locales based on where in the world you are. It's repetitive, stages recycle, and the game never seems to end. I know eventually you go to the moon, but after two hours of playing I just couldn't keep playing. It was the most boring, monotonous grind I've ever encountered.

The arcade version looks a very tiny bit better. But this game still is really boring. 

You can play this game with up to three people, who can hit each other, push them off buildings, and generally be jerks to each other. Since this isn't in widescreen and the camera is so zoomed in, you and your buddies will be fighting for space the whole way, and not in a good way. 

Graphically this game is hideous, especially on the N64. The flat sprites are poorly rendered, the enemies look poor, and even the explosions are dull. And in a game about destruction, when the destruction effects look like crap you really screwed up somewhere. And no amount of badly rendered high-skirted science ladies can make up for that. 

Skip this one. 

Rampage World Tour is a jump back into Lizzie, Ralph, and George's world destruction, but it isn't one you should take. Sure, the game was an arcade classic, but I now this thing is more of a mess than anything else. It's boring, ugly, and not even fun co-op. If you want to blow up the world, play Prototype or Hulk: Ultimate Destruction. Just don't play this game.

One out of five stars. 

Be afraid, George: your game sucks.