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By Keith B (1st Apr 2007)

While we’re waiting for some of the more exciting Wii titles lined up for release in the near future, let’s look at one game that we weren’t so excited about to begin with, and see what it has to offer. Rampage: Total Destruction is following in the footsteps of a true arcade classic, but how is the game concept faring in the ‘new generation’ era of gaming consoles?

There’s no denying that the original Rampage was an instant arcade game hit. But when was that again? Some time in the early 90s? No, not even close: It was 1986 when Rampage first hit the arcade halls. No doubt, the game created quite a stir at the time. It was extremely fast-paced and fun to play, and it featured what seemed like a fully dynamic game environment �" taking on the role as a monster on a rampage, the player could interact with nearly everything that was seen on the screen, and embark on a mindless mission to destroy everything as thoroughly and quickly as possible. Unfortunately, the developers of the newest installment in the series seem to be a little too sure that the original concept is still enough to create a hit game…

But let’s start at the beginning: Story-wise, nobody probably expects too much from a side-scrolling destroy-it-all game, yet the developers from Midway outfitted Rampage: Total Destruction with a little narrative introduction anyway: While scheming to brew a particularly tasty soft-drink, something goes awfully wrong… The ingredients combine to create some kind of mutation-cocktail, and all the testers transform into awful monsters. Next thing you know, they’re ready to tear down virtually every big and famous metropolis on this nice peaceful planet. And instead of trying to stop them, you, the player, are invited to take the role of any of those 40 horribly deformed soft-drink testers.

Apart from the 3 well-loved original characters of Rampage, there are now a whole lot more to choose from (though some of them must be unlocked). So once you take your pick, it’s up to you: Will you succeed in flattening big cities the whole world round, munching on tasty pedestrians and the like to keep your spirits or will you let various army folk get in your way and keep you from having a good time?

The controls are simple, and therefore, considering the potential of the Wiimote-Nunchuk combination, ultimately quite disappointing. There even is the option of using only the Wiimote, but be advised not to, as this isn’t working all too well. In the two-handed-playing mode, the analog stick on the Nunchuk moves your character around. The Wiimotes A button triggers hits, and the B button triggers jumps. Special moves are mapped to either buttons or combinations of buttons and gestures. The problem with all this is that the responsiveness of the game is very sluggish. Gestures and commands are frequently picked up too late, or, it seems, not at all. Furthermore, your input will often be misinterpreted, so that sometimes, there’s no way of knowing why your character is climbing a building instead of eating a pedestrian, throwing a bus instead of turning around, or walking towards the screen instead of walking away from it. This becomes especially annoying once you are facing great onslaughts of tanks, soldiers, and army helicopters later on in the game. At this point, the wrong move can easily mean the end of your rampage (well, not really �" the game is actually rather easy and forgiving).

Well, that last paragraph already gave away much about the gameplay, didn’t it…? In a little more detail: Eating people will make your monster stronger, while hurling them away is mostly just fun. Throwing bigger things can help you take down buildings faster, either by the sheer force of impact, or with the help of big explosions of all kinds. Demolishing your surroundings in this way may save you valuable time (there’s a time limit for the completion of each level), because less punching, kicking, and jumping will be required. The human enemies, of course, rarely go away so easily, and will usually require some direct attention. They can hurt you pretty badly, too, so better take them down right along with the rest of town!
This covers the basic goal of each successive level: Destroy it all…! Various bonus challenges will spice up this simple but satisfying pastime. Accomplishing these often leaves you with a newly-acquired special skill, which will make destruction even more fun in the next level. For example, your monster will grow stronger, will learn to jump farther, or will learn more sophisticated attacks. Since the individual levels have time limits imposed, speedy destruction, effective defense, and precise movement (for picking up bonus items, etc.) are of great importance. Unfortunately, all this is hindered, rather than helped along, by the control scheme. If all else fails, you can always try the multiplayer option. Here, up to four monster, uhm, players, can tear down buildings alongside each other �" you’ll need lots of Wiimotes and Nunchuks, of course. This is actually a lot of fun, despite the fact that it doesn’t add much depth to an already shallow game.

Unsurprisingly, Rampage: Total Destruction isn’t very clever. Therefore, the developers focused mainly on making it gripping and fun. Simple enough, isn’t it? After all, this worked out very well for the original arcade game (hence Midway’s well-deserved fame throughout the 80s). The same strategy may still have worked with later releases in the series. Now that Rampage has made it to the Wii, I’m not so sure any more. The graphics are cute, but far from great, and sport a kind of pseudo-3D aesthetic that can actually be quite confusing at times. Essentially, the game has “ported” as well as “updated arcade game” written all over it. The sound scheme, which has retained a little too much of its arcade hall days, tends to get annoying before long (apart from a few fabulously funny remarks by some of the soldiers), and a few levels down the road, the repetitive gameplay becomes rather exasperating, too.

To make Rampage: Total Destruction more attractive to a wider audience, the developers didn’t rely on the fact that the game is sold for quite a bit less than the big Wii releases, and also threw the original Rampage as well as the 1997 release Rampage: World Tour in the package. Thanks to that, the low price may well make the package attractive for fans of the series. But since the new release didn’t really introduce anything breathtakingly new to the game concept, the rest of us had better hunt down the original platform games in some faded arcade gaming hall, and drop a few quarters in the machine. It will be fun, just as good of a work-out as we’d get out of the Wii, and once we’ve had enough, we can just get out of there and continue shopping around for a real Wii hit…