Rampage

• Release Date: 1988
• Genre: Action
• Style: 2D Action

Game Description

You play the part of an excessively large monster who smashes buildings. Playable monsters include: Ralph the Wolf, George the Big Ape, and Lizzie the Lizard. Ralph has the toughest punch, George is known for being the best at scaling buildings, and Lizzie is the fastest of the three.

The main objective is to smash buildings. There are more than one hundred cities to destroy. While smashing buildings the military will attempt to stop you. Helicopters and tanks shoot at the monsters but the military can be dealt with by smashing them. Other vehicles that can be crushed are trolleys, trucks, and police cars.

Sometimes after a window is smashed an object is revealed. Objects that provide energy are: people, swat men, watermelon, toast when up, jug of water, bowl of fruit, and turkey. Those that are not good to eat or touch include: poison, bombs, candles, light bulbs when turned on, and televisions when turned on.

During two player games the players are competing for the high score. Players can punch each other as well as eat the other one if that monster has been shrunk down to human size.

Review: Overall

Rampage is an arcade game that translates well on the C64. A game such as this relies more on gameplay than any other factor.

Controls are very basic. Each city is one screen so that there is not far to move. The button reponds quickly allowing rapid punching. Jumping is not needed often but can be done easily. Learning the game can be done in under a minute.

Smashing buildings over and over on single screens is actually quite entertaining. Punch and keep punching until a building collapses. Buildings are different sizes and sometimes placed in front of each other so that some buildings must be removed in a particular order.

Choosing which objects to eat can be difficult. Since you will be punching quickly you will probably not even see an item as your monster eats it. Whether it is good or bad will be determined right away as the monster reacts by choking if the item was bad for him. Swat men stick out of windows when shooting so they are easy to spot. Running after the swat men is a good idea since they replenish a monster's health quicker than anything. Plus they do a lot of damage if you ignore them.

The instructions mention each monster's strength but they all feel quite similar. Any differences are not noticable, except for their physical appearance of course. Monsters look great and feature amusing animations. Backgrounds do not contain major detail but they do not need to. Behind the main buildings is a city skyline that is outlined in black that looks fine in the distance.

Overall Rampage is worth a look. As is usually the case, two player action is better than going it alone. With two players the buildings will fall twice as fast and allow you to progress farther in the game.

Review: Enjoyment

Great for short periods of time.

Review: Graphics

Everything fits on the screen perfectly.

Review: Sound

From helicopters to bullets, the sound effects match the on screen action.

Review: Replay Value

All of the screens look about the same but the two player option should keep the game fun.

Review: Documentation

Contains everything you need to know.

Production Credits

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