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Rampage: Total Destruction review

Game: Rampage: Total Destruction
Platform: GameCube
Genre: Action
Developer: Pipeworks Software

Reader review by G_Dub

April 28, 2008

Rampage Total Destruction combines the heavy doses of the first two games, and brings in a whole new adventure with almost 30 monsters into one package. The first Rampage for the NES, and the N64 World Tour version are enough for a few hours of fun, but the new adventure is the meat of the package. Let me break it down for you.

Story 5/10 Decent, but not fleshed out

A new company has developed a new soda called “Scum Soda.” The company apparently tests it on some animals, and a genetic mutation occurs resulting in over 25 original monsters. The story is okay, but there is NO depth to it, and it’s just an excuse to crush some buildings.

Sound and Music (5/10) Painfully average

The sounds and music in Rampage are very average; especially the music. The music consists of a few different and passable electric guitar tunes, with almost no catchy beat or rhythm whatsoever. It’s some of the blandest music I’ve heard on any Gamecube game. Sounds are fitting, and many of them are sub par, but so many are going on at once it’s hard to notice.

Graphics (6/10) Bland backgrounds, decent monster design

The graphics of RTD are good and bad. The backgrounds and buildings are a step up from the last game, but only look as good as a good N64 game’s graphics could be. There is definitely more going on at once now; more buildings, more people, tanks, and choppers will all be on screen doing different things simultaneously. Buildings also are more uniquely designed than before, making them all the more fun to crush. The cities’ buildings fit the themes as well. You’ll see spin offs of real Vegas buildings, and trolleys in San Franciso for example. The monsters on the other hand do look quite well, and all have a unique design. George Lizzie and Ralph have never looked so good. Fur and skin detail is brought out, as well as many other things to make the monsters look and animate well. You’ll get to see good looking monsters take down some pretty average looking buildings is what it comes down to.

Gameplay (7/10) A step up, yet missing depth

The core gameplay of RTD remains the same, yet improvements have been made to make it somewhat fresh. The best addition is that of about 25 more unlockable monsters. These monsters all have unique design, and stats. Each monster now has different power, speed and jump ratings to make things more unique. On top of that, each monster now has four special moves that can be unlocked. These moves help give just a bit of depth to the otherwise button mashing gameplay. Playing the campaign mode puts you through each of the few cities, which now each have eight different blocks to destroy buildings in. In these eight blocks a challenge is given. Challenges range from collecting items in windows, to eating people, to destroying tanks. Beating challenges unlocks moves for your monsters, and gives you points that you want to accumulate to make the par score for each city. There are three unlockable monsters in each city, so you’ll have to go back numerous times to hit every window and try to find them.

There are numerous problems that affect gameplay that Midway should have addressed. Control is good, but often times monsters will not grab onto the sides of buildings and climb up the way they should. Often times challenges are irritating because you can not search every window for an object because the building will fall down first. This, and that certain monsters can only be unlocked while using certain monsters (and having absolutely no idea which ones unlock which) leads to repetetive playthroughs. The new game also has a pretty limited amount of cities, and I wish there could have been more variety in locales.

Replay Value (8/10) What would a Rampage game be without replay value?

Rampage succeeds in bringing together all the games of the franchise and making them easily accessible and pick up and play. Replay value is quite high here, because it’s always fun once in a while to get with friends and crush the snot out of a city, and terrorize and eat the people, if only for a while.

Overall (7/10) An improvement, but not too notable

Three games for the low price of one is a great deal, and RTD offers a new mode that’s more fun than the other two. Numerous improvements have been made, but Midway could’ve gone through and eliminated the problems, and added depth to the too shallow gameplay.

Rating: 7/10

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