Rampage Through Time
Score: 83% ESRB: Everyone Publisher: Midway Developer: Midway Media: CD/1 Players: 1 - 3 Genre: Arcade
Graphics & Sound: Like an old friend (or third cousin) you haven't seen for a year, Midway's Rampage franchise is back on the map with Rampage Through Time. Unless you were wearing diapers in the 80's (and I'm sure some of you were...), you pumped more than a few quarters into this game at the arcade. Getting past the argument of whether it's been worth 3 remakes for PlayStation, there's a lot of memories for some people here. The way it looks and sounds, for instance. In a mostly 3D world, Rampage is filmed in 2D, and proud of it! There isn't a lick of innovation here, unless you count new character animations and level design. The mini-games that now come at the end of a level are at about the same level of graphic sophistication, so if you're looking for eye-candy, search on. The whole theme of this chapter in the Rampage universe is time travel, so each level includes historical landmarks and music to match the period. The music is campy, like the spirit of this game.
Gameplay: In this installment of Rampage, Scumlabs has perfected time travel, so it's up to you and maybe a couple of friends to take control of some big ugly monsters and wipe out Scumlabs' influence through time. The wanton destruction you expect is still here; power-ups and special moves hold the key to bigger and better mayhem, and two new characters join the fray, Harley and Myukus. In going through each stage, the idea is to crush buildings, eat humans and beat-up the other monsters. Whoever can pull this off consistently earns points that go toward a bonus round. The bonus rounds are mini-games, mostly direct adaptations of olde-skool arcade games. There are 4-5 variations, with the suitable changes made to match each stage. For instance, the Eskimo stage has a Penga-like mini-game of pushing ice cubes together to earn points, and in the Egyptian stage, stone blocks are substituted for ice cubes. Earning points in the main round translates to special privilege in the mini-game level, but if you don't win the mini-game, it's Game Over. There are some earned levels, and when you consider there are 20 stages or time periods to work through, the game's got some depth. Adventure Mode is what I just described, or you can choose Challenge Mode and just play mini-games. Tournament Mode is similar to Adventure, except you set the number of rounds and battle for bragging rights against other monsters. With the exception of Adventure Mode, multi-player is much in effect, but you'll need Multi Tap if you want a three-way.
Difficulty: Difficulty settings go from pitifully easy to adequately hard, but I found that control issues and little glitches raised the bar at times. The mini-games seemed most prone to this. For instance, in one that involved throwing projectiles, if I threw something and then crossed from one side of the screen to another, it was possible to get killed by what I'd thrown. That seems dumb. Also, the system of rewarding good performance in the main levels by special abilities in the mini-games didn't always seem to work. I had some frustrating moments, and it's hard to forgive a company who's had 2 iterations on this platform to make things really click. All quirks aside, the mini-games add a nice element to Rampage, and having multi-player support helps mitigate any AI fuzziness.
Game Mechanics: Analog control is tight for Rampage, both in the main levels and the mini-game rounds. The fight controls can be customized, and DUALSHOCK can be toggled to suit player preference. Button mashing wins the day in all but a few situations, but Midway's game manual does list the various punch and kick combos. Each monster earns Power Points by eating special items, and once the Power Meter is maxed, it's possible to execute a signature move. Myukus, a new kid on the block, has the distinctive attack of dropping his eyeball on the ground, where it bounces, rolls and finally explodes. I mentioned before that the mechanics of earning points in the main levels is a little strange. Especially when not winning the bonus round means you have to replay an entire level, the fighting levels start to seem a little superfluous. However, the way it's supposed to work is that by maintaining top destruction in the city levels, you go into the bonus round with an advantage. This could be placement, speed or higher scoring potential. I almost felt Midway could have just released a separate game with these Rampage mini-games, as the relationship between the destructive gameplay we're all used to and the mini-game action is somewhat of a stretch. I can't help but remember how much I liked playing Rampage back in the 80's, and nostalgia definitely trumps innovation for a lot of people. I think Rampage Through Time adds to the party-game genre for PlayStation with mini-game levels, and there's no question that arcade perfection was established long ago for this 'port. It's just that Rampage as it stands needs a serious kick in the butt. Maybe online multi-player for PS2? Or, this may be the last installment we see in the Rampage franchise. If you ever dropped more than a dollar on this game in the arcade, it's worth your time to pick it up as a rental over the weekend.
-Fridtjof, GameVortex Communications AKA Matt Paddock
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