Rampage

The Good
I never saw this beauty in the arcades, nor did I see it on the shelves when it first came out, but finally saw it when one of my friends gave it to me one christmas. This is Rampage and it is a bloody good game.

When you start the game, you can select three monsters to play as: George, Lizzie, or Ralph, and their aim is to demolish every buildings in cities such as Chicago, Detroit, Pittsburgh, Baltimore, and many others. This can be achieved by getting on each side of the building and keep smashing windows until the building collapses. But the three monsters can smash other things besides windows. For example, they can smash transport as they drive by. The military tries to stop you from damaging buildings, so they have asked the authorities to fly around in choppers and shoot you with their missiles, and sure enough, you can destroy the choppers too as they fly by you. More often than not, a person will come by and place a stick of dynamite in front of the buildings, and this is where you have two options. You can either wait for the dynamite to demolish the building, or you can quickly pick it up so you spit fire out and burn any enemies that get in your way.

Some people have the tendancy to pop their heads out of windows, and these allows you to eat them simply by grabbing them. At other times, a woman in a red dress will flap her arms, calling for help. You can either then let her escape, or catch up to her then eat her for a whopping 500 points. Better still, you can just hold her to score a lot of bonus points. If you do the latter, however, she eventually punches your chin, causing you to let go of her. You can also get bonus items that will award you bonus points, and include money bags, flower pots, and televisions (if they are switched off).

The damage meter, found at the top of the screen, indicates how much health you have, and decreases when you're hit by bullets and missiles, and also, hazardous items like cactus, poisons, and toasters, found hidden in buildings. The meter also decreases if you electrocute yourself by punching neon signs or televisions that are switched on. To avoid this, you must eat some food, also found hidden in buildings, and these include milk, turkey, and fresh toast. When the meter gets low, your monster starts to become lousy, and when the meter finally gets empty, your monster will transform into a human and runs off the screen.

The blurb at the box of the box says that there are over 127 cities to explore, but I think I only explored about five or six. The sound is not much as all, considering that the only sound you'll get in through the PC Speaker. Other than that, a excellent conversion.

The Bad
There is nothing "bad" about this game, except for the sound.

The Bottom Line
Rampage would be much useful either after a really bad day at the office, or if you enjoy smashing things in real life. If you see this game, make sure that you get your hands on this baby, and if you wish that this game was updated with crisp VGA graphics and real sound, then look out for Rampage World Tour. ****

The Good
I'm surprised I didn't review this one earlier -- oh well :-)

This is one great game! Excellent conversion which is faithful to the original arcade hit even in CGA graphics, great gameplay and the prospect of having 3 players at once is very well implemented. Good controls and great overall value make this one of my favorite games... besdies, who doesn't like bashing buildings and eating people?

The Bad
Like many arcade games, this one is repetitive, but it's otherwise a great game without any noteworthy flaws.

The Bottom Line
A truly classic arcade game I really love.

The Good
When I played this on the PC, I was not expecting much. But what I found was a faithful conversion of the arcade game, and the ability for me and two friends to crowd around the keyboard and smash stuff up.

The Bad
Noting to dislike. It was really fun!

The Bottom Line
If you ever see it, grab it.