Rampage

aka: Rampage!
Moby ID: 124
Arcade Specs
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Description official descriptions

George, Lizzy and Ralph were just ordinary Americans, until an experiment went wrong, turning them into a Gorilla, Lizard and Werewolf respectively. Following this, the three of them plan to go round destroying buildings, and up to 3 human players can join in.

Smashing at the edges of the buildings for long enough will make them collapse. The police and military are after you, and will shoot at you, so try to destroy them (failing that, you can avoid the bullets). You will need to eat regularly, with things like plants on offer, to avoid shrinking back to being human.

Groups +

Screenshots

Promos

Credits (Arcade version)

14 People

Development Team

Reviews

Critics

Average score: 66% (based on 56 ratings)

Players

Average score: 3.2 out of 5 (based on 141 ratings with 3 reviews)

Great fun and excellent conversion.

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.

DOS · by Tomer Gabel (4539) · 1999

Great coversion, lots of fun with 3 players too!

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.

DOS · by Tony Van (2803) · 2000

Excellent conversion of a hit classic

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. ****

DOS · by Katakis | カタキス (43092) · 2003

Trivia

Eating corpses

When one of your fellow players has been killed and drops back to the lowly state of human, eat him. You can continue to eat from this spot and fully revitalize yourself. (Make sure to quickly get back to this spot after destroying the current city, so that you can enter the next with full health!)

Number of playable character differences

The game originally had three characters: George (King Kong), Lizzie (Godzilla) and Ralph (Wolfman). But the Atari Lynx version featured a fourth character named Lester, a giant Ratman, who could join in on the fun since the Lynx had 4-player support. By the same token, the NES version of the game only features George and Lizzie.

Version differences

There are two versions for Commodore 64. UK version offers finicky controls, sluggish gameplay and a smattering of annoying bugs (eg. eating people doesn't replenish your energy). Also the computer players instead of destroying buildings attack the human player. US version is much faster and eating people actually replenishes the energy.

Awards

  • ACE
    • October 1988 (issue #13) - Included in the Top-100 list of 1987/1988 (editorial staff selection)* Commodore Force
    • December 1993 (Issue 13) – #73 “Readers' Top 100”
  • Commodore Format
    • November 1994 (Issue 50) – #34 The All-Time Top 50 C64 Games
  • EGM
    • 1989 Buyer's Guide - Best Arcade-to-Home Translation (SMS version)

Information also contributed by Jiguryo and WildKard

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Related Sites +

  • Game Refuge, Inc.
    The venerable creators of such arcade mega-hits as Rampage, Xenophobe, and the more recent Rampage: World Tour (no affiliation with the subsequent sequels Universal Tour and Rampage Through Time).

Identifiers +

  • MobyGames ID: 124
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Contributors to this Entry

Game added by Peter Hall.

Commodore 64 added by Quapil. NES added by PCGamer77. Browser added by HelloMrKearns. SEGA Master System added by Teddy Ruxpin. Atari 8-bit added by Kabushi. Amstrad CPC added by Martin Smith. Arcade added by Pseudo_Intellectual. Antstream added by lights out party. Amiga, Apple II, ZX Spectrum, Atari ST, Atari 7800, Atari 2600 added by Servo. TRS-80 CoCo added by L. Curtis Boyle. Lynx added by quizzley7.

Additional contributors: DQG, Alaka, Martin Smith, formercontrib, mailmanppa, Jo ST, FatherJack.

Game added May 19, 1999. Last modified February 13, 2024.