Game Review: Rampage: Total Destruction

Game: Rampage: Total Destruction
Console: Nintendo Wii
Developer: Midway
Release Date: 9th February 2007

The first entry in the Rampage series dates back to 1986 with the much ported "Rampage" arcade game by Bally Midway. Although basic in idea and graphics, the game found its way onto NES, Commodore 64, Atari 2600, Master System, Atari ST and more. The basic idea of the game was to control a mutated creature on a rampage through cities, razing buildings to the ground to continue onto the next location and defending yourself from the onslaught of military gunfire attempting to pacify your monster.

After an 11 year wait, a sequel; Rampage World Tour was released in arcades and for fifth generation consoles. Gameplay was much the same as the original with improved features, controls and graphics. The overall experience was better than that of the first game and it generally felt more polished and fun. Both the original and sequel are included on the Total Destruction disk alongside the new game and are the inspiration for most if not all of the gameplay features of the game.

There are 8 cities featured in Total Destruction, within which players are tasked with destroying all of the houses in a block before moving onto the next. There are 10 blocks in each city, including a boss which doesn't necessarily have to be defeated in the final block of each city. Gameplay is incredibly repetitive from block to block as it had been in previous games; the monsters attack each building in sight until it falls down, taking anything helpful from inside (including humans) and eating it.

Controlwise on the Wii, not only is the game tiring but there's not a lot of effective ways of making buildings crash to the ground. Where players could rely more on their creature's fists and kicks before, it's almost always necessary to get atop a building and smash it until it can no longer stand. In order to do this, players have to move the controller from a vertical position to a horizontal one quickly around 20-30 times for each building.

Although 8 different cities are featured, all that really changes between them is the traffic and types of buildings you'll find. This repetition is true for the selection of monsters and modes also; although there's 40 monsters to choose from and they all have slightly differing stats, there's not really a difference between any of them when playing. As for the modes, there's competitive multiplayer and the option to play the main mode with up to three players but no variations of the gameplay mechanics, in every mode you simply destroy the city.

If certain objectives are completed in the main mode, players can gain upgrades for the monster they're playing as with a total of 5 different upgrades available for each one. Although these are interesting additions to the gameplay, only 1 or 2 of them are actually useful and because they don't carry over from monster to monster, collecting them all would require the player to pass 200 objectives in what is already a repetitive game.

Graphically the game is an obvious progression from both the arcade original and its sequel, although that isn't surprising considering the amount of time between them. It's fairly easy to see what you're doing in game but I wouldn't say that they're particularly advanced for the time. The musical accompaniment to gameplay is what seems to be an instrumental version of "Blitzkrieg Bop" by the Ramones shuffled around a little to escape copyright laws.

Rampage: Total Destruction definitely continues the trend of improving the graphics with each installment and adding new features. The inclusion of the two older games on the disk does give a little more enjoyment to the experience as a whole, but I won't be giving this game any extra points for that. Unlocking all of the characters and skills would take far more patience and playing of the game than I would be able to stand. Overall it's a bland and repetitive experience which holds some destructive fun for first time players but not a whole lot else.

Rating: 46/100
Grade: D