"Yay!", I thought to myself when I saw this game in Babbages. "A 32
bit version of one of my very favorite NES games! Alright! It's just
got to be a winner!"

And I had that thought in my head all the way home from the store too.
When I finally got home, I literally jumped right out of the car
(Convertibles. You know I love 'em.), and ran into the house to play
it. If it sounds like I was worked up, it's because I was. Rampage
used to be one of my favorite games, and I hadn't played it in years.

So, I make a mad dash for my entertainment room, toss the CD in the
PSX (No, really, I did. I have remarkable tossing skills), hit the
power button, pick my fancy-pants Alps pad up off the floor, and sit
back for what I'm just sure will be an excellent gaming experience.

Well, you can imagine my surprise when it wasn't.

The disappointment set in almost immediately for me, as I was
'treated' to some of the worst music and sound effects that I've had
the misfortunes of hearing in a very long time. There's only like
three different tracks in the whole game, and it's all cliche 'rock'
music. Very, very bad. And the sound... oy, is it bad. There's no meat
or bass to the sound at all, which is absolutely ridiculous for a game
like this. When a 200 ton Gorilla pounds a skyscraper into the ground
with his fists, you can't help but expect the building to make a bit
of a racket when it hits the ground. Do you get that? Nope. What do
you get? A slight (and I mean slight) crumbling sound. And it's tinny
to boot. It didn't take five minutes for me to just turn on the radio
and listen to that while I played.

The next big disappointment came in the form of control. You can't
bash the hell out of a building with your fists while you climb down
it any more. Something which was a major part of the original game.
Now, granted, the game offers you better (read: faster) ways of
knocking things over, but why on earth did they remove this? It just
doesn't make sense to me. It seems petty, I know, but it's a big thing
to me.

When you want to knock a building down in World Tour, you either cling
to the side and kick the hell out of it. Which is slow, and fairly
pointless. Or, you can climb up on top and jump up and down on it till
it falls over Which is fairly quick, and has the added bonus of
knocking all those pesky army men out of the windows. Or, you can just
stand up there and punch the bejesus out of the roof. Why that would
knock the building down, I'm not sure, but it's definitely the fastest
and easiest way to do things. Too fast, and too easy as a matter of
fact. You can take even the biggest building down in under five
seconds now, which I happen to think is a little silly. It doesn't
take more than a minute to beat any given level in this game. Two if
you take the time to eat everything, and destroy all the vehicles. I
much preferred the slower pace of the original.

Now, all of this is alright, for the first ten levels or so, but it
wears very thin, very quickly after that. The game becomes an exercise
in tedium before long, and I found that I had to force myself to play
it.

And force myself, I did. Believe me. I actually sat down and played
through all 130 levels of this game last night, and when it was over I
literally had to fight with myself to keep from snapping the CD in
two. I didn't like the game after level 20, and I truly despised it by
the time I had finished it.

The whole point to the game is to rid the world of 'Scumlabs'. Why? I
don't know, and I don't really care. In order to do this, you have to
find World Tour Flags hidden in a building on certain levels, and use
them to travel around and find the Scumlabs. Now, this is much easier
said than done. When you've gone 10+ levels without seeing a single
flag, frustration sets in. Fortunately, you can save your game at any
time and come back to it later. Why you would want to is beyond me,
though.

Another of this games critical flaws is the fact that you have
unlimited continues. So, why worry about taking damage from anything,
or losing lives? And why do they offer you extra lives at 500,000 and
1,000,000 points? It just doesn't make sense. At around level 30 I
just stopped paying attention to the 'hostiles' at all, and
concentrated on winning the levels as quickly as possible so I could
move on with the damn game.

About the only thing I think this game has going for it are the
graphics. George, Lizzie, and Ralph are all rendered nicely, and the
whole game is very bright and colorful. And while the levels
themselves never change (you just bash the same buildings over and
over again in every city), the backgrounds always do. They suit
whatever city you're in, and they all have a nice comic book look to
them.

Now, you're probably wondering of the 2 player mode improves this game
any, and the answer is: Yes. Of course it does. But, by much? Nope.
The two player game wears thin just as quickly as the single player
game does. My friend and I played about ten levels, said "Forget
this." and just played Bushido Blade instead.

So, what exactly has happened here? Is it that my tastes have changed
so drastically over the past ten years that I just can't get into a
game that's this shallow anymore? Or is it that Rampage: World Tour
just isn't a very good game? Maybe it's a mixture of both. Either way,
I think this game is a rental at best.

This review is over. Shut those cameras off!