Rampage World Tour

Rampage: World Tour hit arcades over a year ago as an update to an emmensely popular game of the mid-80s. Unfortunately, the two-dimensional game design of the original - while innovative a over a decade ago - just doesn't fly in this gaming day and age.

Not that Rampage World Tour is a terrible game -- sometimes taking out your aggression out on downtown skyscrapers and suburban townhomes is just what the doctor ordered. Heck, where else can you assume the role of a giant beast and just destroy a city block to bits?

But that's all there really is to Rampage: World Tour, simply become a living demolition team. You'll need to keep an eye out for items to consume -- these items appear in windows, like fruit baskets, hamhocks, and the occasional tasty human. It's also a good idea to keep an eye on harmful items. If your beast vomits after consuming an object, it's a sure thing that it's not edible.

One of the problems in Rampage, even back in the original, is that you're always going to die. Your bigness always seems to get in the way of machine gun fire or soldiers' explosives. Luckily you have many continues, but this could be seen as a downside -- most of the time you just don't care that you're getting hit, since you always have a spare monster at the ready.

But on the upside, two players can enter the fray, which makes for some heavy competition. It's a little disappointing that all three monsters can't duke it out together, just like the arcade version does. What little harm could one more giant sprite do to the framerate?

But most of all, because of the repetitive nature of Rampage's design, the game grows old quickly. Though the game has over 150 different levels to stomp through, it's a good bet most players won't even try to get that far. This is a game to play for 15 minute sessions, nothing more than that.