I remember my first experience with Rampage in the arcades many years ago. I loved the game because it wasn’t like anything else at the time. It was a quarter muncher because you wanted to destroy everything in sight and make your way up to the top score. So, when Rampage: Total Destruction arrived I was eager to play it for the first time on a brand new console hoping that they’d done something fabulous with the gameplay with the new motion sensing controller. It was all for naught though, as I learned after the first few stages.
First of all, let me say that this is a port of the GameCube game of the same name, so despite it being on a next generation system, it’s a last generation title in sheep’s clothing. So, that being said the graphics are in no way indicative of just what exactly the Wii is capable of; in fact this game doesn’t look all that great. The buildings mostly end up looking alike and while there is a good selection of different monsters, they all behave the same for the most part. The portions of cities that you’re left to attack in each stage are small, you’re crushing a dozen buildings or so, but there’s nothing really special to it. They’re named after real life cities like Las Vegas or San Francisco, but they don’t actually use real buildings, which is understandable, but makes for boring gameplay.
Worse yet, the audio isn’t up to snuff either. The same voices and sounds repeating make for an even more boring experience. Rampage just doesn’t give off the same feeling that it once did. There’s really not much here aside from the occasional citizen saying something right before they get eaten, so they should have made the focus on music. Even so, there’s just nothing too outstanding here.
The problem with attempting to update a classic is that they just don’t live up to today’s standard of what makes a game great. What made Rampage fun years ago doesn’t hold true to what makes a game fun now. In fact, I’m not sure that Rampage could really be updated to acceptable standards, but that doesn’t mean that they can’t try. Unfortunately, they failed on this attempt. Destroying buildings for a high score doesn’t cut it, there’s no substance to it. It may end up being fun with a friend or in small half-hour doses, but for long periods of time it’s plain boring. I kept waiting for the game to throw something different at me to make me feel like I’m playing something innovative again. Instead I get a boring port of what was probably a boring game to begin with. Even the Wii remote can’t save this game. It’s hard to get your monster to do what you want, it’s not impossible, but it’s difficult and in the end leads you to destroy buildings in the same manner repeatedly.
Final Verdict
The game has some redeeming qualities about it, for one it includes a whole host of monsters to unlock not to mention the original Rampage game. Aside from that I found no other reason to play the game. Maybe, just maybe it’s a fun party game, but I don’t see it. If you really need a party game pick up a used GameCube game, it’d be cheaper than buying this pile. Even if you use this as a method to blow off some steam that still wouldn’t save it. The gameplay is just far too outdated and the game far repetitive to make it worthy of a purchase. Some people might get a kick out of its simplistic gameplay, but not me. Rampage: Total Destruction is rental material at best.
Score
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