Rampage World Tour
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''Rampage World Tour'' is an
arcade video game An arcade video game is an arcade game that takes player input from its controls, processes it through electrical or computerized components, and displays output to an electronic monitor or similar display. All arcade video games are coin-oper ...
released by
Midway Games Midway Games Inc. (formerly Midway Manufacturing and Bally Midway, and commonly known simply as Midway) was an American video game company that existed from 1958 to 2010. Midway's franchises included ''Mortal Kombat'', ''Rampage (franchise), Ra ...
in 1997 as the sequel to '' Rampage''. It was developed at Game Refuge by Brian Colin and Jeff Nauman, who designed the 1986 original. Ports were released for the
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,
Nintendo 64 The (N64) is a home video game console developed and marketed by Nintendo. It was released in Japan on June 23, 1996, in North America on September 29, 1996, and in Europe and Australia on March 1, 1997. As the successor to the Super Nintendo E ...
,
Game Boy Color The (GBC or CGB) is an 8-bit handheld game console developed by Nintendo. It was released in Japan on October 21, 1998, and to international markets that November. Compared to the original Game Boy, the Game Boy Color features a color TFT scre ...
,
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, and
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. It was re-released on ''
Midway Arcade Treasures 2 ''Midway Arcade Treasures 2'' is the second collection of classic arcade games published by Midway for the PlayStation 2, Xbox (not compatible with Xbox 360), and GameCube. This compilation includes 20 games that were not in the 2003 release of ...
'' and included in '' Rampage: Total Destruction''.


Plot

George, Lizzie, and Ralph have been released due to an explosion at a Scumlabs facility. The trio begin to destroy all of Scumlabs' bases scattered throughout the world and kill its employees. In the last levels, Scumlabs
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Eustace DeMonic turns himself into a monster in an attempt to combat George, Lizzie, and Ralph, but is defeated during a battle on a lunar base. After this, the only surviving Scumlabs employee, Dr. Elizabeth Veronica, tries to disintegrate the monsters with a ray gun on her spaceship, but it instead shrinks them to a miniature size, and they wind up inside her ship. George and Ralph pose on the shelves, while Lizzie bounces atop of Veronica's breasts (though the latter portion is censored on home ports).


Gameplay

Like in the first ''Rampage'' game, the goal of every stage is to destroy all the buildings in each city while avoiding or destroying the military forces. If the player takes too long in destroying the city, jets will fly in and bomb the remaining buildings, ending the stage with a lower score. In the first level, Peoria, a tourism billboard cycles through different regions in the country (Northeast, Southwest, etc.). Destroying the billboard when it is showing one of these regions will send the player in that direction. Players may also choose to eat or ignore the "World Tour" power-ups and control which country they can visit. After getting a World Tour power-up, the next few levels take place in a foreign location until a Scumlabs plant is destroyed. Purple radioactive waste temporarily transforms the player into a super monster known as V.E.R.N. The game will not end until every Scumlabs city has been destroyed, which may cause some erratic traveling around towards the end of the game (including multiple world tour trips if the players have missed or purposely kept from getting world tour flags). The arcade version supports up to three players simultaneously. Though it was announced that the PlayStation version would also support three players, both the PlayStation and Saturn versions allow only two players. Three player support apparently was programmed into the port at one point and pulled at the last minute, since a review of the PlayStation version in ''
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'' describes three player gameplay. The Nintendo 64 conversion includes full three-player functionality.


Release

The home ports were published in Europe by
GT Interactive Atari, Inc. is an American video gaming company based in New York City, and a subsidiary of the Atari SA holding company. It is the main entity serving the commercial Atari brand globally since 2003. The company currently publishes games based o ...
. Shortly after the home ports were released, ''Rampage World Tour'' was exhibited at the JAMMA arcade show in Japan, but garnered little interest. The game would never be released in Japan.


Reception

''
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'' reviewed the arcade version of the game. They derided the decision to continue using sprites for the graphics instead of polygons, concluding that "''Rampage World Tour'' seems aimed at satisfying gamers' yearning for past titles like ''Space Invaders'' or ''Pac-Man''. Fair enough, but all this remake will accomplish is to make gamers yearn for the original more than ever." Critics agreed that the console ports are nearly arcade-perfect, though some criticized the PlayStation and Saturn versions for supporting only two players instead of the three supported in the arcade version. However, they were divided about the game itself. Many hailed it as a fun revival of an arcade classic. For example, Shawn Smith wrote in ''
Electronic Gaming Monthly ''Electronic Gaming Monthly'' (''EGM'') is a monthly American video game magazine. It offers video game news, coverage of industry events, interviews with gaming figures, editorial content and product reviews. History The magazine was fou ...
'' that "There's nothing like sitting down and playing a good old-time game. It's even better to do it when it has been enhanced, but still has the same feel as the original." Despite giving the PlayStation version a score of only 5.7 out of 10,
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highly recommended the game due to its new gameplay tricks and larger levels, and said the only possible way to improve on it would be with three-player support. However, the majority criticized the game's 2D sidescrolling format as antiquated, and some further remarked that the simplicity and repetitiveness of the ''Rampage'' gameplay, while highly enjoyable in arcades, was not suited to the home console format. Adam Douglas explained in ''
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'' that the ''Rampage'' series "was great for getting your aggressions out and then moving on. Why would you want to play this game for hours at a time?" ''
Sega Saturn Magazine ''Sega Saturn Magazine'' (originally known as ''Sega Magazine'') was a monthly magazine from the United Kingdom covering the Sega Saturn, a home video game console. It held the official Saturn magazine license for the UK, and some issues incl ...
'' similarly held that "The coin-op was a great laugh for about ten minutes or so, but the lack of variety in the level design and the shallow nature of the gameplay meant that it soon grew quite tiresome. Despite the meagre improvements to the update, the very same criticisms can be levelled at ''Rampage World Tour''." Even Smith showed a loss of enthusiasm in his review of the later Nintendo 64 version, now stating that the game is fun at first but quickly grows old. His co-reviewer John Ricciardi disagreed, saying that though the game lacks variety it can nonetheless be engrossing for hours on end. In a review of the PlayStation version, ''
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'' was more undecided: "With plenty of special moves and power-ups to discover as you lay waste to more than 100 cities, the gameplay certainly lasts - just don't expect it to change much. Then again, sometimes it's good to turn off your brain and turn up the cosmic carnage." However, a different ''GamePro'' critic reviewed the Saturn version, and opined that the game's "utter failure to take advantage of new technology and add new elements to the original ''Rampage'' is inexcusable." A third ''GamePro'' critic, reviewing the Nintendo 64 version, likewise found that the game added little new and suffers from repetitive gameplay and music, and a lack of variety in the buildings which players spend most of their time demolishing. ''Next Generation'' reviewed the Nintendo 64 version of the game, and stated that "Despite the three-player mode, no amount of graphic flash or nostalgia can improve a style of gameplay whose day has passed."
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of ''
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'' noted that the PC port of the game had performance and graphics issues when played in full-screen mode. The best performance was achieved when the screen was set to a postcard-sized frame. He found the action to be basic, although there is a variety of animation. He added that it is "suffused with all the monster movie fun that was conspicuously lacking in the recent ''
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'' film".


References


External links

* {{Authority control 1997 video games Arcade video games Digital Eclipse games Game Boy Color games Game Refuge games GT Interactive games Midway Studios San Diego games Midway video games Multiplayer and single-player video games Nintendo 64 games PlayStation (console) games PlayStation Network games Point of View games W Saffire games Sega Saturn games Video game sequels Video games developed in the United States Video games set in Australia Video games set in Belize Video games set in Brazil Video games set in Canada Video games set in Denmark Video games set in Egypt Video games set in England Video games set in France Video games set in French Polynesia Video games set in Germany Video games set in Greece Video games set in Hungary Video games set in India Video games set in Ireland Video games set in Italy Video games set in Japan Video games set in Kenya Video games set in Mexico Video games set in Monaco Video games set in Morocco Video games set in Nepal Video games set in Poland Video games set in Romania Video games set in Russia Video games set in South Africa Video games set in Spain Video games set in the Netherlands Video games set in the United States Video games set in Turkey Video games set in Ukraine Video games set on the Moon Video games with pre-rendered 3D graphics Windows games