I recently picked up the game Rampage: Total Destruction. I can't tell whether i am satisfied or thoroughly disappointed with the title. This coming from someone would waste endless quarters with his old bro at arcades laying waste to buildings and dying...dying alot. I was a huge fan of the first two titles of the game, *world tour was great on it's system versions, arcade wasn't done so well and the sequel was dated as it was practicly a clone of world tour*.

I'll start with the positives. Rampage: Total Destruction, has the makings of a good game. Crisp graphics, no slow down, responsive controls, good music, silly happenings, plenty to unlock, slight rpg elements, decent music, no bugs... you start the game off with the three classic characters Ralph, George, Lizzie. The opening sequence was nicely animated *for my gamecube* though not up to the par of games like RE4. I was suprised by the fairly thoughtful plot displayed in the opening sequence of the game and was nice and thrilled to get going with my little sister, on the supposed future to the series. I enjoyed working through the first couple lvs, i liked the lack of load times between stages, and i was happy with the old school farting, burping, puking, people eating, and little eggs *eat a nun and be struck by lightning etc*.

After the first couple levels i realised why this game was going to dissapoint me, repetition. Throughout the entire game you are doing essentialy the same thing. Using characters with differences varying only in size and jumping height, you use the same punch, kick, jump kick and jump punch to plow through visually stagnant cities. Sure every once in a while you get to smash up some tram-tracks or bust into a unique city or park, but everything becomes reminiscint quickly.

The game stays true to the origionals too well, they do not add enough immersive elements or special abilities to the game. You can gain 4 special attacks but the attacks are the same with all characters. It is challanging in the last couple cities similar to the very first arcade game, however, you fight the same bosses several times *tank thing, flying saucer thing, and then the airship at the last lv*

The begining led off a great movie introducing a comedic story of a new cola challange *ala pepsi-challange* in which all of the 30 contestants who participated were transformed into monsters, though supposedly all captured, George, Lizzie, and Ralph were loose to tear the place up. Unfortunately, the introduction movie and the apperance of the scum-lab scientist as a boss are the only places where the story comes into play. No advancement at all in story which was dissapointing. For as much character as the monsters manurisms were given, a story should have been developed around them.

I can't complain about everything though, as a party game this is decidedly a fun pass-time. The monsters look terrific, they all sound great and have their own personas. Unlike World-Tours sequal which introduced a rat, rhino and crab, this game has thoughtful characters that were perfectly rendered. I hated Rampage 2's new trio and had quickly switched back to Ralph or Lizzie at the oppurtunity. However this game has plenty of likeable monsters. The rat, the octopus, the jackelope, the man-eating plant, the echidna, the yeti, the flaming demon, and my personal favorite, the blowfish, had some time spent on their voices and personalities. Unfortuantly, no time was spent in individually programing their abilities, only their eating habits.

Another problem is that they included perfectly emulated copies of the origional rampage, and world tour, whats the problem in this you may ask? it lets you easily compare the games to the latest version. It basicly points out how dissapointing the game is, the pseudo-3d worlds are only impressive for a short time, and then redundant. It's like midway started getting going on a great update, and forgot they were supposed to be innovative...

Final Verdict.
Pros:Looks fantastic, still funny, great AI, good party game, great character design, release price $19.99 on all xbox,ps2, and gc.
Cons: Repetitive gameplay, intersting story is lost by the first level, not enough levels, pseudo 3d levels instead of fully 3 dimensional spaces, not *new* enough.

rating: 6/10, a good rental, and nice distraction for fans of the series. But don't count on lasting value, not as good as a game should be, released in the end of the last gen consoles lifetimes.