1001 Games To Play Before You Die: #0154 Rampage

Saturday, July 14, 2018

#0154 Rampage

Okay! As you will notice this is NOT Command Carrier like was promised last time.

I fully intended to PLAY Command Carrier, it looks like a good game, but then I started to look at the manual for the game. It's 64 pages long. 64 pages of mostly dry instructions on how to play the game. I couldn't do it. I honestly couldn't do it. I tried playing the game WITHOUT the instructions but I couldn't even MOVE the dang carrier so I couldn't' do anything. Props for taking a simulation game to the extreme in terms of complexity, but DANG it was just SO complicated.

So instead we have a game that is NOT on the list. Today we have Rampage, a 1986 game from Midway! I love Midway, they've made some of my favorite arcade games including Robotron 2084.

In this game you play as one of three humans turned into monsters through various fashions George the giant Gorilla, Lizzie the giant iguana/dinosaur/Godzilla thing, and Ralph the giant werewolf. (fun fact, Ralph from Wreck It Ralph was named after Ralph in this game) Your goal is to smash up all the buildings while eating as many people as you can to stay alive.

This game is honestly unique. There really hasn't been a game QUITE like this on the list. Not only is the game unique in that it involves a unique style of platforming and climbing, with an emphasis on destroying the play field, but it's also a game where you actively play as the villain. the people you're tasked to devour are the heroes trying to defend their fair city.

Normally I'm absolutely opposed to plots like this, I simply can't enjoy games where I'm actively rooting against the main character, Rampage seems to pull it off for me. There's just such a cartoonish vibe to it. And this disconnects me from those sorts of feelings. The characters are just having SO much fun causing destruction you can't help but root for them. It's honestly a blast.

unfortunately there's really not much in the way of music, and the controls feel clunky and unpolished. But overall the experience has aged surprisingly well.

If you're in the mood for a game about causing as much destruction as you can while playing as giant monsters, you'll have a good time here.

Next up: Forgotten Worlds

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Why I'm taking this challenge

So! I’ve spent nearly my entire life as a Nintendo Fanboy. A rabid fanboy to the point where when my family got a brand new Playstation 2 back in ‘02 (One of the best consoles ever). I refused to play it. I refused to have anything to do with the company that stole my beloved Nintendo’s thunder! This fanboyism ran rampant in my gaming life through high school and even when I moved out to live with the woman who would one day become my wife. I still didn’t play anything but Nintendo consoles. In fact, it wasn’t until we were gifted an Xbox 360 did I FINALLY play a game on a different console. That was Bioshock, it was also the first shooter I had ever played.It became one of my favorite games of all time. The rest is history, I’ve been playing games on any console I want now.

That’s all well and good, but this means that there is an entire other gaming WORLD that I’ve never played. Never experienced in my life. I love shooters, but with the exception of the half-life series, and System shock 2, every shooter from Doom all the way up until Bioshock, I’ve never played. Not Quake, not CoD, not battlefield.

So, since I’ve missed out on nearly 30 years of gaming, I decided to take a challenge. My lovely wife got me a book called 1001 Video Games You Must Play Before You Die I am going to play through every game in this book. Starting with Oregon Trail (1971) and finish with Bioshock Infinite (2013) I plan to do at least one generation per year. At least. And to help me keep track of what I've done, I started doing small reviews of every game.

At first I wrote these in the starment.net forums, but eventually they became too lengthy to only be posted there, so I created this blog to not only help keep me organized, but so others can follow along as well. It won't be easy, but I think it's worth it to play games that I may otherwise never have played.