Who... who makes a sequel and takes away features?
WHO DOES THAT?!
Rampage World Tour was a
passable remake of the classic Arcade game. It seems like they wanted to up the ante with Rampage 2, thus "Universal" Tour... but somewhere along the way it seems they
forgot that a sequel is supposed to add features, not take them away(
Unless they were bad or broken).
The game actually has a story, not that it matters, but it has the previous three heroes(Lizzie the Lizard, George the Gorilla and Ralph the Wolf)
captured by the soldiers. As one of three new Monsters, it's your job to rescue them(AKA unlock them for subsequent playthroughs) and lay waste to earth. As the title
implies, eventually you'll take on to space, except that you'll only destroy the other planets on the Milky Way and one Alien Planet, pretty disappointing for an "universal" tour. To be honest, I preferred the "Hell" motif that World Tour used for its latter levels over the new alien theme the game eventually uses. For all intents and purposes, these themes don't affect gameplay, but it's a matter of taste.
Gameplay is almost the same as the previous game, but with less features. Really. Just as before ,the game only has one mode and one mode only, and can be played with up to three players... just remember that all three players are confined to the same screen, so it can get
cramped. As one of 9 monsters(6 having to be unlocked!), you can punch, kick, climb buildings and eat people. Your objective in the game is to destroy
every building in each town. This is done by climbing them and either kick or punch both sides, which allows you to destroy sections of the buildings and, hopefully, uncover items(Either good, like food that heals you, or bad like electric appliances which hurt you), or to climb to the top and smash it by
repeatedly jumping on it. You can no longer get on top of tanks and ships to help you destroy buildings or the Toxic Ooze item that would transform you into VERN. This is a very,
very repetitive game, and removing features that allowed for more variation in how you play is
extremely stupid. And you'd think that having 9 playable characters would help, but while their stats and special attack vary, they play the same.
Exactly the same. After playing 10 of the 125 stages, you'll have thing
everything the game has to offer. Sure, by stage 75 aliens are introduced, but they don't change the gameplay, just the graphics.
They also removed continues, the previous game had unlimited continues, this time around, if you lose all your lives, you are done. This is pretty dumb considering that the game is rather tough. You monster is huge, and avoiding damage is
almost impossible, particularly since enemies respawn
indefinitely, and if you take too long to level a city, an airstrike will fly by and kill you. The trick to surviving is to make the most of each Bonus Stage, and amass as many lives as you can before the Alien levels begin.
Graphics are pretty decent. Monsters consist of digitalized sprites, while buildings and people where made by hand. You'd
think it'd be jarring seeing both styles at the same time, but it
kinda works to make the monsters stand out from the rest of the world. Monsters look pretty nice, and people's animations are pretty
funny. The soundtrack is surprisingly good, I thought the music fitted pretty well, and while I won't be caught humming any tune any time soon, I liked it. The sound effects are pretty
fitting as well, but they do get old after a while.
Rampage 2 is a very repetitive game. And I do mean, VERY repetitive, it's
needlessly long, and you'll have seen everything the game has to offer by level 76(Level 10 if you don't count aliens). And while having many monsters sounds neat, they all play the same.
Removing features from World Tour was pretty dumb. All in all, I'd stick with the prequel over this one.
3.0 out of 10
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