Modern life, for all its conveniences, can be stressful, sometimes, we need a release from our frustrations. In the 80s, Midway created an arcade game that took the fun of the classic monster/Kaiju movies of the past and married it to the fun of committing that carnage yourself, in a sure-fire hit called Rampage. In 1997, took the arcade convenience of destroying metropolises, to the home consoles of the mid-90s, and brought a few upgrades along with it, in Rampage World Tour.

Rampage World Tour stars (the monster of your choice) off in humble Peoria, after escaping from the appropriately named Scumlabs. Lizzie (a Godzilla stand-in), George (a King Kong ape), and Ralph (a gigantic lycanthrope) seek vengeance on the company that experimented on them and the world. A world brimming with the potential of city-destructing carnage, as you smash buildings, eat civilians, and generally destroy anything that stands in your way.

Much of the addictive gameplay of the arcade classic has largely been retained, you can take the frustrations of a bad day out on a moderately sized metropolis, gobble up unsuspecting civilians, and crush cars into slivers. The military won’t like this at all, but they won’t pose much of a threat if you are careful. If you take your time, they’ll carpet bomb the area (after apparently evacuating as many citizens as they can) to signify the end of a level, keeping the action swift and lively.

This world tour is packed with over 120 urban settlements just waiting for you to unleash your brand of destructive annihilation. While graphics have moved on since the 80s, the sprites have been upgraded to take advantage of the 32-bit era, whilst retaining that classic gameplay, that made the original a hit. As is the case with many Midway titles, a great deal of detail has been put into the animations and the overall design to be as enticing as possible. You get your level score from scientist Betty Veronica (get it?). Alongside the 50s B-movie score on the menu screen, does a lot to evoke the classic movies that inspired the franchise.

It would be redundant of me to exalt the cathartic thrill of squashing civilians, reducing skyscrapers to their foundations, and terrorising townsfolk while laying waste the latest in Military hardware. Rampage has taken that simple but effective formula and has upgraded it somewhat for the home consoles of the era. Adding an international flair with over 1200 levels to destroy. All while keeping the cartoonish chaos and a classic b-movie vibe that inspired great success in the original. In bringing the arcade hit into the realm of the late 90s home market, you can say that Rampage World Tour is a blockbuster in every sense of the word.

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