In our latest Antstream Arcade Archive series, we take a look at another specific game from the Antstream Arcade Retro vault, giving you the lowdown on its plot, gameplay, tips and more. This month we proudly present Rampage, the famous arcade game that lets you cause havoc as a giant beast! Now, YOU are the monster!
Wow. I’m King Kong.
Oh yeah! In a unique role-reversal, the player takes on the role of the so-called bad guys, three monsters that are determined to destroy building after building in a literal rampage across a variety of North American cities. Tiny humans stand in their way, firing their puny guns or chucking dynamite; fortunately, while a little crunchy, they taste good and shouldn’t get in the way of all this wanton destruction. Overall, Rampage is a beautiful cartoon homage to classic monster movies.
How did these monsters come about?
George is the giant ape, and he’s actually a human, transformed into this monstrous form by an experimental vitamin. Dinosaur Lizzie is a woman metamorphosed after taking a dip in a radioactive lake while the huge slavering werewolf, Ralph, is a poor unfortunate poisoned by a nasty food additive. Naturally, the human populace don’t take kindly to the trio smashing up their homes, deploying National Guard soldiers, tanks, helicopters and more against them. Bullets and missiles do damage to the monsters, as does falling off a building. Fortunately there are bonus food items to pick up and you can always eat a soldier if you’re feeling peckish. Just watch out for the ones carrying sticks of dynamite. They’re extra spicy.
Yum! How do you progress through the game?
The idea is to smash up all the buildings which can be done by climbing up their sides and punching or kicking the hell out of them. Once all the buildings have collapsed and enemies destroyed/eaten, it’s on to the next city. Set over the course of 128 chaotic days, the game starts and ends in Illinois and includes other famous cities such as Chicago, Michigan, New York and Washington. And of course, at heart, Rampage is a multiplayer game – there’s not many things more satisfying than witnessing all three monsters attacking a city, soldiers, civilians – and each other!
Those pesky humans keep shooting me! Any advice on how to keep them at bay?
Consumable items such as meat and fruit can be revealed by smashing the windows of buildings. These replenish the monsters’ health while toasters, televisions and cactuses diminish it. Also watch out for a specific type of civilian as each monster has a liking for a certain type of woman (George), man (Lizzie) or businessman (Ralph). When holding these unfortunate innocents in their palms, the monster’s score increases and the National Guard lay off their attacks. Eventually the prisoner will attack you, forcing you to let them go.
I’m ready to cause destruction! But what are my chances of becoming top behemoth on the Antstream Arcade leaderboard?
There’s some smashing mayhem going on in Antstream Arcade’s Rampage high score table. Standing proudly atop a rapidly-crumbling skyscraper is qualityloop with an incredible 4,562,895 score. Beneath them is F1 JV with 3,291,965 and Decafsharrk with just over two and a half million points. In order to best these scores you’ll need to eat a lot of National Guardsmen!
Roaaaar! I want more! What challenges are there for Rampage on Antstream Arcade?
We have SIX amazing challenges for Rampage on Antstream starting with the high score challenge High Rise and ending with Buzz Off in which the objective is to destroy as many helicopters as possible before the level ends. In between you have Architectural Conservation (keep the buildings standing for as long as possible), Street Food (eat as many people as possible in a level), Controlled Demolition (level the city as quickly as possible) and Naked Ape – keep your energy above 75% for as long as possible.
Beyond the arcade original, what else is there to Rampage?
Lots more! Back in the Eighties there were a number of well-received home conversions. Most notable was the Atari Lynx game which even contains a new character, Larry The Rat. Console-exclusive sequels followed, including Rampage World Tour in 1997, Rampage Universal Tour two years later and 2001’s odd Rampage Puzzle Attack for the Gameboy Advance. Finally, having purchased Midway Games in 2009, Warner Bros. produced a Rampage movie starring Dwayne Johnson in 2018, and it’s one of the better videogame to cinema translations, adding more backstory while amending a few elements from the arcade game.
Plenty to get my teeth into.
And playable right now on Antstream Arcade!
Thank you for reading - watch out for another blast from the Antstream Arcade Archive soon!
RAMPAGE and all related characters and elements © & TM Warner Bros. Entertainment Inc. (s21)