Rampage World Tour's essential problem is that it clearly wasn't designed for home consoles.
This simple concept proved to be another example of how addictive gameplay could neutralise subpar technical performances, so it was logical that, after many ports to home consoles, Midway eventually attempted to pull off this trick in again with a console sequel. The result was Rampage World Tour, which saw the light of day in 1997 on virtually every platform that was available at the time. The game can be considered a contemporary update of the original in nearly every way, with the adventure maintaining a similar amount of charming monotony and cheesy coolness. This review concerns the Nintendo 64 version of the game, however, and in that light it must be said that the technical shortcomings and extremely linear gameplay all too easily exposed its arcade roots to a point where it just starts to annoy.
With fullblown 3D games such as Super Mario 64 and Diddy Kong Racing already on the shelves, reviewers at the time found an easy target in the visual presentation of Rampage World Tour. It must be noted, however, that the game was actually quite well drawn, with the 2D graphics and gameplay perfectly resurrecting the experience that blessed the arcades some 11 years earlier. Any attempt to interpretate the original Rampage in three dimensions would've been premature and clunky, given the fact that Midway really had trouble keeping its head above water with other 3D offerings that generation, with Gex 64 and Mortal Kombat 4 being but a few good examples of this.
While the retro-esque visual presentation is likeable, or forgiveable at the very least, there are some serious shortcomings in Rampage World Tour that simply cannot be overlooked. The monotonous nature of the game might've been acceptable in the arcade version, but such a lack in variation simply cannot be tolerated on a home console, seeing as people pay a considerable amount of cash to own a game. For starters, one is bound to notice the similarity of the stages. The game is called Rampage World Tour, and you do actually demolish cities all over the world, but there's virtually nothing that distinguishes, say, Chicago from Tokyo. Some of the cities have a characteristic building, such as London's Big Ben, but for the most part every level seems to be created at random, with the city name only being applied to it later. There are some welcome exceptions, such as the hidden hell level and the moon base you'll enter near the end of the game, but the severe lack of variety is impossible to ignore. This might've worked in an arcade game that was designed for short playing sessions, but on the N64 it's bound to become annoying at an early point in the game.
Things get worse when you pay attention to the music. A cheesy rock tune plays near constantly, and if you're going to beat the game, you'll either have to put on your radio or have an uncanny ability of ignoring anything that enters your ears. The sound effects, which usually consist of screams, burps, and other slapstick elements, are genering as well, though slightly amusing for a while.
I could go on for a while, giving you a detailed description of how monotonous the gameplay is, but the essential problem of this game can be expressed in a much simpler fashion. It all comes down to the fact that Rampage World Tour clearly wasn't designed for the Nintendo 64, or any home console for that matter. It is an arcade game at heart, and it clearly shows in nearly every aspect of the game. It was obviously designed for short playing sessions, and intended as a tribute to the 1986 arcade original, at which it succeeds rather well. The controls are more solid and varied than in its predecessor, and its simple and charming gameplay will win over the hearts of many old fans. Its simplicity keeps it from attracting too many new ones, however. Rampage World Tour was and is a fun game to play once in a while, just don't expect a particularly immersive experience, nor revolutionary specs.