Rampage: Total Destruction Updated Hands-On

At Midway's recent press event, we got some more hands-on time with Rampage: Total Destruction, the latest in Midway's recent line of classic arcade revivals. But where most retreads of the classics attempt to add modern bells and whistles to the experience (often mucking up the core formula in the process), this new Rampage seems like that old arcade favorite re-created in 3D. Well, with a bunch more monsters, and some power-ups, and that sort of thing. But this is definitely still Rampage.

If you remember all the way back to the original Rampage, there were only three monsters destroying cities all over the world. Those were George the ape, Ralph the wolf, and Lizzie the lizard (duh). The original trio is back for more mayhem in Total Destruction, but they're joined by 27 other monsters (for a total of 30, natch) that should present quite the interesting menagerie. These mutants come about by drinking the swill known as Scum Cola, and amusingly, each monster's form reflects his or her original human disposition. The lawyer, for instance, turns into a giant shark. How appropriate.

Once you're in a one- or two-player game, though, the action is straight-up Rampage, pretty much just like you remember. Climb up buildings, punch and kick them a lot, and they'll eventually fall down. You'll find some power-ups in certain windows, and once you've wreaked enough havoc, the national guard is obviously going to come out and mess up your day. The game does seem to have some extra gameplay mechanics in place, since you'll occasionally gain new moves and such by racking up the points, but at its core, this certainly looks like good old Rampage.

The biggest surprise about Rampage: Total Destruction? It'll be a budget game, priced at around $20. That seems to us like a fair price to pay for what's looking like a surprisingly faithful reproduction of the classic arcade brawler--or whatever you want to call it. But of course only time will tell, as will our review, which you can look for around the game's late-April release window.