Rampage Through Time is the fourth game in the Rampage series, and is the end of this trilogy of narratively connected games. I guess Midway was running out of ideas after going into space, so they decided to send the monsters through time. It isn’t the worst idea.
This isn’t too different from the previous game. It is more of the same. If you played the other games in the series, you’ve played this one. While I like the idea of smashing cities as a giant monster, I wish they would do something else.
The developers expanded the roster to eight and decided to bring back Scumlabs as our main adversary. I don’t mind it, and there is some familiarity with this formula. They do make Scumlabs into an evil corporation bent on world domination, which adds them to the long list of bad guys with dumb ideas on how to achieve their goals.
TLDR: This is more of the same. Rampage Through Time uses a tired formula.
Narrative
So, the world hasn’t learned a dam thing after two games. Scumlabs is now dabbling in time travel. They’ve also created another monster.
Scumlabs is now trying to take over the world. I’m not sure how they plan on doing that, but it doesn’t matter. The monsters jump into the time machine to stop the bad guys.
What follows is the same thing you’ve done in the previous games, but in different time periods. How can the monsters possibly be stopped? I guess that doesn’t matter too much because most people are just here for smashing buildings.
Gameplay
I don’t like the gameplay as much in this game. It isn’t all that different from the previous games, but there are bonus stages that you have to win, and if you don’t, then you get a “Game Over.” This was mind-numbingly stupid.
There are some good things about the game. The roster has been expanded to eight, and you get two AI companions to help you. Here is the roster:
- George – Our giant ape.
- Lizzie – A lizard
- Ralph – The wolf
- Ruby – The lobster
- Curtis – A mouse
- Boris – Rhino
- Myukus – Cycloptic alien
- Harley – A Warthog
Everything is carried over from Universal Tour, which isn’t a bad thing. I liked the gameplay from that game, but there are some issues with what they tried to do. I don’t think the AI companions were a good addition.
It sounds like a cool idea, but it devolves into the monsters fighting each other. This doesn’t make too much sense because they’re all supposed to be fighting Scumlabs. Also, the AI seems to fight against you or keep you from getting to the buildings you need to destroy to advance in the game.
I get that they’re all monsters and would probably fight. It is similar to how Godzilla always fights other monsters, but these creatures are supposed to be fighting for a common goal. It feels counterproductive to have two AI companions.
There are also mini-games that act as transition scenes. If you don’t win, then you get a game over. It is really dumb. While it makes up for the easy difficulty, it doesn’t make it less stupid.
Rampage Through Time has more game modes, which is a welcome addition. All the health items are the same, and some enemies look similar to Universal Tour. It isn’t bad, but it is more of the same thing. It can also get too repetitive.
Visuals
It isn’t too different from the other two games on the PS1. The monsters, stages, and enemies all look good. The visuals are an improvement from Universal Tour as the buildings and backgrounds look better.
The cutscenes are still very good. They add to the game’s feel and help explain what is going on. They’re exactly the same as Universal Tour.
It is a shame that the developers didn’t do much to make the game look better. I know that this was still the PS1, but I felt like more could’ve been done. This game had a short development compared to the other two, so that might’ve kept them from making the game look better than Universal Tour.
Reviews at the Time
I only looked at two reviews for this game. If I had easily accessed more of them, it wouldn’t have changed things much. Only GameFan gave Rampage Through Time a positive review.
GameSpot gave the game a 4/10. The reviewer mentioned the bad AI from your companions, which is terrible. It was a bit harsh when it came to the gameplay, but I agree that there are better ways to get the Rampage experience.
IGN gave the game a 3.5/10. I think this review was a bit too harsh. The reviewer says they didn’t like the original arcade game, which makes me wonder why he agreed to review the fourth game in the series. Aside from that, they repeat some of what is mentioned in the GameSpot review.
What all this boils down to is that the game was poorly received. A lot of it had to do with the arcade gameplay that worked in the 1980s, but wasn’t what anyone wanted in the late-1990s and early-2000s.
6.5/10. Rampage Through Time is a rehash of the things that worked in the previous two games. Unfortunately, it didn’t do anything significantly different from a now tired formula.
Pros
- Easy to play
- Good Graphics
- Fun Gameplay
Cons
- Repetitive
- Not much variety
- Stupid Bonus Games
Conclusion
I’m pretty sure this was the game I rented as a kid. I can’t remember what I thought of it back then, but I don’t like it that much now. The developers didn’t do anything new with the formula.
It would’ve been nice if Midway had tried to do something different. They managed to make Gauntlet better when they rebooted that franchise, but Rampage was kept largely the same. Maybe the arcade games were fairing better than the home console ports?
I have one more Rampage game to play before I can go over the series. It has been fairly disappointing. The first game is a lot of fun, and I have some great memories, but these three have been fairly bad, as Midway didn’t do much to modernize the games.
If you liked this post, please check out my other posts, such as Rampage World Tour and Rampage Universal Tour.