Control:  
The game is easy enough to control. You control a cursor, of all things, which highlights two adjacent color blocks as they sit in their row atop the screen.

Players can flip the blocks in the row to get a two-color combination where they want it. Then it's bombs away.

Eventually, special flashing colored blocks show up and will clear every block of the same color that touches it directly. And now we understand why we're stacking such massive piles of color in the first place!

Gameplay:  
This basic concept runs throughout the game modes.

The game's main mode, the one where they really try to get some Rampage monsters in, is almost like a Rescue game.

One of the Rampage monsters is trapped at the bottom of the screen in a big cage that fills in about 1/3 of the playfield. What's more, a bunch of colored blocks bury the monster even more.

Like some great Vegas magician, the player must help the Monster escape from his locked cage, buried deep underground.

As you might guess, this requires a lot of color switching, block dropping, and combos that come from resting a color-clearing piece on another color and then clearing out the color that it rests on.

Clear off the top of the cage and the round ends. Run out of time or build too high and you'll have to start over.

The game even features a story in-between rounds where news reporters let players know where the next monster has been captured. It's fairly interesting and helps add some storyline to a game that otherwise wouldn't have one.

The other game modes are 'Attack' and 'Score' and both offer different, monsterless variations to the overall theme.

Multiplayer:
Rampage Puzzle Attack offers a two-player link mode where gamers each start with the same play field and race to see who can empty it first.

Both games are shown on each system, giving the game a console feel.

Sound:
Unfortunately, Midway didn't put its all into the music department. Aside from a rather forgettable sound track, the game offers a handful of bleeps and bloops for the obvious tasks.

It's not bad or anything, but like the graphics, it could have been better.

OVERALL:
Rampage Puzzle Attack doesn't have much more than its gameplay to win over gamers.

And what's there is fairly original, and at least interesting for a while.

The replay value isn't as high as you might want from a puzzle game, and that makes a purchase questionable.

 

The Lowdown on  Rampage Puzzle Attack Aesthetics: Average Control: Average Gameplay: Average Multiplayer: Average Sound: Below Average Innovation: 3/6 Lasting Appeal: 2/6 Overall: Average! "An Average Game"