The Wonder Years 7.17.08: Week 64 - Rampart

Posted by Owain J. Brimfield on 07.17.2008

Take a break from the hectic pace of E3 and step back to medieval times...

Welcome to the column where all gamers of a certain age come to wallow in 16-bit nostalgia. I'm your host, Owain J. Brimfield, and I'll be discussing some of the hidden gems and instant classics of gaming's golden era. Some of these games may crop up in downloadable form at some point, some may be consigned to the annals of history. Either way, they're worth tracking down if you missed them first time round, or replaying if you were lucky enough to catch them. Let's take a trip to:

RAMPART

(Atari, Genesis & Super NES, 1990)

So with the rest of the gaming world having their eyes, brains and drooling mouths fully focused on a certain conference going on somewhere in the world, I'm doing what I usually do at this time of year - step away from gaming for a week or so and reconvene once the dust has settled, the shock of the big announcements has died down and we can get on with quietly anticipating all the newly revealed developments made by the Big Three. I have to say though, I'm a little more psyched on Mega Man 9 than Vinny Chiucchi. Anyway, with the rest of the 411 Games staff turning their attentions towards this most trailblazing of gaming conferences, and for all I know reveling in announcements of virtual reality headsets and assorted other wonderments, I figured there must be some of you out there who feel as overwhelmed as I do, so this column's for you. After all, what game could prove more of an antithesis to the shenanigans of E3 than a 16-bit port of an old arcade game developed by Atari of all people, an arcade game that itself was already trying to recapture the halcyon days of arcade actioners on its release in 1990, and a game set in medieval times?

So, Rampart then. It's a safe bet that if you can't quite place the title you've probably still played the game, as it's been ported to more systems throughout the history of gaming than I can remember for any other game. Frankly, you're bound to have played it at some point. Although it's not quite as ubiquitous as, say, Asteroids or the Missile Command template, it's still a fairly straightforward game concept that's lasted well for the past twenty years, and actually manages to feel even older than that. That's a good thing, by the way. Essentially, you're placed in control of a series of castles and settlements on the coastal region of an island, and have to face off against an encroaching navy. It's a simple turn-based case of build/fight/repair, perhaps reminiscent to certain geeks (myself included, natch) of a beginner's Warhammer scenario. With only six levels on offer, it's in theory a short experience, but with a difficulty level pitched somewhere between Sinistar and Ikaruga and a sense of mercy roughly equivalent to Josef Mengele, you're more likely to be weeping tears of frustration into your controller than actually beating the game.

At the outset of the game you're given the option of selecting a "home" castle from a number of options, which is then surrounded with a wall and three cannons. The action commences pretty quickly as a large navy begins to attack, and the ships are just begging to be sunk before they can fire cannon-based death (or, in the case of the red ships, inexplicable fireballs) into the heart of your base. Each turn brings a set number of boats, some of which can deposit grunts on the shore for land-based offence, and it's a simple case of killing them all until they're dead. With the armada temporarily halted, you're presented with a set of Tetromino-esque wall shapes with which to barricade and bolster your defenses and capture nearby castles and territory, the kicker being that any castle not completely surrounded by walls at the end of the turn becomes lost. Assuming you still have a castle, you can also place a few new cannons into its grounds, with the occasional power-up cannon becoming available to deal out even greater quantities of death. And then it all begins again, until you've sunk the requisite number of enemy ships to advance to the next level. Come on now, even a lobotomized chimp can grasp that structure.

Although it sounds limited in scope - well, okay, although it is limited in scope - the execution is generally superb. The various gameplay elements have a satisfying balance to them, whether it's in building castles further from the coast to sacrifice offensive accuracy for defensive potential, or in balancing the placement of cannons to ensure that your offensive capabilities can still be retained come the repair phase. However, as battling the ruthless AI can be a tad exhausting after a while, it's always nice to dip into the solid multiplayer mode, which offers support for up to three players in land-based battles where claiming territory is a priority. Although three's an odd number (in more ways than one... ha!) it actually works quite well, being a lot more enjoyable than heads-up contests but without the clusterfrak-ery a four player mode would surely create. The relentless pace of the action, too, enables you to ignore the rather shonky technical aspects of the game, although criticizing an arcade title like this for having poor graphics is a bit like criticizing Mitch Hedberg for taking drugs.

It's actually pretty easy to get hold of Rampart these days due to it being a whore of a game and spreading itself thick and fast over various systems, from the Atari Lynx to the Mac. More recently, it's become available on the Playstation Network with online multiplayer supported (absolute greatness right there), and is also a part of Midway Arcade Treasures on the previous generation of consoles. I imagine you'd struggle to get hold of a Genesis or SNES cartridge of the game, but with the PS3 incarnation offering all the features of the original plus online three-way action, it's difficult to recommend any other version of the game over that. Rampart is admittedly more of an 8-bit title in terms of its classic 'feel', but it still qualifies as one of the more enjoyable strategic action titles of the 90s, and is well suited to the task of distracting gamers from the trappings of modern gaming and all its E3-associated hectic-ness.

Rampart trivia

• The arcade original contains a very limited number of continues, meaning the six levels can take a large wallet to complete.
  
• One of the most successful console ports of the game was the NES version, which featured a training mode as well as some in-depth options for the multiplayer game that rivaled Worms.
  
• A freeware game entitled Kajaani Kombat takes Rampart's gameplay into space. It's not as good as it sounds, though.
  

The Videosphere

Let's take a look at this week's video highlight of Rampart in action. The following is from one of the PC ports of the game, but it certainly gives you a good idea what to expect. Oddly enough though, I couldn't find a single video of anyone who was any good at the game. Just one of those things I guess.



Reactions and interactions

I mentioned Sid Meier's Pirates! in passing last week, and I stand corrected in my facts:

Posted by: Toby

"Not that it's terribly relevant but I thought I should point out that there was in fact a version of the original Pirates! released for the Sega Genesis. I used to own it and loved playing it back in the early 90s. Maybe you can take a look at if for a future column."

Hey, I never realized it was ever released on Sega's system. It was a pretty decent concept and one that would stand up well to a sequel. Maybe I will take a look at it in future.

Posted by: Joe

"Even less relevant, I found my C64 disk of Pirates! with a nice map of the carribean but the manual is gone :-("

You're just going to have to do what any real man would do and muddle through on your own, taking seven hours to grasp even the rudiments but steadfastly denying that reading the manual would improve your comprehension of things. That's how it's supposed to go, right?

A few musical recommendations too, courtesy of Flyboy:

"Good call about Battles. May I recommend a couple of others for you, if you haven't heard or mentioned them already.

- TV on the Radio
- The National (my current favourite)
- Shawn Lee's Ping Pong Orchestra Hits The Hits
- Les Savy Favs"

I'll be honest, it's not really a genre of music I'm overly knowledgeable about, so maybe I will check a few of those guys out. It can't be any worse than listening to the mewls of the dying seagull that's taken up residence in our backyard.


General indulgences

Every week in this section I'll endeavor to provide you, the faithful readers, with a fascinating insight into the various forms of entertainment currently dominating my spare time.

This week, I have been mostly enjoying:

...Er, oh that's right, I haven't actually been doing any gaming this week. Whenever E3 comes around it tends to oversaturate me, so I have to take a little break from the world of the home console and see what else life has in store.

Captain Morgan's Revenge by Alestorm, continuing on the vaguely piratical tangent I've been referencing for the past couple of weeks. Heavy metal and pirates is almost as worthwhile a combination as heavy metal and vikings, and with the exception of Running Wild no band has really taken on that mantle before, so it's good to see these Scottish lads doing well.

Father Ted, which I've been rewatching on DVD over the past few weeks and remembering just how seminal of a show it really was.

and realizing that Americans complain way too much about their gas prices. I pay about three times as much as you guys for a full tank, so stop your moaning and take those scooter lessons you've been promising yourself.


And finally…

Thanks for reading folks; as always, reader feedback and suggestions are welcome. Next week in "The Wonder Years" - I hear it's not necessary to have played the previous six sagas. Until then - keep it real, keep it retro.