Rampart Review
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Introduction:
Rampart was a great little game for the NES. It wasn't very well known, but it was still a great and unique game, its gameplay style hasn't been copied. That makes this a very fun and unique game to play.
Story:
You have to protect your castles in their new colony from incoming forces.
Gameplay:
The gameplay is incredibly unique. I tried this game, knowing nothing about it, and after a few turns was very addicted to it, I just had to beat it. I can't even compare this game to anything, this makes it even harder to describe what to do. All the stages, well there not even really stages, well, there just a big square. In this square is water and land. On the land there will be a few castle. At the very start of the stage you will select one of the castles, then a brick wall will surround your chosen castle. You will then place 3 cannons inside your castle walls. Then the round will begin, invading ships will appear in the water. They will start to shoot at your castles walls. You will shoot at them with your cannons. You will shoot at them by aiming a little target over them. The game is from an above view. You will then try to shoot the ships out of the water. After a minute or so, the fighting will stop. Some of your castle walls will be gone. You will have to rebuild them. The game will give you a time limit to rebuild the castle walls. The game will give you random shapes to rebuild your castle, they will sort of look like shapes from Tetris. You will have to rotate these shapes and try to make them surround the castle. You can make them surround the castle in any shape you want, as long as there is no gaps. You can also surround more than one castle when rebuilding, the more castles you surround, the more cannons you will get to place. You have to have at least 1 castle surrounded at the end of the time limit, or else its game over. You don't have to rebuild your original castle, you can surround a different castle, just as long as 1 castle gets completely surrounded in the time limit. After the time runs up of rebuilding, if you have at least 1 castle surrounded you will place cannon(s). Then you you will commence fighting again, by this time more ships will have entered the water. You will go back and forth, fighting and rebuilding for a few rounds, if you make it long enough, you will have conquered that stage. You will then move onto another stage, the next stage will look different, the placement of land and water and castles will be different. This may seem simple, and not very fun, but it does get harder, because other things will happen, such as. Later in the game there will be bigger ships. These ships will fire BIG FIREBALL Cannons at your castle walls, then, when its time to rebuild, the places on land where the BIG FIREBALL Cannons hit, You won't be able to build on. This makes the game very hard, you will sometimes have to leave a castle because there is to many places that you can't build on. There will also be ships that will try and send tanks on land, you will have to quickly sink these ships. If they manage to get their tanks on land, they will move around the land when your rebuilding, they will brake down your castle walls, and eventually your castle itself. This game might sound very basic and easy, but it gets very addicting and fun, I play this game all the time, its a fun game to play. You will have to master your fighting style, and your strategy in rebuilding. It gets very tense when your rebuilding and you only have a few seconds left, and you haven't surrounded 1 castle, that is very exciting.
I give the gameplay: 7/10
Graphics:
The graphics are very basic. But do remember, this is a NES game. The graphics for everything are very basic, but that is all you really need for this game, it makes you react faster. Although, when its fighting time, the ships look VERY nice, they look incredible for the NES.
I give the graphics: 6.5/10
Sound:
The sound is basic as well, there's sound fx of cannons being shot. The background sound when your rebuilding is the same on every stage, but it is perfect. It makes you nervous and go crazy because you might only have a few seconds left to surround your castle. The sound is basic, but for the type of game it is, its fine.
I give the sound: 5.5/10
Replayability:
The replayability is very good. You can play this game a lot. But once you have completely mastered this game, then it probably won't be much fun to play again, but it should take quite awhile to master.
I give the replayability: 6/10
Challenge:
The challenge is incredible. There is 4 Challenge settings. Easy, Medium, Hard, and Very Hard. I found it kind of hard on easy, so, just think how hard it would be on Very Hard. Rampart is surprisingly hard.
I give the challenge: 8/10
Value:
The value of this game is great, I bought this game online for about 20 dollars. This may or may not seem expensive. I found it a great buy, considering I get very addicted to this game. So, if you get addicted to this game, then it is definitely worth the money.
Overall:
Overall this game has a very unique game style, it may be basic, but maybe that's what makes it so addicting. The graphics are decent, when your in battle, the ships look incredible. The sound is ok, but this game doesn't really need a wide range of sound. The replayability is good, the challenge is very good, its surprisinglly hard. The value is good, if you think you might like this game, then its worth a try.
I give Rampart : 7/10
Conclusion:
Rampart is a fun little game, it seems to be very basic, but its a lot of fun to play. When I first tried this game I couldn't put the controller down, I kept losing, but I slowly progressed through the levels, perfecting my fighting style/strategy and my strategy of rebuilding. I bought this game online, and when it got to me, it unfortunately had a big hole in the middle of the cartridge. This must have been made while it was shipped. I put it in my good 'ol NES and it worked just fine, it turned on the first try. For a game with a hole in it, its actually one of my best working NES games.
Written By: Joey Anderson
Date Written: April 18th, 2004
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