Rampage: Total Destruction

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When enormous animals attack

You don't have to love classic monster moves to enjoy Rampage: Total Destruction, but it helps. Midway unleashed a fresh batch of screens for its old-school building basher in late February, and we got a little bit of hands-on time to go with 'em.

Total Destruction sticks close to Rampage's arcade roots; players control giant monsters (more than 25 of them, including giant sharks and octopi) as they go on a nearly brainless tear through modern metropolii, smashing buildings, eating people, and occasionally picking up cars and throwing them at helicopters. The more you smash, the higher your rage meter climbs, paying off with an extra-smashing super move.

Our early hands-on version got repetitive quickly, but it was the multiplayer that kept us going. Two players can smash together on PS2, or four on the GameCube. In either case, you can play with or against your friends; it's as easy to throw a punch into your pal's head as it is to crush bricks and mortar.

We're hoping the controls make more sense in the final game, though. While the world is fully 3D and you can rotate around difference faces of the skyscrapers, it was easy to leap off a building we'd intended to demolish with a nasty foot-stomp attack. And although we enjoyed flinging cars around the screen, they rarely connected with our friends' noggins.

Still, Rampage: Total Destruction has time to mutate; it won't be out until the summer, and when it does debut, it'll be just $20.