| Ah the Lynx...the tragic tale of a system with unlimited
potential, brought down by it's maker's stupidity. But that
discussion is for another place and time. Yes, despite an untimely
death, the Lynx did produce some of the better portable games in
recent memory. And Rampart is at the top of the list. It's a game
with a simple premise...you are in charge of protecting a series
of castles from incoming invaders. The castles are located on the
shore line, and the invaders come in the form of cannon-bearing
ships. Get the picture? Your defense is offense baby. Your battle
is separated into "rounds". You begin with two or three
cannons which you arrange inside the walls of your castle. When
the round begins you fire as many cannonballs as you can at the
enemy, sinking as many ships as possible. But the ships fire back,
of course. And their cannonballs tend to make a wreck of your
castle's walls. Between rounds it's your job to rebuild those
walls with pieces that the computer randomly gives you, tetris
style. If you don't close-in your walls, and "re-seal"
your castle, you lose that castle. And if you don't have any
castles protected by the start of the next round, you lose the
game. *Whew* I think I just reproduced the entire instruction book
from memory ;) Anyway...
GRAPHICS: The Lynx was *far* superior to the Gameboy. And was
capable of near 16-bit quality. Rampart definately shows off the
system. Everything is colorful and distinct. Plus, there's *nice*
scaling on the cannonballs' trajectories. ****
SOUND: Man, if every Lynx game sounding this good Gameboy would
be dead. Seriously. The opening theme is classic medevil fare. And
the announcer yells "Ready, aim...FIRE!" with a English
accent!! Wonderful. ****
CONTROL: There's not much to control in Rampart. Just the
crosshairs of your cannons, and the building blocks of your walls.
Nothing major. And it's all controlled perfectly. ****
REPLAY: Now this is what I'm talking about. Rampart is so
thourghly addictive, you'll play for hours. Literally. There's a
real sense of satisfaction sinking ships and building massive,
fifteen-cannon castles. ***1/2
What are you waiting for? A Lynx will cost you less than $50.
Rampart will cost you $10. Good gawd man, how many games/systems
can give you such quality playtime for so little? Rampart is
definately a must-have for Lynx owners. And it's the kind of game
that make non-Lynx owners *seriously* regret what they've been
missing.
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