#TOP 59 #SEGA #MASTER #SYSTEM | RAMPART (TENGEN, 1991)

Rampart is an arcade game, released in 1990 by Atari Games, that combines the shoot 'em up and puzzle genres.

In Rampart, the player is in control of a set of castles, which they must defend, by alternately shooting at attacking ships (or other players), and repairing any damage done to them within a time limit. Surrounding this castle is a wall, made up of small blocks, completely surrounding a region of the board. This area is considered the player's territory, and it may contain one or more castles, and any number of cannons. The maintenance of this territory is the primary focus of the game. Once the player defeats the opponent, the player can execute the commander, by walking the plank or beheading.

The single-player game consists of six levels. The ultimate aim is to destroy a fleet of attacking ships while repairing any damage the fort sustains.

At the start of each level, the player chooses the location of their fort from a number of options. This location is then surrounded by a wall to form a castle, which the player can then place cannons within. After this, an attacking round commences, followed by a repair round, where any damage to the castle must be repaired. If the player manages to survive the repair phase (by surrounding at least one castle within a time limit), he is given a short amount of time to place additional cannons within the walls of his fort (if he made room for them), after which the battle resumes.

This cycle continues until either the player fails a repair round, or enough ships in the enemy's fleet are sunk. When the opposing navy has been sufficiently depleted, the level is won, and the player may then choose another level from the island map.

After starting a new game or after a successful repair round, the player may gain extra cannons (the number depending on the number of castles captured) to be placed in their territory.

In the SNES and PC versions only, the cannons gained can also be converted into powerups:

The Balloon floats at the beginning of phase 1 to the most powerful enemy ship (for singleplayer) or cannon (for multiplayer) and converts it to the player side for the successive fighting round.
The Supercannon is bigger than the usual cannons and fire red projectiles, which sink any ship in one hit or leave a permanent fire if they hit the landscape

Rampart has been ported to the SNES, Sega Master System, Mega Drive/Genesis, Atari Lynx, PC, Macintosh, Commodore 64, Amiga and Atari ST platforms, separate versions for Game Boy and Game Boy Color, and also separate versions for the Nintendo Entertainment System and the Famicom. MegaTech gave the Mega Drive version 90% and a Hyper Game Award, saying that it was a "superb blend of different game styles".

The arcade version of Rampart is also included in the Midway Arcade Treasures compilation, available for the Nintendo GameCube, PlayStation 2, Xbox and PlayStation Portable consoles, and the Midway Arcade Origins compilation, available for the PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360. It was also included with Gauntlet on the Game Boy Advance.

Most of the home versions of Rampart change the game in non-trivial ways. The Japanese (NES) Famicom version, which released by Konami, includes 7 training levels and 3 difficulty settings. It also features an extensive multiplayer mode for two people. Many options can be chosen, such as number of cannons to start with and so on.

There are also several open-source games based on the gameplay of Rampart, such as Kajaani Kombat and Castle Combat.

A PlayStation 3 port was released on the PlayStation Network on May 10, 2007. This download is no longer available for purchase. Although it is mostly identical to the arcade version, it also supports internet multiplayer play.

Games based on Rampart are also available for iOS devices, such as Hostile Tides.