Rampage

Rampage arrived on the Atari Lynx in 1990 as a port of the popular arcade hit from Bally Midway from the mid-1980s. In it, the player isn't hiding behind a hero — quite the opposite: you control one of three giant monsters, George, Lizzie, or Ralph, and your only task is to smash American cities to rubble. The principle is as simple as it is satisfying: climb up buildings, punch walls, devour civilians and soldiers, and dodge fire from tanks and helicopters until nothing but a pile of rubble is left of the skyscraper.

The port to the Lynx managed to preserve the main charm of the arcade original despite the handheld's smaller display — destroying buildings floor by floor remains visually clear and rewarding, the controls on the d-pad and two buttons work intuitively, and the game keeps up the pace of short, addictive rounds that suit a handheld console well. Unlike the arcade cabinet, though, it lacks multiplayer cooperation on the same scale, so the atmosphere of competing for the most destruction here is more of a solo affair against the computer. Development was handled by Bethesda Softworks, which was converting several similar arcade classics to the Lynx for Atari at the time.

Rampage on the Lynx thus works as a quick dose of destructive fun that can be fired up for a few minutes and still be great fun — exactly what a handheld from the early 1990s needed. It remains to this day one of the titles that helped the Lynx build its reputation as a console with surprisingly faithful arcade ports.

Why play it: Because smashing skyscrapers as a giant lizard is fun that hasn't aged a day in thirty years.