When I was a kid renting games from my local store, I incurred a late fee for a certain PlayStation 1 title. It was Rampage: World Tour, a game I couldn’t put down and neglected to tell my parents I was renting when it was due. The gameplay loop of demolishing towns was so addictive that I never wanted it to end. It has been two decades, and the closest franchise we’ve gotten is Destroy All Humans!. However, we now have a true nostalgic spiritual successor with Terror of Hemasaurus.

In Terror of Hemasaurus, you are tasked with wrecking everything in sight. Tall, towering buildings can collapse after you whack away at them in mere seconds. Sending these buildings straight to the ground never gets tiring, thanks to a robust physics engine. Focusing on a certain side of the building will see it collapse to the left or right. Each individual square of the building falls in succession, all the while never slowing down the game’s framerate thanks to its retro presentation.

When you’re not crushing buildings in Terror of Hemasaurus, you’ll have to avoid the police, SWAT teams, military, and redneck revengers who can end your reign of terror in just a few shots. Thankfully, you can restore your health by snacking on civilians. When helicopters come to ruin your day, you can take aim and kick passersby straight into their blades, sending them satisfyingly into buildings if you project them just right. The destruction is a blast wherever you are, from Bend, Oregon to Albuquerque, New Mexico.

There are two modes in Terror of Hemasaurus, an Arcade Story mode, and an Endless mode. I went straight for the latter to relive my “crush through every town” childhood memory and to get a feel for the controls. While I got the hang of things, I smoked ten levels without batting an eye. Rampage fans will be right at home settling into this game. That being said, I didn’t know about kicking or butt-slamming until I properly went through the game’s tutorial at the start of the Story mode.

I couldn’t stop laughing through every cutscene in Terror of Hemasaurus‘ Arcade Story mode. It was a riot as the game parodied media portrayals of hysteria a la Don’t Look Up, all the while satirizing the games industry, cult mentality, and much more, all to hilarious effect. This mode also introduced a great variety of scenarios to plow through. My favorite was kicking a huge metal ball and bouncing it along trampolines to positively level a city in no time at all.

Positively anyone that grew up with Rampage is going to want to get their hands on Terror of Hemasaurus. Not only is it faithful to its source material, it’s a blast in its own right and is priced just right. It’s a rare instance of me not wanting it to end, and it ending way too soon. I could foresee tons of time being spent in co-op, but it’s fun enough blazing through the Story mode. Even if it’s just a few hours long.

A PlayStation 4 review copy of Terror of Hemasaurus was provided by IndieArk for this review.

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Terror of Hemasaurus

14.99

9

Score

9.0/10

Pros

• Impressive Physics
• Hysterical Story
• Fun from Start to Finish
• Banging Soundtrack

Cons

• Too Short
• Needs More Music