Magic Rampage
A JOYOUSLY FOCUSED AND POLISHED RPG PLATFORMER. Free with IAP | magicrampage.com
MAGIC RAMPAGE DEFTLY balances the best elements of action, platforming and RPG gameplay to create a surprisingly compelling experience, despite occasionally suffering from an illusion of choice. Most of your time will be spent running, jumping and firing projectiles in a series of side-scrolling levels that span dungeons, swamps, volcanoes and similarly elemental realms. While the action is real-time, all of the weapons (swords, axes, magic staves) are ranged and fly slowly and horizontally, requiring a certain knack to master them. The control scheme consists of a phone-friendly left, right, jump and attack, and on the relatively small screen of the Pixel 2, it rarely feels restrictive.
Before setting out on your rampageous adventure, you’ll get to choose from the 10 available classes and each will naturally have their own buffs and specialities. You can even customise a small amount of cosmetics, but the most significant point of difference is easily your character’s special ability. Ranging from summoning spiders to slowing time and throwing hammers, these abilities can seriously save your bacon, but will have to be unlocked as you progress.
Aside from an increasingly interesting and difficult cast of enemies, you’ll encounter a menagerie of traps, puzzles, collectibles and loot drops — the bread and butter of RPGs. While for the most part, each introduced mechanic keeps the gameplay fresh, the variety of weapons, armour and classes aren’t quite varied enough to offer distinctly unique playing styles between classes and weapons, and the best items were often the same between classes.
Surprisingly, the narrative is compelling and cohesive, despite the game giving off the impression of relatively mindless fun, and it’s encouraging enough to play through the story at least one more time. At the time of writing, Magic Rampage offers 40 levels with an engaging difficulty curve, each of which are an ideal length for satisfying your platforming itch in those brief moments of downtime on public transport or waiting in line.