Rampart cleverly combines many different aspects that I love in a game, with base building, Missile Command style attack cannons and Tetris style repair methods. In this game you are attempting to build and defend your base fort against nefarious sea invaders who will shoot their boat cannons at your walls and try to land their soldiers to capture your base.

The game is played in rounds and in between each round you get to repair your walls with Tetris style brick shapes, attempting to create a completely enclosed space, preferably with enough squares to fit some cannons in to shoot back at the invading horde. If you fail to completely enclose one of the three castles on your stretch of land then you lose a life. It feels horrible when the timer is ticking down and you just can't get the correct shape of wall you need to fill in that tiny gap, but then feels amazing when (with one second to go) it appears and you punch the air as your flag is raised once more above your castle!

The invading army includes ships that fire normal cannons to knock your walls down, as well as fire ships which should be the first ones you take out because when their shot hits the land then it leaves a scorched hole which you cannot build over in the repair phase. This then makes the later rounds difficult as you struggle to maintain and expand your base. You need four mini squares together to place a cannon, so if they take out the land you may become helpless to fire back. Any cannons that you have previously placed that are not now surrounded by a complete wall will not fire in the next round. When trying to take out the enemy ships it may be useful to remember that there is quite a fast pace to this game and you may wish to shoot where you think the enemy fleet is going, rather than where it currently is, so that by the time your cannonball has flew across the screen it does not just drop into the sea.

The invading armada may also land soldiers when they reach the shoreline who hamper your attempt to place walls (though if you encircle them within your repairs then they are satisfyingly destroyed). If you don't manage to kill these horrible people in time then they will burn down your lovely castle!!

Rampart is a perfect blend of shoot-em-up and a puzzle game, with a little bit of war games thrown in too. It has a lot of action and is really easy to learn, but difficult to master. To beat this game you will need to use a strategy that makes best use of the starting locations of your forts, integrates the most amount of space for your cannons, takes out ships in priority order and repairs everything very quickly within the short time allowed, expanding where possible. The more rounds you get through and the more area you manage to capture then the more points you earn.
Rampart also has a fantastic multiplayer option where, instead of taking on a fleet of ships, you take on an opponent on an opposite stretch of land, with both of you attempting to shoot out each other's walls. This can also become quite strategic, as you know that they will be struggling to fit in the same shape wall sections as you, so you can be really mean and blow out odd shaped sections of their wall that require them to have the right piece to fill the gap [insert evil laugh].

As a rough guide, the ships with a single sail are the weakest, and they will fire normal cannonballs at your walls, you can take them out with two hits from your own cannons. Ships with two sails are slightly tougher, requiring three hits from your cannons. The red fire ships are evil and the shoot fireballs which scorch the ground and take three full rounds before the scorch marks disappear, as well as taking 5 hits from your own cannons to destroy them. Some of the later rounds have darker versions of these ships which will require one extra hit from your cannon to send them to the icy depths.

Graphics: 6
The graphics are basic but in line with what the game is about, which is playability. The play screen itself is deliberately blocky as that is part of the mechanics of the game, so you can see where to place your wall sections. Overall it is colourful and works well.

Sound: 8
The sounds are perfectly set to increase your excitement when you finally close the walls around a base, get your flag raised and hear the satisfying tune that signifies you have expanded your territory (or simply survived to see another round of fighting). There is a little tune that plays, but let's face it, we aren't here for the music with this one.

Addictiveness: 8
This game can become addictive due to the excellent difficulty progression and the randomness in the shape of the wall parts that you are given to build your base. The multiplayer is also a great touch as you wage war upon your friends!

Story: 3
There is no story, but then there's no real story in the style of games it is based upon, whether it's a conquest style game or a puzzle one like Tetris, they are fun to play regardless.

Depth: 5
Apart from trying to survive the later rounds after you have took many beatings from ships in the previous round, there's not a great deal of depth to this game.

Difficulty: 8
The brilliant thing about this game is that, while the later rounds have more ships (especially those dreaded fire ships) the difficulty also depends upon your own skill in the previous rounds, as this then determines your ability to deal with the later enemies.

Overall: 8
This game is so much fun, definitely worth a couple hours of your time.