Unfair Rampage: Knightfall

Genre: Action-Platformer

Players: 1

.

Review:

There’s a cynical reasoning I can see behind choosing this name for a game. And that reasoning goes something like this: “I bet you can excuse a lot of crappy game design choices if you put the word ‘unfair’ in the title. Because then when anyone complains about your crappy game design, you can just respond with ‘well, we warned you the game was unfair. Guess you just need to ‘git gud’!”

Unfair Rampage is an Action-Platformer released in 2025 on PC and Nintendo Switch where players take the role of an armored soldier wielding a machine gun fighting through a randomly-generated gauntlet constructed of some breakable blocks and some unbreakable blocks, filled with medieval-themed enemies and traps. Players have unlimited ammo, can use a melee one-hit kill move in close range, and have a jump, double-jump, and horizontal air dash. Add in a few limited-ammo power-ups, and you have all the tools you’re given to try and get as far as you can before dying.

The presentation here uses simple 3D that’s sufficient for the gameplay but not impressive in any way nor distinct enough to be memorable. This is joined by the soldier’s incessant jabbering through a speaker about everything that’s happening, the constant sounds of your gunfire, and the repetitive screams of your dying enemies, with all of this backed by a repetitive synthesized theme. Apart from the annoying commentary by the soldier, this is all pretty forgettable stuff.

However, the real issue here is the gameplay. Or “issues” if I’m being accurate. Where to even start…

The control setup uses ZR and ZL as fire and alt-fire, A to jump, and Y to dash, with B and X not being used as far as I can tell. You cannot reassign these buttons, meaning that the game’s creator is making you stretch your thumb across A and Y for no good reason.

Gunfire is extremely fiddly… for you. Miss a shot by a hair and it’ll whiz by the enemy you’re firing at. Meanwhile, enemy archers are given a near-supernatural ability to hit you, and at one point the game hit me with an arrow that stuck in my character’s head… oh, sorry, I mean about a half a head over my head, floating in mid-air.

The melee attack is absolute garbage. Half the time it doesn’t work, and the other half it takes so long to use that the enemy you’re fighting will probably get in a shot while it’s coming out.

Jumping on enemies hurts neither the enemy nor you, but you end up standing on top of them, and they can still attack you freely while you very likely won’t be able to hit them by firing downward.

The randomized level design really screws you over sometimes, making it apparently impossible to get through an area without being swarmed by enemies or sliced apart by traps or falling down an endless pit. Sometimes power-ups are spawned in places that are impossible to get to without dying. Yet if you try to take your time and be careful about things, the game punishes you by having the level disintegrate around you, causing you to plummet to your death.

One time, the game refused to recognize my input as I was moving in mid-air, forcing me to fall in a pit and die.

In so many ways, this game hates the player, and for me the feeling is mutual. And yet… and yet… darned if there isn’t still a “let me try just one more run” element compelling the player to keep trying. In a way, I hate that most of all, because I want to just give this game an F for its terrible game design with its many, many, many flaws, but… if I’m honest, I have to admit that through the hate there’s a bit of fun there. Not much! And I absolutely would not recommend this game to anyone. But it is there.

So take your D- and be happy with it, Unfair Rampage. And if you think that’s not fair… well, I can be “unfair” too.

tl;dr – Unfair Rampage is an Action-Platformer that has players fighting through a randomly-generated medieval gauntlet as an armored military soldier with a machine gun. This game is broken in countless ways, with game design problems, control issues, hit detection issues, and problems that crop up due to the random level generation. Despite these problems, the game can still be compelling, but I think the frustration far outweighs the fun that this game delivers.

Grade: D-

^{You can support eShopperReviews on Patreon! Please click HERE to become a Sponsor!}

^{This month’s sponsors are Jamie and His Cats, Ben, Ilya Zverev, Andy Miller, Johannes, Jaka, Jared Wark, Gabriel Coronad-Medina, Francis Obst, Kristoffer Wulff, Seth Christenfeld, and Vince Verrinoldi. Thank you for helping to keep the reviews coming!}