John Rambo: the one man war machine is back. With the imminent release of his latest video gaming incarnation, Rambo: The Video Game, we look back at some of his earlier video gaming outings.
To date, there have been ten Rambo based video games. The 1980s is where it all started for the Vietnam veteran.
Rambo: First Blood Part II
[Developer: Ocean Year: 1985 Formats: Spectrum | C64 | Amstrad CPC]
The perfect Commando rip-off, Rambo: First Blood Part II upped the ante by scrolling in eight directions. The premise of the game was simple, Rambo is sent on a reconnaissance mission to obliterate anything that moves in the Vietnamese jungle and rescue the POWs. The C64 version was damn awesome and Martin Galway’s SID tune just topped it all off.
Rambo
[Developer: Pack-In-Video Year: 1987 Format: NES]
They say, imitation is the sincerest form of flattery. If that is the case, then Pack-In-Video’s Rambo tries very hard to be like Nintendo’s Zelda II: The Adventure Of Link. Pack-In-Video’s earlier attempt on a Rambo game came on the MSX in 1985. However, that one was quite rubbish. The NES version has basic RPG elements and features that simply don’t feel very Rambo-like, but at least it is still playable and somewhat entertaining. I don’t recall John Rambo battling dragonflies or hungry tigers in the movie?
Rambo III
[Developer: Ocean Year: 1988 Formats: C64 | CPC | Speccy | MSX | Amiga | ST | PC]
Ocean had a reputation for getting the rights to blockbuster movies. Rambo III was no exception. Before they gave us the sublime Platoon and Robocop, Ocean gave us a boring version of Rambo III. The game was broken up into three stages – raiding the enemy fort to rescue Col. Trautman; destroying the enemy compound by priming explosives; and the final stage being a 3D shoot-out, with enemies coming towards the screen.
Sega’s rendition of Rambo III [1988] on the Master System was a competent Operation Wolf ripoff, but their Mega Drive version in 1989 hit the bullseye. If you want to play Rambo III, play it on Sega’s 16-bit beauty.
