29 January 2016

Retro Review: Rambo 3

Rambo 3

Released: 1988

Publisher: Sega

Developer: Sega

With Sylvester Stallone triumphing recently at the Golden Globes and being nominated for an Oscar for best supporting actor in the marvellous Creed, I thought it would be good timing to look at some of the games that featured one of his most famous characters. I am of course talking about Rambo.

First up we have Rambo III on the Sega Master System. This is a light gun game very similar to Operation Wolf. In fact, if you put them on without seeing the title screens you may well be fooled into wondering which is which.

Let’s just talk about the back of the game box for a minute. The blurb says “John Rambo, America’s favourite soldier!” I’ve seen all the Rambo movies and I’ve never thought for a second that he was portrayed as America’s favourite soldier. It makes me wonder if the makers of the game had even seen a Rambo movie based on their description of him.

Anyway, the opening title screen is quite impressive with three of Rambo’s iconic knives appearing in front of that famous pose of his muscular back from Rambo 3.

The action follows your typical light gun game as the screen moves left to right and enemies appear at different parts of the screen, some in the background and some in the foreground. Unfortunately there doesn’t appear to be much destructible scenery so shooting the enemies can be a bit bland.

You have an energy bar which depletes as you take damage, but luckily there is a health pill you can take to replenish this. Unusually you take the pill by shooting it on the screen so it’s imperative that you keep an eye on how much damage you’ve taken.

There is only one weapon in the game and that is your AK-47. You start with a certain amount of ammunition meaning you can just hold down the trigger for automatic fire. When your ammo runs out you are restricted to single shots and must hammer the trigger as fast as you can. There is also a rocket you can fire to take out all the enemies on the screen. Again, you do this by shooting the rocket icon in your inventory.

There are seven fairly short levels which are based on the movie, with one of the levels having you infiltrating the Russian camp to rescue Colonel Trautman. I reached the end of this particular level and to my surprise nothing seemed to happen. I thought the game had crashed but then I decided to shoot the cell door and hey presto Trautman appeared waving like a lunatic. Brilliant!

After each level there is a nice 8 bit still of Rambo in some of his various poses from the movies. When you die there is a picture showing him being strung up in First Blood: Part 2 whilst being tortured. These stills give the game a nice arcade feel.

The final level is different to the horizontal scrolling and sees you moving into the screen taking on the hordes of the Russian army. You are faced with tanks and helicopters before facing the final boss who is piloting the famous Hind helicopter.

I blasted though this game in about 20 minutes and reached the end level without having lost a life. I was about do a happy dance thinking ‘I’m about to destroy the final boss’ and then couldn’t defeat the bastard! I tried three times and it was impossible. I swear I completed this game when I was a kid but God knows how. If reading this has inspired you to play Rambo 3 and you do manage to complete the game, please let me know how you did it.

Graphics – The graphics are decent if a little bland with various soldiers and enemy types appearing on the screen, however the stills between levels make the game feel like an arcade. 6

Sound – The sound and music is ok but there isn’t anything resembling the famous Jerry Goldsmith score from what I could tell. 4

Playability – Rambo is a fun game to play albeit very short and damn that final boss to hell! 4

Re-Playability – I’ve said it before that light gun games aren’t meant to be long and drawn out so this is a fun game for a quick blast. 4

Overall – This isn’t my favourite Rambo game but it does a decent job of recreating scenes from the movie. Worth a go if you’re a fan of Rambo. 5

Review by Chris (co-host of 60 Minutes With and The Same Coin)