I am guessing most people who played this game were basically expecting something more along the lines of Contra; however, little did they expect that this game would essentially be a preview of the upcoming sequel Zelda II: Adventure of Link! That's right, if you play this game you will see several similarities to the Zelda sequel that it makes one ponder why they felt this would be a good engine for this game? This game's release predates the Zelda game in the states, but it is obvious this game used the Zelda engine and if you do not believe me, check out the Angry Video Game Nerd that goes over this game. The only this thing lacks is a over world map!
The story? Well, you know the story if you were around in the 80's when this ultra violent movie was a hit. A Vietnam vet goes back to Nam to find P.O.W's and get evidence of their being alive. However, Rambo not only tries to get evidence, he tries to rescue one and ends up running afoul of the guy in charge of the mission and is left to die. Then Russians become involved! Well, this game is like that, though I do not remember fire breathing spiders, men made of electricity and fire and robots in the film!
The game play is entertaining, my main complaint is the very nonsensical map. Whoever made it, must've also designed the map in the Friday the 13th game, also for the NES. That aside, you control Rambo and as I said, if you are expecting Contra, forget it. This one actually has RPG touches as you level up and when you defeat bosses you gain more health. You have an array of weapons, but strangely your knife packs more of a punch than your machine gun, grenades or explosive tipped bow! So while at times it is a pain in the behind to traverse the game, overall I found it rather fun. There is a Sega Master system game too, and I will add another paragraph for it when I play it, from what I know of that one, it plays more like Ikari Warriors.
So, if you have an open mind and do not mind the challenge, this game is rather fun. I rented it back in the day and did not win, but won it during another rental using an unlimited health code. However, I am proud to say, that I have finally won the game without using that code and defeated that very difficult last enemy! It was not as difficult as I remember as I was able to get a pattern out of it and took minimal hits. So, worth a try if you have an emulator or the actual system and want to dig for this strange game based on a movie, but ends up being similar to Zelda instead of a run and gun game.
