237. Rambo (Pack-In-Video, Famicom, 1987)

In 1985, Japanese developer / publisher Pack-In-Video released a Rambo game as a tie in for the movie that had debuted in theaters that same year. Two years later in 1987, the Famicom was the hottest games machine in town, so they made a completely new Rambo as their first title for Nintendo's system. Whereas MSX Rambo was a top down shooter that played like a pared-down Ikari Warriors, Rambo on the Famicom is more like a pared-down Zelda II.

The title screen grabbed my attention right away with the sentence: "REND THE FEELINGS THE HEART WITH PAINFUL FEELINGS". Now I'll admit I've never seen any Rambo movies, including Rambo: First Blood Part 2, the 1985 movie that this game is based on, though I am aware of the general premise. Rambo starts off very slow, with some kind of commanding officer breaking Rambo out of prison for one big job rescuing POWs. After wandering around the military base for a while figuring out which of the three NPCs the game want you to talk to, you are finally outfitted with a knife and dropped into the jungle. 

As I mentioned above, Rambo borrows a lot from Zelda II, most chiefly the combat. Rambo has a small knife that can perform short range attacks, and the knife can be levelled up by defeating enemies. While the international version has an experience meter to show how much EXP you have racked up, the original Famicom version simply labels this meter "ANGER" which is way better. Rambo also has a decent jump, as well as several longer range limited-ammo sub weapons that are pretty useful. While the combat is not as tight as Zelda II, the real disappointment is the enemies, who are either too easy, or just not very fun to fight. I had a better time jumping past most enemies instead of fighting them.

Rambo is also a game that is easy to get lost in. Instead of giving you a series of linear levels or an overworld, Rambo has semi-open stages made of several long corridors that you can travel between at certain points by pressing up. While this method of navigation was used in many Famicom games, it is the worst in terms of finding your bearings, especially on a system where varied backgrounds were a challenge. Rambo doubles down on this by having you need to talk with certain NPCs to progress, so I just followed along with a longplay of the game to figure out where to go. By far the most enjoyable part of Rambo was the troll-looking Sylvester Stallone pixel art. 

2/5, a confusing, clunky Zelda II pretender that doesn't even try to rend the heart with painful feelings