PLAYERS: 1-2 alternating
PUBLISHER/DEVELOPER: Sega
GENRE: Action/shooter
RELEASE DATE: 10/21/89 – (JP), 12/89 – (US), 09/90 – (EU)
No, you’re not crazy. And neither am I! There are two Rambo III games on Sega consoles. I already reviewed the Master System version, otherwise known as one of the toughest 8-bit light gun games of all time. The army you fight in the game is an elite one, full of trained, brutal warriors who can shoot from the shadows with insane precision. If you aren’t able to fire back in kind, you won’t get past the first couple stages.
Rambo III for the Mega Drive is a different beast, thank Stallone. You guide Rambo through a series of top-down environments in Soviet-occupied Afghanistan. As in the movie and Master System version, you’re tasked with rescuing Rambo’s old war buddy, Colonel Trautman, from the Russians. Rambo is fully loaded: a machine gun with infinite bullets and three secondary weapons, including a knife for up close and dirty shanking, timed bombs for clearing out the clutter, and explosive arrows that will definitely leave a mark. The machine gun works beautifully as an assault spray; you’ll rarely need the knife or explosive arrows. Timed bombs, however, are essential when you’re surrounded by Russian thugs or need to take out a large helicopter or two.
While Rambo III is for all intents and purposes a six-stage shooting spree, each stage does provide different objectives. In Mission 2, you’re tasked with rescuing a secret agent amidst a series of non-linear corridors. Other false flag agents are scattered around the same complex and will inform you if they’re the person you’re looking for or not (shoot ’em if they’re not – one more casualty won’t hurt). Once you rescue the correct agent, you’ll have 120 seconds to vacate the area before it explodes. In Mission 4, you take out large crates and containers filled with enemy weaponry. You’re given a hit ratio that informs you how much you’ve destroyed. Once the hit ratio reaches 100%, book it for the exit. Missions 1, 3, 5 and 6 all end with a battle, of sorts, with a helicopter, tank, or both. Here, the camera shifts behind Rambo’s sculpted body. In order to hit the target, you charge explosive arrows. You’re given a bit of cover to avoid enemy fire, but stay behind the cover and you won’t be able to shoot at the target, despite what your crosshair position might imply.
Thanks to the varied objectives, I was never bored barreling my way through Rambo III. The stage design, however, is banal. All of the levels are set up like sprawling office plazas, full of white unfeeling concrete, beige floors, and a needless abundance of windows. Outside of the boss battles which all seem to take place in the mountains, there is no sign of a desert, a forest, a city – anything that would imply that you’re in Afghanistan or a world with more than three colors.
While the six stages are a bit on the short side, the raucous difficulty (which can be raised or lowered in the options menu) will keep you fighting for Trautman ’til the wee morning hours. Steady streams of soldiers shoot tiny black pellets at you that are difficult to see. The soldiers fire so quickly, they can easily get a handful of shots off before they’re killed. I boosted my lives to 5 from the standard 3, and I still used a handful of continues along the way.
Uninspired stage design aside, Rambo III‘s action is enthralling. Rambo’s eight way movement and ability to continuously shoot a la Contra makes you feel every bit as badass as Stallone’s fictional war hero. War is not something one should desire or admire, but taking on an entire army by yourself is so cathartic when executed properly. Rambo III wins this war.
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3 replies on “Rambo III (Genesis, 1989)”
This game is OK. I mean it does some neat stuff. Yet still feels rather generic. That’s the best I can describe it. Those first person graphics at the time blew me away. Now not so much. Sega does a lot of digital stills and stuff early on.
I remember playing this in a department store once.
I beat this one and found it a blast to play – I enjoyed it more perhaps as it is fairly easy and rather short so it is an ideal pick up and play game and it is also varied with having those massive helicopter fights, an Ikari Warriors/Commando section and a maze type part, all good stuff.
Great artwork on the Japanese version as well, looks far better than the western version side by side – I erm still actually own the chip as well as boxed versions of this game and I still cringe as I was given this and World Of Illusion by my young nephew as his pal had given them to him and neither of them had a Megadrive so after months of just looking at them in the pre-internet days I wondered how I could get them to play, the adaptors back then were surprisingly hard to get hold of and just as expensive as an actual game even if you could get one and as we are talking about back in my younger days when like the rest of you on here money was tight so I took to drastic measures and initially tried to cut off the outer edges (cringes) to the point where the plastic just fell off on both cartridges and I was just left with the card.
Anyhow both games played just fine and I played both titles to bits until later life when I replaced both copies, although I still don’t own the Japanese version of WOI – do I regret doing it? heck yes but in hindsight I wouldn’t have gotten to play the enjoy the games in my youth and the great fun I had playing them alone and with friends.