My Played Video Games Review: Rambo III for the Sega Genesis
Rambo III is an overhead view, action video games based on the film Rambo III (1988) developed by Sega of Japan. It was released for the Sega Genesis/Mega Drive in 1989 as one of the launch titles.
Most Filipinos are fans of movie actor Sylvester Stallone. So I think this game sold well in my country during the early 1990s.
The Story
Rambo is back and he means business! Rambo has infiltrated Soviet-occupied Afghanistan to rescue his mentor and good friend, Colonel Trautman. Trautman has been captured by the Russians and viciously interrogated for vital info. In the meantime, they have deployed a quarter of the Soviet army to scare off all rescue attempts.
The Graphics and Sound
The game has got just basic 16-bit sprite animation. The lack of color and effort put into the backgrounds hurts it badly. Though the graphics during the combat vehicle battles are pretty good, overall, a little more focus could have been done in this area.
The sound is easily the biggest letdown in the game, both the background music and sound effects are mediocre and irritating. The parts where the game attempts to be spooky and intense has the sound where it turned out bland and disruptive.
The Gameplay
Rambo III is a standard shoot-'em up with an overhead view. The controls are simple. Your standard basic weapon is your machine gun. Your secondary weapon can be switched between a combat knife, a chargeable bow and arrow, and timer explosives. You can pick up the arrows and timer explosives by stabbing enemies with your combat knife. Using arrows and explosives to take out vehicles and guard towers is a must.
The levels are pretty simple. You go through enemy bases killing everything that moves while avoiding enemy firepower. Your Rambo character takes one hit to be killed. Somehow everywhere you go seems to have a self-destruct button after you break in.
The replay value is not so bad, but after finishing the game, I doubt you will want to go through it all over again after a while. Still, it is always fun to play again after a long time and kill bad guys.
All in all the gameplay is solid, while repetitive, addictive, and sometimes damn frustrating.
My Verdict
Rambo III is a pretty good early 16-bit game, at least by other early Genesis games title standards. The worst feature of the game is the music, and you could always turn it off and play your own action music or the actual Rambo movies' soundtrack. The game is not that great, but it provides some fair retro gaming entertainment on a lazy holiday.
Go play this Sega hidden gem on the Genesis/Mega Drive or on your preferred emulators.