Rambo III
System: Genesis
Release Date: December 1989
Developer: Sega
Publisher: Sega
Genre: Shoot ‘em Up
One year ago we got Rambo III on Master System as a light gun shooter. Now, we get a much better shoot ‘em up version on Sega Genesis. John Rambo is recruited to go to Afghanistan to save Colonel Trautman from the Soviets. He may have thought his war was over, but now it’s on!
There are six missions that you have to go through in order to save Trautman. Different missions have different objectives, but they all boil down to make it to the end of the level, killing all the bad guys that get in your way. It’s easiest to kill foot soldiers with the machine gun. Holding down the C Button (or whatever you configure it to) gives that sweet, sweet rapid fire. If you’re standing still, Rambo sways the shot, giving you a decent angle of lead death. On the left side of the screen, you see a knife, bow and arrow, and time bomb. You can scroll through these with the A Button and activate with the B Button.
Time bombs are used to blow up watch towers, weapon caches, and walls. The fire arrows blow up jeeps and tanks and are also used at the end of some levels in an over the shoulder view. After the overhead levels, Rambo has to take on some combination of helicopters and tanks. They shoot at you in a simple pattern and you have to avoid their attacks while countering with your own. After this, you’re given your time and earn bonus points.
If you want to earn more bombs and arrows, you need to knife enemy soldiers. The more you knife in a row, the more points you get, and you may even earn a smiley face (18:30) (33:33), which gives an extra hit point. You can set how many hit points you get in the options menu before starting. The level that gave me the most trouble was number four where you have to destroy all the weapons crates.
The final battle puts you up against a helicopter and a tank. After shooting the tank a bunch of times and it not blowing up, I started aiming for the helicopter and destroying it crashed it into the tank, which was awesome.
Graphics: 2.5
Sprites aren’t very sharp and I would go so far as to call them muddy.
Sound: 1.5
The subdued music is overpowered by the sound of weaponry constantly going off.
Gameplay: 2.5
You get to do what I want a Rambo game to be about. Run around, shoot people with the machine gun, and occasionally pull back a fire arrow.
Difficulty: 3.0
The missions aren’t particularly long, but you can get yourself in trouble forcing continue use, luckily, they’re infinite until the last mission.
Fun Factor: 3.0
Because I forgot continues aren’t infinite on the final mission, I had to play through a few times and enjoyed myself each time.
Overall Grade: 2.5
Rambo III earns a B-. This is a fun game that provides a quick diversion and doesn’t try to do more than it needs to. Give it a shot.