‘Yeaaaaaaaaaah‘… No, I’m not going slightly mad, that’s just what I thought every time I saw that picture as a kid. And I saw it many times, due to me playing that game quite a lot.
And it is a picture that is featured a whooping four times in this very article (and in case you clicked on the ‘Continue Reading‘ link, just scroll to the top of the page and have a look at the header. Looks so badass, innit?).
But with no further ado, here the whole thing, including some awesome music by Martin Galway, who not only is responsible for that tune, but the whole in-game music.
The game is based on the second Rambo film and published by Ocean in 1986. It is the story of one J. Rambo, who gets send back to Vietnam to rescue prisoners held captive inside a military camp.
And Rambo being Rambo, he won’t ask them nicely if there’s a chance they could release those prisoners. Nope, he’ll let his weapons speak for him, which means he shoots at everyone and everything. A lot. Like, the whole time. But thankfully he’s got unlimited ammunition, because he surely needs it.
Rambo: First Blood Part II is a top down shooter and starts off somewhere outside the camp. On his way, Rambo has the opportunity to collect a machine gun, located at a temple (because that’s a typical place where you store weapons, I suppose).
Screenshots (click to enlarge)
Once inside, he has to rescue a lone prisoner, located in the north-western part of the camp, before he proceeds through the jungle to board a helicopter. Back in the camp he has to open the cell to release the rest of the prisoners. Job done, time to get home. There’s only one problem: On his way towards friendly territory he gets chased down by an enemy gunship.
The game sticks closely to the film and can be completed in under ten minutes, unless one decides to blow everything up in true Rambo fashion. Yes, that means every single building is destructible. And it was one of those games you loaded up just to be able to listen to the music.
In case you watched the above video, you might have noticed that I had unlimited energy. Yes, I was cheating while recording, so what. Speaking of cheating, I remember there was a bug in the last sequence, where you got chased by that enemy gunship. If you had a second joystick plugged in, you could push both sticks in opposite directions, causing your helicopter to become insanely fast, with no chance for the enemy to catch up.
Yes, the game is hard, but I did complete it as a kid without cheating. And that’s something I’m proud of. 😎
The Retro Years 
So…there I was click reading your reply on the Impossiball review and I thought…I haven’t clicked on Soosh’s name to find out more about him…
Imagine my surprise and delight to be greeted with one of my favourite games of all time…Rambo! Such a classic. Like you I am VERY proud to say that I also completed the game without cheating…I never could get the second joystick thing to work! But I also never destroyed the enemy helicopter. Could you actually destroy it?
(Ignore the word “click” in the first sentence…I appear to be foreshadowing myself!)
‘Click Reading’ is a new fad / form of reading, where you click on a link prior to reading an article, then immediately try to read as much of it as you can before the next page loads. You then are immediately quizzed on your knowledge of said article, and scored accordingly. Whoever does best wins a prize, although what that prize is, no one knows. 🙂 I put far too much thought into that.
This Rambo doesn’t seem too bad, compared to the NES version (just called Rambo), which was a bizarre sort of sidescroller / RPG (like Zelda II and Castlevania II, oddly enough). It was boring and more than a bit of a pain in the ass, yet I always enjoyed playing it as a kid. Ditto for the Zelda / Castlevania sequels, even though most people would say they were terrible compared to the originals. Hmm, I’m strange like that, I guess (shrugs).
I have decided to re-dedicate my life to click-reading. I will become a Grand-Master-General-Level-11 of the art and from my pedestal I will look down on you all.
Have… to… keep… typing… sorry guys, I’m too tired to form any meaningful sentences (almost fell asleep in front of my laptop a moment ago). I will give you a proper reply when I get up in the morning.
And hey, Dark Duo Games, thanks so much for stopping by! 🙂
Edit: Yeah, was able to destroy da choppa
@Dark Duo Games: Ok, had my two
It was a cool game, but I think without the music it would be just another shooter. Oh, and I’m gonna try the ZX Spectrum port tonight. Never owned one, but tried several games on an emulator, and the more I play on it, the more I like it.
cupsmugs of coffee. Iirc, the easiest way to complete that game is to simply run like hell1. And I was able to shoot that enemy gunship down. Thing is, about 10 seconds later another one appears.Btw Rambo III on the C64 was pretty cool, too. Loved the adventure part of the game, where you had to sneak through the enemy base. 😎
@Tim: Ha, just watched that video, it’s freaking hilarious. Rambo as a Zelda clone? 😀 Looks like it took much longer to complete it on the NES than on the C64. Seems like every system got at least one Rambo game in one form or another.
Ah ok…I do remember being able to shoot the helicopter enough times that it left the screen, but it always came back!
Yes I remember Rambo III but I think I had that on the Amiga. I enjoyed that one too.
The less said about the recent PC/XBox360/PS3 version the better
Hold on, I think you might be right. I always thought I destroyed that chopper when it left the screen and got replaced by a new one.
Whew! Sorry guys, kept trying to ‘click-read’ through the comments, and it was taking forever! Damn this superior internet speed!1 😀
@Soosh: Much longer. Not to mention all the glitches / problems that AVGN pointed out in the video. NES got shafted on its Rambo game, except for idiots like me that said, ‘Hey, this game is terrible! You know what I’d like to do? I’d like to go out and force my parents to immediately buy it for me! That’s how terrible this is!’.
Moderation for a footnote!?! Again!?! Come on, WordPress, I thought we were past this!
[sigh] Those footnotes again? Haven’t you learned anything from the past, Tim?
Should know by now that posting footnotes on someone else’s site are a ’no no’ here at WordPress.
And Rambo on the NES does seem to be a strange game. But hey, at least you enjoyed it as a kid, and that’s what counts, I suppose. Oh, and that AVGN dude is hilarious. 😀