Is Rambo: First Blood Part II Underrated?
Rambo: First Blood Part II is an overhead run-n-gun released for the Sega Master System
in 1986.
The title started life as Ashura in Japan, but was rebranded and updated to Rambo: First
Blood Part II for the North American release.
Finally, in Europe it was released as Secret Command removing all references to Rambo while
being mostly similar to the North American version.
However, like the film it was based on, the game was met with average reviews upon release.
The Games Machine scored the game a 7.4 out of 10 stating, “There is no doubt that the
game is addictive, challenging and the difficulty level is about right.
It won't appeal to everyone's tastes, but if you are looking for a bit of carnage on
your Sega, then Secret Command is well worth considering.”
Power Play magazine gave the game a 5.5 out of 10 noting, “If you look at the game from
a technological standpoint, Secret Command knows how to please.
Care is taken to motivate the player, especially two-player, making for hours of exciting entertainment.
While the graphics and sound have not knocked my socks off, they are still nice to look
at and listen to.
Unfortunately, control of the character with the joypad is quite inaccurate.”
Finally, Tilt magazine gave the game a C, proclaiming, “The control of the character
is complicated and the chaos that reigns on the screen is rather unpleasant.
However, this cartridge provides quality.”
So, is Rambo: First Blood Part 2 really this average?
Let’s dive in.
The game opens with an impressive title screen showing a decent 8-bit rendition of Sylvester
Stallone along with some theme music from the film.
If I'm honest Sly looks pretty impressive and this is one of the better digitizations
I've seen from the era.
Beyond the title screen though, there is no plot, no cutscenes, nor anything else from
the film.
So with that let's move on to the gameplay.
Rambo opens in the Jungle where we can take a look at the main gameplay mechanics.
Rambo has two different weapons, a rifle which can fire up to two shots at a time with unlimited
ammunition and a bow, which fires explosive arrow bombs.
These are limited and the player starts with 5.
These are required to blow up certain huts and take down tanks.
Both the rifle and the arrows can be upgraded.
After defeating a certain amount of enemies, they will drop a power-up.
The L increases the distance the standard bullet travels across the screen.
And the S supercharges the shot, allowing it to travel through multiple enemies.
The remaining power-ups are obtained by destroying camps.
Once destroyed, the hostage inside will toss out a random item.
These can increase the spread of the arrow bomb, add more arrow bombs to the inventory,
or clear all of the enemies on the screen.
While certainly not the deepest weapon set in the world, both weapons serve their purpose
and I like how each can be upgraded.
Of course dying resets everything back to the default.
On the bright side Rambo respawns right where he left off, and the player can even move
left and right to decide where to rejoin the action, which is a nice.
Anyway, after journeying through the jungle Rambo makes his way to a barricade acting
as a boss of sorts.
In addition to mowing down the level’s standard enemies, grenades will drop from the top of
the screen.
These always drop down straight at the player, so care must be taken to assure there is an
out for when these arrive.
After defeating a certain amount of enemies, two events will happen.
First, some arrow-bombs will be provided for the player, and second, the gate on the barricade
starts flashing.
Simply use an arrow-bomb to destroy the gate, and then walk through it to clear the stage.
Upon clearing a stage, points are tallied, an extra life is rewarded, and Rambo makes
his way to the next area.
The second level is a forest and now is a good time to talk about the actual controls.
As you have noticed, Rambo can move in all 8 directions, and fires in the directions
he is facing.
This is how most run-and-guns functioned at the time.
However, situations occur where doesn’t want to move in the same direction they are
firing.
Rambo addresses this by locking Rambo in the forward position while pressing down.
These means one can’t fire downward or diagonally down, but the ability to strafe left and right
while firing forward is invaluable, and I can’t really think of a better solution
considering the Master System controller has just a single d-pad.
The mechanic is put to good use in the bridged areas, where the player needs to move forward
along a small path.
These areas also add a little bit of variety to the gameplay, offering new challenges for
the player to overcome.
After clearing the forest Rambo finds himself in the swamps.
The swamps are interesting because they slow Rambo down, reducing his speed.
At this point, it should be noted Rambo: First Blood Part II is not a very brisk game.
Rambo, enemies, even bullets move slow.
I know other games of this kind also feature similarly pokey gameplay, but compared to
something like Jackal on the NES, this pacing feels off.
Thankfully, only the first section of the level feature swamps, with the later two third
returning to a more traditional jungle setting.
However things do get a bit tighter.
A few areas have boulders forming choke points in the level.
Boulders cannot be shot through either, offering a safe area but also giving cover to enemy
combatants.
This trend continues in the barricade at the end of the stage.
A couple of trees and some rocks make it easy to avoid incoming fire, but also make it trickier
to take out the foes necessary to make the exit door flash.
The fourth stage is a bright desert and doesn’t really offer much new in the way of level
gimmicks.
Instead, the stage is made more difficult by increasing the amount of tough enemies.
There are two different enemies launching grenades.
This forces the player to stop and locate a safe spot to avoid bomb damage without getting
shot at by the other enemies on the screen.
When combined with the tight corridors created the by bridges, Rambo offers some challenging
scenarios for the player to conquer.
Once a player masters the desert, they’re off to the mountains.
This stage is divided into three distinct areas.
The first is a city area where huts are replaced with police cars, and blowing them up rewards
power-ups.
The second part is a pair long vertical bridges, with limited room to dodge the onslaught of
gunfire.
Lastly there is a canyon which is both open and barron.
Again I must note the difficulty is increased thanks to a new array of enemies.
Certain officers fire off a burst of shots that travel significantly farther than those
of standard enemies.
These rolling snipers are also brutal, with extremely fast bullets, in addition to rolling
across the screen.
Combine this with the usual cast of characters and Stage 5 is sure to cause plenty of game
over screens.
This brings us to the sixth and final stage, the seacoast.
This level is also broken into three distinct areas.
First is the waterfront, which predictably slows down the player.
After this is the beach, which contains rock formations which actually fire at the player.
And finally, there is the enemy base, filled with plenty of hazards to make progress difficult.
On top of all of this is a new enemy type, a strange looking fellow who fires a large
projectile which is not only fast but can travel a long distance.
Combine this with plenty of grenade launchers, flame throwers, and enemies who travel diagonally
across the screen and the sixth stage is a brutal gauntlet worthy of a final level.
If the player manages to make it through the chaos, they will reach the final barricade.
Unlike the previous 6 barricades which required a certain amount of enemies to be defeated
before the exit could be destroyed, the 6th barricade acts like a true boss.
Here, the player must first destroy the bomb throwing walls on the left and right side
of the exit.
While simple on the surface, this is made extremely difficult thanks to four separate
stage hazards.
First are the projectiles from the walls.
These are fired directly at Rambo and are relatively easy to avoid.
Just move out of the way once they are fired.
But don’t move to far up the screen, or you’ll need to dodge the second obstacle,
a cannon located on the left.
However neither of these compares to the third and fourth hazards: the alternating grenade
launchers located on the bottom right of the screen.
The top grenade is relatively easy to avoid as there is room at the bottom of the screen.
The bottom grenade is far more difficult, as it cannot be avoided by moving up.
Moving up puts the player in the danger zone of the cannon fire, along with the projectiles
from the wall.
Learning the patterns of everything here is easily the most challenging part of the game,
and it took me countless hours to find the ideal strategy.
The right wall is particularly hard as this right side of the screen is where the grenade
launchers reside.
If one manages to take down the two walls, the final task is defeating the center of
the barricade.
Thankfully the entire barricade can be taken out with standard rifle fire.
After enough shots the final exit will explode and reveal the final exit in the game, leading
to a pair of cutscenes ripped from the film.
First, Rambo gleefully fires his rifle into the air.
And then rides a helicopter into the sunset.
Then mercifully, the credits roll.
Graphically, Rambo: First Blood Part II is a good looking game.
First, the 6 environments all look distinct.
From the jungle, to the forest, the swamp, desert, the mountains and the seacoast, when
you are in a level, it’s obvious which one you are in.
This helps give a sense of progression, but also adds some variety to the basic nature
of the run-n-gun genre.
Even better, the detail is excellent.
Areas have texture, like little rocks or even basic grass.
Not only this, the rest of the set-pieces are detailed as well, with great looking trees,
detailed rocks, and little touches like barrels, bridges, holes in the ground; even the police
cars have a large badge on their hood.
It’s totally unnecessary but gives Rambo: First Blood Part II a high level of polish.
The character sprite work is also nice.
Enemies are detailed and distinct and fit in with their surroundings.
In the jungle, fighters have helmets, police officers have hats, and the enemies in the
final stage are wearing masks.
The attention to detail is excellent and the care put into the environments carries over
into the sprite work.
My only complaint is the animation.
As far as I can tell, everything has two frames of animation.
While the Rambo sprite looks great, with meaty arms and a sweet headband, his movement looks
extremely primitive.
It doesn’t look bad and par for the course for run-n-guns of the 8-bit era, but certainly
not as beautifully as other games of the time.
I should mention the frame rate.
Rambo runs at 60 frames per second, but at times the background tiles and the sprites
update separately, meaning on one frame the background tile update, and on the next frame,
the sprites.
This causes some slight jittering with stationary objects.
Other times everything updates at 60 frames per second offering a smooth experience.
Moving along is the music.
The opening title screen and the credits both use music from the film.
The tracks are lengthy, the compositions epic, and they do a nice job showcasing the audio
capabilities of the Master System hardware.
The actual level music is also pretty good.
Sadly there are just two songs, one that plays on the odd numbered levels, and a second playing
during the even.
Both are quality for sure with plenty of layers, lengthy compositions, a nice mix of square
wave notes and white noise percussion.
They build up too, starting off slow and mellow and then growing into something more epic.
It’s cinematic in a way and I appreciate how it avoids an obvious military style or
fast-paced theme matching the action.
There is a third track as well that kicks in during the barricades.
This one is a lot different, offering quick drums and a harsh vibe giving some tension
to the the battle.
Sadly it’s short and never really goes anywhere.
The sound effects are all good too.
The rifle shots, enemies getting hit, and all the explosions have a nice weight and
fits perfectly with the music and bright graphics.
It won’t blow you away, but nothing here is offensive.
So, with all of that out of the way, we arrive back to the question asked at the beginning
of the video.
Is Rambo: First Blood Part II underrated?
On a high level, Rambo does a lot of things well.
Rambo can fire a touch farther than the enemies he is facing.
This means as long as the player is careful, they will always have a slight advantage over
their adversaries.
I also really dig the slightly slowed pace of the action.
With a handful of enemies always on the screen, narrow passages to navigate, and tricky enemy
patterns to maneuver through, the slow pace gives the player just enough time to make
sense of it all and come up with a plan, and even change their mind.
Next, the controls are responsive.
Movement, even the diagonals, feels great at getting Rambo exactly where you want him
is never a problem.
The strafing offers a subtle layer of depth to the shooting, giving the player another
tool for traversing enemy territory.
I also dig how large the bullets are.
While large white circles are hardly realistic, from a gameplay standpoint, they are perfect.
Bullets contrast well with the background, and the large size assures you’ll never
get hit by a stray bullet.
I also really love how running into enemies doesn’t harm the player.
All in all, Rambo: First Blood Part II gets the basics right.
From the solid controls, nice graphics, and pleasant audio, it has the makings for a good
overhead run-n-gun.
However, to determine if this one truly is good, we need to dive deeper into how the
game works, specifically, the enemies.
At all times, there are four enemies on the screen.
If you kill one, a new one will replace it.
Most of the time this isn’t an issue.
Sometimes this can be problematic, especially when there are corridors to navigate through.
The player is forced to continue to shoot at enemies hoping the newly spawned enemies
move along a different path allowing safe passage.
This four-enemy limit can be used to the player’s benefit too.
If there is a sniper on the screen for example, it may be beneficial to not shoot it if it
isn’t posing a threat.
This means there will only be three threats to deal with instead of four.
The same goes for the flame throwers, who have a limited radius with their attack.
Next, the player won’t encounter the same enemies on each playthrough.
I can’t tell if this is random, based on the player’s position, or some combination
of both.
At times you’ll notice the playfield littered with tanks which require two arrow bombs to
be defeated.
Sometimes there will be flamethrowers, sometimes there won’t.
This randomness becomes especially problematic on later level.
Even the stage hazards won’t be the same each time, sometimes the grenade launchers
will be enabled, sometimes they won’t.
It makes for a difficulty curve that can fluctuate wildly with each playthrough depending on
which set of enemies you have to deal with.
This randomness leads me to my biggest gripe with the Rambo: First Blood Part II.
There are no continues.
Once the life stock is depleted, the player is taken back to the title screen.
This feels incredibly unfair for a game that presents a random challenge.
Now I’m not adverse to a good challenge and I have spent countless hours learning
and conquering some hard retro games, even unfair ones like the Claw Machine boss in
Toy Story, the final level of Game Boy Batman, and pretty much the entirety of The Lion King.
With enough persistence, even a gamer of average skill can overcome these games.
But the challenge in Rambo is a moving target, meaning persistence and practice cannot be
used to master the game, and the randomness of the enemies shifts success from skill to
luck.
With these things in mind I can’t help but feel a more liberal continue system should
be present.
Thankfully there is a cheat code to bypass this.
This is not a level select code mind you, but rather continue codes allowing a player
to restart a level they failed at.
Enter the code wrong, and one is forced to start the game over at Stage 1.
I was forced to restart Rambo: First Blood Part II many times, and because of this I
started to find strategies to exploit the game.
The best strategy is to move quickly and avoid enemies.
I’m not kidding either.
The best way to be successful at Rambo is move faster than enemies can spawn and shoot
only when absolutely necessary.
You’ll still get hosed sometimes as enemies will generate in locations leading to death
due to no fault of the player, but enemy avoidance is rewarded more than skillful shots.
So no, Rambo: First Blood Part II is not underrated.
While I like this game, I wouldn’t call the game design sound.
There are little quirks like the finicky hit-boxes of the huts.
But it’s the overall randomness that holds the game back.
Where enemies appears on the screen, as well which enemies appear on the screen, is randomly
decided leading to impossible situations unfair to the player.
This unfairness leads to an experience that can be insanely frustrating, rather than fun,
giving Rambo it’s reputation for being a brutal game.
Perhaps the experience is better with 2-players, I cannot say, but as a single player experience,
Rambo First Blood Part II makes a great first impression, but begins to fall apart the longer
you play it.
It’s average at best, maddening at worst, and definitely not everyone.