Let’s Try This Again

Pack-In-Video was all-in on Rambo for a while there. They made a series of Rambo games – 1985’s Rambo on MSX, 1986’s Super Rambo Special on MSX, and then 1987’s Rambo on the NES – and, to their credit, with each successive version they tried to iterate and expand on the concept a little bit further, add a little more, make the game a bit more expansive. It was a noble idea, porting the game around and making it even more interesting, even if the results usually ended up feeling a little flat and weird all at the same time.

1985’s Rambo, for example, was little more than a play on Hydlide, and not really a very good one. It was short, repetitive, and fairly annoying to play. 1986’s Super Rambo Special (which may have had a previous version, Super Rambo, although details on this one are even sketchier than the MSX games) was a much bigger title, but bigger didn’t necessarily mean better. It was larger, with more screens and more enemies, but the basic gameplay was surprisingly thin, and most of the time spent went towards even trying to figure out where to go or what to do.

Their third (maybe fourth?) iteration, then, landed on the NES and it showed many of the same issues that came from the previous versions. While greatly expanded once again, this NES game was still a frustrating mess to play. It was very big and increasingly maze-like, but the game also left you with little in the way of direction as to what to do or where to go. You’d spend hours trying to map the world out, looking for where the next location was, only to die and then have to do everything all over again. This version of the game is an improvement in many ways, but Pack-In-Video had a very specific idea of what made a “good game”, and that didn’t really line up with reality.

To its credit, this version of Rambo is the closest so far that Pack-In-Video got to a proper adaptation of Rambo: First Blood Part II. You start as John Rambo, accepting your mission to go into Vietnam and take photos of POW camps to prove that the Vietnamese army has kept American soldiers prisoner despite the terms of the ceasefire. You take Rambo from the military base to the jungles, searching for the camp, but John isn’t able to just leave the prisoner behind, dragging them along so that he can save anyone possible (despite his orders not to engage the enemy).

This upsets the agent in charge of the mission, who decides to leave both Rambo and the POW behind. Captured, they have to be saved by Rambo’s Vietnamese contact, Agent Co, who slaps on a dress and infiltrates the camp to save Rambo. Freed, he then goes on a one-man mission to save all the POWs in the camp, steal a helicopter, get back to the U.S. base, and kill anyone that gets in his way. The war may have ended, but it didn’t end for Rambo. Not this time, anyway.

Much of the basics of Rambo on the NES are modeled after Pack-In-Videos previous versions of Rambo. You have your basic mission – get in, find the POWs, find a helicopter, and get out – and you have to find various weapons and keys along the way to make it all happen. You have a robust inventory, not only of key items but also a plethora of weapons. Throwing daggers, arrows, exploding arrows, and guns are all available, dropped by a variety of enemies you have to fight along the way. Using your ammo, and effectively taking out all the bad guys, is the main challenge of the game.

With that said, there is one big difference between this version of Rambo and what Pack-In-Video made before: this version is a 2D platformer instead of a top-down maze game. The company clearly took inspiration from other titles when making their Rambo games, and this 1987 release is no different, with Pack-In-Video very obviously modeling their game on Zelda II: The Adventure of Link. It’s a pretty solid copy you might not notice at first, but once you line the two of them up it’s hard to see anything else.

Rambo starts with his knife, running around, slashing at foes. Once he kills certain enemies, though, they’ll drop the ammo he needs, and one of the first things that will drop is a throwing knife, effectively giving Rambo (limited) throwing beams he can use, a la Link in the Legend of ZeldaCreated by Nintendo in 1986, the original Legend of Zelda game presented players with a open world to explore, packed with dungeons and monsters all ready to kill them at a moment's notice. The mix of adventure and action game play created a winning game and launched not only a successful series but an entirely new video game genre. games. Many enemies seem similarly designed to creatures in Zelda II: The Adventure of Link, with birds, bats, and fire-spitting snakes clearly paralleling Nintendo’s various enemies. There’s even a set of caves to explore, and to get through them safely you first have to find a guy with a lamp that will then light up the dungeon rooms. This is Zelda II: The Adventure of Link, but with a different license attached.

In some ways I respect Pack-In-Video’s version. Basic controls are fairly tight and responsive, and it’s easy enough to kill early enemies without too much of an issue. There’s a leveling system in the game based on experience, and once you gain a level you get a boat to your attack power. There’s no magic in the game, just weapon ammo dropped from enemies, so your leveling is direct and effective. Have an issue with an area? Spend time leveling before them to boost your attacks and everything might go more smoothly after. It’s basic, functional, and not too hard to get into.

There’s also a good variety of enemies in the game, which helps to keep things moving and feeling fresh. Nothing is too hard to kill, and dagger combat isn’t super complex. The game feels dumbed down in some ways in comparison to Zelda II: The Adventure of Link, but not so much that it’s obtrusively too stupid or annoying. Nintendo’s sequel can be obnoxiously difficult at times, especially when it comes to combat, so I appreciate Pack-In-Video toning it down a step in their version.

With that said, there are parts of this game that really suck, too. For starters, the world is just too big and complex. There’s no overworld, unlike in Zelda II: The Adventure of Link, so you have to navigate everywhere in one massive, complex, side-scrolling world. But to make matters more complex, there’s a front side and back side to the whole world, and there are spots all over the place where you can cross back and forth. That means you can’t just map out one version of the world, you have to map both sides, and note where everything crosses over. It reminds me of The Goonies II, with its own a-side, b-side world navigation, but that game at least had the grace to have some in-game mapping to help you, even if it was still very confusing. Rambo dumps you in and expects you to keep up.

Worse, there are some platforming challenges that have to be aced in a single attempt. Failure to do so will set you back in the world, forcing you to navigate around a second time back to where you were so you can try it again. Jumping across long gaps to small platforms while logs or rocks roll down the screen towards you becomes very annoying very quickly, and when you have to redo the same long section for your third, fourth, or fifth time you might just get to a point where you no longer care anymore.

I think Rambo has its heart in the right place, with Pack-In-Video really trying to make a good game that’s fun to play. They mostly succeed with a title that, while hard and sometimes annoying, at least feels smooth in comparison to many other licensed titles. But their attempt, while noble, isn’t always great. It’s still hobbled in weird ways, and punishingly difficult in others. I’d like the game if it came with a map, or had simpler overworld navigation, or just about any other quality of life to make it play just a little smoother, be a little more friendly. Pack-In-Video was onto something here, striking that Metroidvania iron while it was hot. They were very close… but not quite there.