Rambo

Developper: Pack-In-Video
Publisher: Pack-In-Video
Year: 1985
Product ID: MS-1
Medium: ROM cartridge
Sound: PSG

The first game I ever saw on MSX, was the Pack-In-Video game: Rambo. Sylvester Stallone playing Rambo is one of my all time heroes, so when I saw the game for the first time I was addicted to it.

Not hard to guess, but main character in this game is Rambo, a vietnam veteran who is dropped in the jungle of Vietnam with mission to search for prisoners of war. So the story in the game is more simulair to the seccond Rambo movie (as you can speak about a story...). Goal of the game is to destroy all your enemies and defence weapons, to help the prisoner of war to get well and to escape together with him in a helicopter filled up with gas.

A lot of people laugh when they see this pixelate MSX1 game, and although the mainfigure looks more like an Egyptian than Rambo, I still think it is (when you forget the pixels) graphicly a good looking and good designed game. The game is a short game. If you know how to play it the right way, you can easily finish the game in about a few minutes, something I demonstrate at our MSX club often.

Some tips for playing the game:
- For most actions, use the knife; walk as fast as you can close upto the enemy and stab him (take care to hit him correctly. hit on his face or legs. to stab above him does not work, he will stab your bottom.)
- As well with enemies who have other weapons; first try to kill them using your knife.
- Take care your power-beam is full when you are ready to attack the spider. You have got to kill this spider with several knife stabs. Do not fall in the gap behind the spider.
- The military car has no use at all, so leave it. Most of the time I get in- and out of the car myself to get myself the feelin' I got all items when I finish the game.
- Most important advice: Do not forget to destroy the defence weapons with handgranates. Because if you do not destroy them, you will be blast out of the air by the defence system when you are in the helicopter at the end of the game. So then it's still game over.

A complete map of this game you can find on MSX Solutions. More fun is playing without it ofcourse.