From the MSX Directly to You

The MSX Rambo is a lost and forgotten little title, superseded in some game tracking sites (like Wikipedia) by the later console computer title released for the Amistad, Commodore 64, and ZX Spectrum. I even accepted their records when I first started reviewing the games in this franchise, figuring, “well, if they say so, I guess it’s right.” But digging down further I found enough details on it that I realized we were all discussing two different titles, and I’d eventually need to cover more of them just to get the full scope of where John Rambo was in the classic game scene, and maybe to determine what kind of influence he had as well.

But before we can get into the other computer titles featuring Sly Stallone’s burly lump of PTSD man-meat, we have to make a stop back over on the MSX because Pack-In-Video essentially remade the original title. Super Rambo Special is kind of a remake, kind of a sequel to the MSX Rambo, and since they made the original version it only made sense that they remade it since they had the license and understood the MSX better. Did we need a second version of Rambo on the MSX? Not really, and we arguably didn’t need this version especially, but Pack-In-Video was committed to getting their money’s worth out of Rambo, so this is what we have.

The remake-quel essentially has the same plot and goal as the first MSX Rambo. John Rambo is dropped into the jungle, alone, armed with only a knife. He’s there because Vietnam soldiers kept some POWs from the U.S. and John cannot let that stand. He has to explore the jungle, collecting supplies and killing soldiers, until he’s able to find a route to the POW camp and save the lost soldier. Then it’s just a matter of finding the way to a helicopter, getting on board, and flying off to freedom. Easy, right?

Well, not really. Plot-wise, Super Rambo Special takes about as much inspiration from the original film, Rambo: First Blood Part II, as Pack-In-Video’s previous version. There’s no text scroll, no real detail about where to go or what to do, you just get to wander the jungle looking for items and hoping you find what you need before you either run out of supplies or get killed in the process. And considering the size and the scope of Super Rambo Special, you’re going to be wandering in this jungle for a long time.

The original version of Rambo featured a map that was five-by-five (or twenty-five total) screens large. It was slim but focused, letting you memorize your way fairly well without getting too lost. The downside of such a small map was that the game could be finished very quickly, so once you knew what you were doing, Rambo became a 20 minute adventure. Pack-In-Video apparently decided that was way too small, so for this second stab at a Rambo adventure, they pumped the numbers. A lot.

Now the game is easily over 300 screens large, with paths that loop and twist and end up back on themselves. That doesn’t include the areas where you have to blow up cabins or rocks with the limited supplies of rockets you can find, or the bushes that aren’t actually bushes, where you can walk through them to find hidden paths. The game never hints where you should do any of these things, and in fact it doesn’t even train you to realize some bushes could be entered. It’s pretty easy to get stuck, at several points in the game, without any clue of where to go or what to do because the game didn’t give you any indication and you ran out of supplies to continue.

There is, notably, an in-game map you find in the wreckage of a downed helicopter at one point, and it helpfully pops into the lower section of the screen once you find it. Unhelpfully, there’s no indicator on the map to show you where you are, where your goal is, or where anything you need might be. It’s just a map, that looks like a maze, that I could never read because nothing I saw in the game matched with any part of the map I was looking at. I eventually gave up on using it altogether and went looking for a map of the game online that might give me a better indication of what they heck I was supposed to be doing. If you were a kid back in 1986 trying to figure out this title, good luck with that.

There were plenty of supplies to be found, so I wasn’t too worried for most of the game about what would happen if I ran out of rockets, but that’s only because I had a map of the game up from a website, perfectly screenshotted so I knew what the map looked like. I could plan my route with ease, and conserve my rockets until they were needed, but if I hadn’t had that map I would have run out quickly since I’d feel compelled to try blowing up everything I could until I found the correct route.

In a way, it reminded me of The Legend of Zelda, where many of the dungeons in that NES title expected you to bomb every wall until you found the next path. The difference, of course, was that if I ran out of bombs I could try killing enemies for more (as the eighth enemy dropped a bomb, as the game said) or I could go to a nearby vendor and buy more. Here, the enemies don’t drop anything (unlike in the original MSX Rambo) and the huts don’t often have the supplies you need when you need them. It’s like Pack-In-Video wanted to make their own kind of Zelda game, but they didn’t want to make it “too easy”.

Heck, outside the explosives in the game, most of the supplies you could get are pretty useless. You can get pistols, shotguns, and arrows, but all of those first piddly shots and the enemies are pretty quick to respond with bullets themselves. Trying to shoot enemies usually led to me taking more damage than I would have liked, nullifying any need to get guns in the first place. I was better off with my knife since it was easier to get in close to an enemy before they saw me and shot me, and then I just had to stab them twice and be done with them.

I honestly felt the same way about Agent Co, a helpful character who you can pick up in an early screen of the game. She follows behind you and shoots enemies, which can be useful. She only has so much health, though, so you can eventually lose her if you aren’t careful. You can return to her screen to get her again, but she appears so early in the game, and her bullets do so little damage, that keeping her around is more hassle than it’s worth. She died early in my playthrough and I simply didn’t go back.

All of this is to say that the game really isn’t very much fun. It’s too long, too boring, too tedious, without much in the way of new ideas added in. What new ideas are there aren’t that interesting, and it’s all packaged together in a game that just goes on and on without really letting you know how you’re doing or if you’re even on the right track. Just one massive, samey looking overworld, screen by screen, until you either luck into the correct path or you give up and turn the game off. Thanks, but no thanks, Pack-In-Video.