Game of the Day - Rambo III

There's not a lot new or different about the cross-hair shooter genre that appears in Rambo III except, come on(!), you get to be John Rambo.  And frankly, when a game does all the basics well, it doesn't matter how much is new or different, the only real word that matters is that it's FUN.

Gratuitous Rambo quote: "They drew first blood, not me!"

As Rambo you are stalking the enemy (and they are doing the same) with the typical arsenal of guns and missiles powered by two buttons.  Your gun can be powered up in many different ways: machine gun, flamethrower and a widened cross-hair are a few of the things you can collect to enhance your prowess.  You can also collect additional missiles (bombs) that are available in single or multiple quantities all over.  Keep in mind by "collect" what I mean is "shoot" - as in most games of this type you get the power-ups and bombs by shooting them when they appear.

Of course there are bosses (usually big tanks or vehicles) and they can be tough but not ridiculously so.  Regardless, you should keep as many missiles stashed away to use on them as you can.

One unusual feature of this game is that on each level you fight an unknown number of enemies until you get to the "enemy's area", then there is a scoreboard on the upper left that tells you how many of each type of enemy you still need to kill to end the level (men, trucks, tanks, choppers).  I've played games that show you these counts, but usually the counts are there from the beginning of each level - in Rambo III you play for a while and then it tells you that you are near the enemy area and puts the enemy count on the screen for you.

As I wrote above, Rambo III doesn't add much new to the genre, but what I care about is that when I crank it up, I have a lot of fun blasting the enemy.  In Rambo III, the action, controls, graphics and sound come together to make a great game and will leave you wishing your country treated you better.