Video Game Collecting

I finally received Rambo III for SEGA Genesis.  Actually I received it about a week ago, but I really haven’t had much time to play it.  I like the Rambo movies.  Especially the first one, and it just so happens that the 3rd movie is my least favorite.  Games and movies never work well together so I was ready to be let down. 

In this case I wasn’t let down at all.  I actually enjoyed this game for what little I got to play of it.  It’s loosely based on the 3rd movie and even includes digital stills from it.  It plays similiar to Ikari Warriors (which was obviously inspired by the 2nd Rambo movie)  but resembles Heavy Barrel more and could be considered a precurser to Shock Troopers on Neo Geo.

Unlike many top-down war games Rambo III does have one feature that would have made those other games much more interesting: RAPID FIRE.  Not only does Rambo have unlimited ammunition, if you hold the button down and leave the D-pad alone Rambo will start moving the gun back and forth, effectively spraying the bullets everywhere.  THATS AWESOME!

You can also shoot arrows, which is very much Rambo-esq, but you can also set time-bombs, which I don’t recall in any Rambo movie but I could be wrong.  Now on to the best part:

The box art is beautiful.  It isn’t a promo picture from the movie either, or if it was, it certainly wasn’t for the American audience.  I’d like to believe it was unique for the game(s).  The reason I say this is look at the Commodore version:

Notice anything missing?  Where are his arrows and bows?  It seems the Genesis version is unique to the arrows and bows, but it also proves that it must be a painting and not a still from the movie, because… what is holding the arrows and bows in the Genesis box art?  Are they stuffed into his back pocket?  Who knows, the point is that this is a good game for SEGA Genesis.

When I joined and left for the Army back in 1995 I had to fly to the Phoenix MEPS station.  There are several of these located throughout the United States and they service three purposes:

1. Check your aptitude for military service
2. Check your physical qualifications
3. Check your background

Basically you do a bunch of mental and physical testing.  They then tell you what you qualify for in terms of “jobs” and then you pick your “job” and any extras that come with your enlistment (initial station, foreign tour, etc.)  This may have all changed by now, it was 15 years ago when I went through this.

So why am I wasting your time about MEPS on a videogame collecting blog?  It’s all about CABAL.

Cabal means to control things secretly.  You usually hear about Cabals in South America as coups come and go as often as the rain.  But it’s also a game.

Cabal was the last game I saw and played before leaving for my enlistment.  The game used a track ball which moved a site around on the screen and buttons allowed you to fire and throw grenades.  It was kinda cool… and it kinda sucked.

Just look at this marquee:

Looks kinda neat. You could destroy pretty much anything if you shot it enough times.

Now lets look at another similar arcade game, that also used a trackball, RAMBO III:

This was slightly a step up from CABAL.  The only redeeming thing of RAMBO III the arcade game was that it featured RAMBO.  If it was any other clown it would have been forgettable.  But this style of gameplay would come back to haunt arcades once more with…

NAM 1975′ For Neo Geo:

NAM was actually a pretty decent game.

Cabal eventually found it’s way on the Nintendo, and it turned out to be a reasonable port…

Thankfully they found a better artist to create the box art.  However this is another example of a war game where the players are distinguished by their colored bandana, and in this case their wrist bands.  Perhaps these to are going to a tennis match after the war.