Rambo is an overhead action shoot-'em-up in the vein of Commando and Ikari Warriors. The first player controls Rambo, who is armed with an M-60 machine gun with unlimited ammunition (which can only fire two shots on-screen) and a limited supply of explosive arrows used to take out tougher obstacles such as tanks and gates. A second player can play at the same time and control Rambo's partner Zane (a character created for the game), who wears a yellow headband. The objective of the game is to fight through the enemy's defenses, reach the gate at the end of each stage and then defeat as many enemy reinforcements as possible until the gate starts flashing in different colors. The player starts off the game with three lives and gains another one for completing each stage. A second player can join in anytime during the first stage as well until the second stage, in which the game will end for either player if one's lives run out.
Unlike the aforementioned games, the player can only shoot in five directions (left, up, right, or diagonally up-left or up-right), even though movement is allowed for all eight basic directions. When the player moves downward, the player character will have his weapon aimed upwards. However, enemies can shoot diagonally upwards. Power-ups are obtained by killing a specific number of enemy soldiers or as bonuses from the prisoners when they are freed from the huts located throughout the first four stages (which are only destroyable with arrows). Only one power-up can be on screen at a time, so if there is one dropped by an enemy at the time a prisoner should drop another, the prisoner will simply leave. These power-ups increase the range of shots, speed, the number of arrows and improve the firepower of the arrows hitting in four directions after the first explosion. There are also "?" marks, which can kill all enemies on the screen or add a life.
The player starts out each life with a supply of five explosive arrows, and gains two more with every item collected, no matter which item it is (although the in-game counter maxes out at "9", the player can actually carry more than that).

Release Date 1986-12-01

Japanese Release Date 1986-11-16

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