There is an unspoken narrative with licenced titles with this era of games, of a dev taking on a licence to make an adaptation, but that has absolutely no baring on what kind of game will come out the other end. Like it's different thing entirely, dev Pack-In-Video wanted to make a Zelda II and they got the Rambo licence, but it feels like it could've been any licence! But the former was definitely happening irregardless of the later and that's just beautiful. We get these real exploration of new design philosophies and genre and they could truly be wearing anyone's skin. It's just neat.
Tho with Rambo's subject matter, distilling it to a side scrolling RPG feels very weird! Tho the smallest possible time is spent not fighting either rabid animals from the pit of hell or the US army, which is some good foresight for the time! But aside from some awkward map design, especially with the friggin BOAT, this was surprisingly fun! And it feels like it shows how versatile this flash in the pan genre was for it's small lifespan. You can attach it to friggin Rambo and it turns out okay!