Rambo - The Mobile Game Review

Developer: Creative Distribution Ltd
Price: $3.99
Version Reviewed: 1.0
App Reviewed on: iPhone 5

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Maybe, when you were bored and daydreaming, you wondered what licensed game you’d like to see next. I’d quite like to see a Telltale Games style take on The West Wing for instance, but I appreciate it’s not exactly financially viable. Somebody somewhere decided to use the license of 1980s film Rambo to make a mobile game in 2015. No, I don’t know why either.

You’re running. A lot. After all, John Rambo is a wanted man and he’s got plenty of people to flee from. This isn’t exactly an endless runner but it owes more to that genre than a typical ‘run and gun’ game. Running through various landscapes, you’re dodging enemies a lot of the time. They shoot straight at you and you have limited health, meaning oftentimes you’re better off avoiding then taking them on. You can always hack n slash though, once you have a knife, with a carefully timed tap. Guns play a part soon enough too but don’t expect to find them particularly enthralling. It’s all oddly weightless in its approach.

Really, it’s the control method that lets Rambo - The Mobile Game down the most. You swipe a finger around at the bottom of the screen in order to dictate which direction you’re going in but it feels awkward, floaty, and inaccurate. You never feel as in control as you’d like to. Instead, you’re floundering through the landscapes, hoping you make it while wondering just why each level feels so longwinded and lacklustre.

Maybe with more accurate controls, Rambo - The Mobile Game could have been mindless if forgettable fun, but that combination of inaccuracy and tedium merely ensures this is a wasted endeavour. On top of it all it’s $3.99, which can buy you a lot of far superior games for the price.