Rambo Hands-On

3GSM, CANNES, FRANCE--For cinematic war hero John Rambo, the Cold War was one long extra-scathing sauna. Sly Stallone's portrayal of the oft-shirtless commando highlighted the profound societal and personal impact of America's interventionist foreign policy through the latter half of the 20th century. Audiences were also taught that it was possible to shoot down a Soviet Hind gunship with small arms fire if your biceps were huge and your cause righteous. Rambo is rumored to be planning a triumphant return to the silver screen in the near future. But, until he does, hawks everywhere will soon be able to while away the time playing In-Fusio's new Rambo game on their cell phones. Our turn with an alpha version of this bird's-eye shoot-'em-up revealed a fast-moving action game that could bring more to the table than an awesome license.

The mobile Rambo will celebrate the commando's adventures through his several films, as well as set him loose in new scenarios throughout the globe (the classic action in Afghanistan and Central America will be supplemented by visits to Europe and even the Arctic Circle). It appears that you will be able to tackle the 10 campaigns in any order. You'll also be able to enjoy classic boss fights from the movies, taking on the likes of the Russian colonel from Rambo III, and, of course, the Hind-D assault helicopter.

The gameplay on our test handset, a Motorola V525, was only partially completed, but we were able to get a good picture of how Rambo will be dealing with his enemies...violently. All of the environments in the game are fully destructible, so you can blow up everything from trees to stone Buddha statues with your standard machine gun. Rambo enjoys two methods of movement: strafe mode and turn mode. Although we had some difficulty negotiating the two modes in the alpha version of the game, these will eventually switch at the touch of the button. In-Fusio also plans to add the ability to lock onto your target for easier aiming (we had to move in front of a target to shoot it while we played).

In-Fusio is building Rambo on the same graphics engine as another recent shooter, Terminator: I'm Back, and this definitely isn't a point of vulnerability. The greens of the jungle are almost as bold as Rambo himself, who moves through the levels deftly and without any slowdown. We've seen similar overhead-perspective styles in games like Red Faction and Blade Trinity, and they've worked quite well. Rambo's sound quality will vary according to the handset, but you're guaranteed a rocking title theme and lots of explosions.

Large mobile publishers like In-Fusio have learned that hawking shoddy licensed games to consumers is no way to grow a business, and they're now putting a lot more creative muscle behind such titles. From what we've seen, we have a lot of reasons to believe that Rambo will exemplify the new race toward quality. Rambo is due out around July. Until then, we'll keep this page locked and loaded with new updates.