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Developed and published by Konami in 1985. Follow me on Twitter: Add me on Google : Foreword: I released a longplay of Green Beret a couple of years ago and a couple of viewers noticed that the background music wasn't right at all. Therefore, I decided to record a new video to correct the issues and updated the review in the description! Green Beret is another classic arcade game released by Konami into the arcades during the mid 80's. Set in a period when the Cold War was still fresh in people's minds (the U.S. release was even called Rush'n Attack...), the game pits a lone soldier against several battalions of hostile troops in a bid to liberate allied POWs from a military prison camp. Armed initially with nothing more than a knife, the player must run, jump and stab his/her way through four levels of platforming action where quick thinking and even quicker reactions are the key to victory. Whilst the game starts out with the player facing mostly unarmed enemies, riflemen and other troops packing more devastating hardware quickly come into play and create a significant challenge for the player. It's possible to even the odds by killing higher ranking soldiers and collecting the special weapon that he leaves behind. These include flame-throwers, rocket launchers and hand grenades, all of which are capable of killing large numbers of foes. Unfortunately, these weapons come with limited ammunition, so you should only use them when you need to get out of a difficult situation. The end of each level culminates in a show-down with special enemy units, such as a truck-load of infantry, attack dogs or even heavily-armed helicopters. It's a good idea to save your special weapons for these fights as they will make things much, much easier. Should the Green Beret succeed in rescuing the prisoners from the enemy camp then the game starts over back at the beginning, albeit with a much higher difficulty. I don't believe the game actually has an ending, so I limited the recording to three loops to demonstrate the how the difficulty increases. Graphically, the game is pretty decent considering it's age and bears a similarity to Konami's other famous run-and-gun title, Contra. Be it by design or simply limitations of the hardware, I like the cartoon-style depictions of the little soldiers and the animations they've been given. I particularly like the way the main sprite appears to be giving his grenades a vigorous shake, rather like a can of fizzy pop, under some illusion that giving them a good rattle somehow makes them more devastating before being thrown! As for the game's sound, it's pretty basic, but it's to be expected for games released around this period. Even so, the sound chip manages to pump out some decent thumps and rumbles, especially when firing off the special weapons (the rocket launcher being personal favourite). The game is one of those titles that is easy to pick up, but will take time to master. I didn't really get to experience the arcade version that often as a child, but it was ported to a large number of home computers, of which the C64 was exceptionally good and should be considered something of a rarity given the limited resources of the average home micro compared to a dedicated arcade board. Although it's relatively simple compared to other titles, Green Beret offers simple yet addictive gameplay that will have you coming back for just one more go! #retrogaming
