www.jap-sai.com - Green Beret

These are tough times. In the quagmire of the Cold War, a squad of green berets has been captured by a group of very extremist-looking militia. No time to talk: one single chap is going to have to get it on, charge head first into the enemy camp, and eradicate everything in his way with a shark-tooth combat knife. And smoke some cigarettes. Splendid.
Konami's Green Beret is a good candidate for the ultimate action game of the 80s. Basic and crisp gameplay, a harsh difficulty level, and an overbearing military subtext... This is not a situation to be giving people the impression that you're some kind of faggot. No, not here. These damn commies are gonna stab, shoot and karate-kick you relentlessly, so stay frosty. A moment's lack of attention, and they will knock you in the head.
Konami were very much on top of their game during the mid-80s, producing a very fine line of internationally popular arcade action games to quench the Reagan generation's atavistic thirst for violence. Case in point: Green Beret was renamed “Rush 'n Attack” (geddit) for distribution in US... All very funny from a retrospective viewpoint.
The game's simple premise is to guide a knife-wielding soldier through hosile terrain, and main whatever gets in your way. The four level / two-button setup is easy to get to grips with - a perfect little fix for beginners and experts alike: the later loops provide enough challenge to test the best.
The later loops are of relative importance here, because just like Donkey Kong (1981) all four stages can be completed in a few minutes. But that is not the issue here: the question is not how many levels you can clear, but how many times you can clear the game, private.
Brilliant. This is Konami at their best. Green Beret is a classic of the era, that also did some serious rounds in the form a classy 2-Player home conversion on the Famicom Disk System. Apart from that the game survives only through one single lacklustre arcade sequel, Missing in Action (1989).
Shame, really. Konami really could have gone further with this.