Why is this Rambo game on home consoles?

Rambo these days, isn't quite the hot property it was a few years ago and it certainly isn't as relevant as it was back in the 80s – 30 years ago for those not feeling ready for maths yet this morning. Still, there's some blood left in that stone and clearly developer Teyon and publisher Reef Entertainment wanted to ring out of the franchise that bit more, so they've been working on a new title called Rambo: The Video game. It's set for release on the Xbox 360, PS3 and PC in early 2014, but for the life of me I can't figure out why.

Have a look for yourself, see what you think: [yframe url='http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RkIUl1e7D0g']

This is the new trailer from the developer to show off how the game has been progressing before the last time I was horrified at this thing's aesthetics. I know no one likes a graphics snob, but you might as well watch the above video in 240p, as at points that's what the game seems to bee rendered at. Some parts of it are better than others, but everything is so, so aliased. The gun you use on this clearly on-rails shooter looks quite nice at some points and occasionally the lighting isn't bad, but there's a lag with every explosion and the blood effects are just odd – with people exploding in clouds of red mist 90 per cent of the time, regardless of the weapon used.

Rambo The Video Game looks worse than a lot of mobile titles, but at least if it was on Android or iOS you could have a justification for it looking this bad. But when you have GTA V and CoD Ghosts released within the last month and then you have this not being ready till 2014, it's hard to imagine they're the same sort of retail products being released for the same system. I appreciate the cited examples are massive, AAA-fests, but if this is a little indie game, make it an XBOX Live Arcade release, not a full retail product. It's a £29 console pre-order guys. £19 for the PC. For this.

It has to be noted too, that if you're going to release this thing on consoles, why on earth wouldn't you not do a Wii or Wii U version? The original has some of the best light-gun accessories in the world (seriously), which is the only way to play a rail shooter. Using a controller on a game like this is a travesty of the limited – and somewhat outdated – genre.

But regardless of these problems with the game, you could at least argue that it follows the movies pretty well – until you're mowing down tens of cops near the end of the first game, despite there only being a single death in the original movie.

At least you get a sweet “exclusive limited edition,” figure that doesn't look ridiculous though. That's surely going to sell copies… right?

Kitguru Says: If this was a mobile title for a few quid, I'd probably pick it up, but even at the reduced £18 PC price tag, there's just no way. Graphics aren't everything – clearly, I'm a massive Mount and Blade fan – but this just looks horrible AND limited. 

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