Rush’n Attack

Rush'n Attack, originally released in Japan and Europe as Green Beret, is an action/platform arcade game released by Konami in 1985. Rush'n Attack is remembered for its Cold War setting (the title is a play on 'Russian attack') and its reliance on the player using a knife to dispatch enemies.

The player takes on the role of a United States special operations soldier infiltrating an enemy military base in order to save several POW's from being executed by firing squad. There are four stages: a Marshalling Area, a Harbor, an Air Base and a Siberian Camp. The omnipresent knife can be supplemented with captured arms. By killing certain enemy soldiers, the player can obtain a three-shot flamethrower, a four-shot RPG, or a three-pack of hand grenades. At the end of each stage, the player will face a unique group of enemies specific to that stage: Stage 1 ends with a truckload of running and jump kicking soldiers, Stage 2 with a pack of fierce dogs, Stage 3 with three shooting autogyros and Stage 4 with a skillful multi-shot flamethrower operator. When the mission is accomplished the four rescued POWs salute and the player restarts the game from the first stage on the next difficulty level. While the player can remain still in one area and rack up points, if he takes too long to proceed, the game will start sending out tougher enemies and eventually a stealth-like bomber will appear to take out the player. There's also an invisible time limit that will kill off the player if he takes too long to complete the stage.

A Family Computer Disk System version of Green Beret was released in Japan on April 10, 1987, along with a corresponding version for the Nintendo Entertainment System (under the Rush'n Attack name) released during the same month in North America and Europe.

The player's objective in the NES version was changed from rescuing prisoners to destroying a secret weapon being developed in the enemy's headquarters. Additionally, a 2-players co-operative mode was introduced as well, allowing two players to play simultaneously (with Player 1 in blue and Player 2 in red). The play mechanics are essentially identical to the arcade version, however the Flamethrower is removed (only the Rocket Launcher and Grenades remained) and two new power-up items are introduced: a Star mark which grants invincibility and a pistol with unlimited ammo, both which are only usable for a limited period. The NES version also features two additional stages that were not in the arcade game: an airport set between the Missile Base and the Harbor, where the player faces a group of rocket soldiers at the end; and a new final stage set inside the enemy's base in which the player must disarm a nuclear missile at the end that is about to be launched. The flamethrower corps at the end of the Warehouse stage was replaced by a paratrooper unit.

The Famicom version features a few differences from its NES counterpart by allowing the player to continue up to three times after a game over and if the player loses a life in the Famicom version, his character will respawn at the very spot where he died instead of being sent to the last checkpoint (in the NES version, instant respawns are only allowed in the 2-Players game). Moreover, the player can carry up to nine rounds of any secondary weapon he finds instead of just three. To rebalance the difficulty, the NES version gives the player more extra lives when they begin (four instead of two) and all weapons dropped by enemies will always have three rounds in them instead of having the player accumulate them one by one. The Famicom version also features hidden underground areas which the player could access by destroying certain land mines in Stage 2, 4, and 5.