 Next on the action platformer's list is the conspicuously named Rush in Attack, a game that was released during the Cold War, so I'm sure the title is just a crazy coincidence. Or is it? Hmm. Hmm. Anyway, this is an NES arcade port from Konami, and it is classic 80s cartoony nonsense. There's truckloads of ninja soldiers, flamethrowers, bazookas, idiots running to their deaths. It is over the top, NES absurdity at its best. The story is told in one sentence, destroy the enemy's secret weapon. Ah, I miss the days before windbags like Hideo Kojima came along. Anyway, there's four stages, and your default weapon is a knife. Geez, at least the Contra guys had the wherewithal to bring guns. You're gonna go charging at a bunch of armed enemies with freakin' knives? Well, yes actually, because the enemy doesn't appear to be all that smart. This reminds me of Rambo for NES, but at least in Rush in Attack, you're going after bad guys instead of freakin' bugs. In addition to the knife, you can pick up a flamethrower, grenades, or an RPG or bazooka thing that evidently fires a thing that stabs people. Where's the explosion? I'm sorry, it's just hard for me not to notice how absurd this game is. It reminds me of G.I. Joe in that way, and yes, I'll get to that game eventually too. Like I said, Rush in Attack is made by Konami, so it's well made for the most part. The controls are a little different than what you'd expect, however. This is one of those weird games where jump is up, so that takes getting used to. With all this stuff left behind by enemies, you have to press A, you can't just walk over them. But the controls are as responsive as you'd expect, the music is fantastic, the pixel art is well done, but the visuals are distractingly finicky. There's a lot of flickering in this game, on the cartridge and on an emulator. A couple people pointed this out about Journey to Cilius as well. But that didn't really bother me for whatever reason, but in this game, it is definitely noticeable. Now, I'm contractually obligated to mention that this game can be described as NES-hard. Yes, this game is hard as balls, and just like Shatterhand, it is frustrating to have such a short range attack. This is why so many people gravitated toward Contra, it's just so much better to have a projectile in games like this. Yeah, there's projectile weapons in Rush in Attack, but you only get three grenades at a time and four missile stabby things at a time from your bazooka thing. Now, I should mention that this game came before Contra, and it does look and sound a little bit like a precursor to that game, and after playing this, I noticed Contra does kind of sort of have a similar feel to Rush in Attack. I really wouldn't be surprised if a lot of the same people worked on both games. They do feel a bit samey, and not just thematically. Anyway, is Rush in Attack worth playing today? It's a really hard call. The control scheme feels kind of awkward and outdated, but on the other hand, destroy the enemy's secret weapon. How do you not love that? But then, this game is ridiculously hard and can be frustrating for the wrong reasons. But on the other hand, it's multiplayer, and it's a fun time to laugh both at the game, with the game, and at yourself for getting angry for dying constantly. But then, this game doesn't come close to other multiplayer games like Contra. Whew! So yeah, you can go either way here. The multiplayer is fun, and the game's sheer silliness is great. But don't expect a classic, and I have a feeling you may have a hankering to play some Contra after playing Rush in Attack.