Author: Lucas M. Thomas | 
Near as I can figure, here's how this one went down. Sylvester Stallone lights up the Hollywood box office in the '80s as battle-hardened Vietnam warrior John Rambo, inspiring an entire generation of American men to walk shirtless and sweaty into pawn shops across the country and try to purchase weapons and ammo they have no business even looking at. SEGA, realizing the opportunity, quickly claims the rights to an unrelated run-and-gun game in Japan, swaps out the main character graphic, and releases it as "Rambo: First Blood Part II" on the 8-bit Master System here in the States. The game is a success. How could it not be? It had Rambo.
Then, the success of the game in America carries it further around the world for a European release. But, there, the Rambo license isn't as viable -- so the game is rebranded again, as the more generically-titled "Secret Commando." But, then, someone figures out that there could potentially be confusion between it and Capcom's Commando -- inviting legal action and customer puzzlement for sure. So, ridiculously, the "O" is just dropped off the end of the game's name for the final packaging. Ta da, Secret Command.
So what you ultimately get when you download this 600 Wii Point comedy of errors is a misnamed, half-localized, cobbled together Import release -- the name of the game remains "Secret Command," the title screen when you fire it up still says Secret Commando (with the "O" intact), the reason you'd buy it is because it's really Rambo, and all of that is layered on top of the Japanese game Ashura. The game it once was, before Sylvester got all sweaty.
Looks like Rambo. Acts like Rambo. For legal reasons? Not Rambo.
Now that we've cleared all that up, the game itself. Secret Command is a arcade action run-and-gun, just like Capcom's Commando or Konami's Ikari Warriors. You control a headband-clad, shirtless vigilante renegade who is not John Rambo, but looks exactly like him. You march slowly up the vertically-scrolling screen, dodging enemy fire and countering with your own big white bullets, dropping foes to their deaths and rescuing kidnapped P.O.W.s along the way. Those rescued prisoners then toss power-ups and ammo refills to you, and you keep on marching along to kill more guys.
It's appealing in the same way that other games of the same genre and era always have been, even with the Rambo tie-ins mostly removed. You can choose to take the fight to the enemy alone, or fire up the two-player co-op mode. Adds a bit to the fun to bring a friend along.
But Secret Command is more than a little plodding, all around. Its pace is slow -- I said you march slowly up the screen, and you do. You might as well be crawling for as fast as your heroes move. It works a bit to the player's advantage, since most of the enemies are equally lackadaisical -- but it's certainly not too reflective of the intensity of the film the game's not themed after.
It's also more than a little picky, in that it often seems to require very precise placement of your shots to get things done. Your secondary weapon is a bow that fires explosive arrows (from the movie, of course), and you use it to blow up the bunkers keeping P.O.W.s captive -- but if your shot is just a little bit off, the building won't explode. You'll have to back up, readjust your position, and launch another. And then again, and again, until you get it right on. By the time you actually manage to hit the mark on the exact right pixel the game requires, you will have squandered more arrows than the refill that rescuing the P.O.W. earns you replenishes.
Last of all, it is more than a little annoying to be charged 600 Wii Points instead of the Master System standard five bucks for this download -- as it's being called an Import. But the only reason it's an Import is because someone must not have been able to get the rights to re-release the Rambo version -- which is the edition we would have wanted. So I've got to sacrifice an extra dollar to get a compromised "Import" of a game that actually came out in America? I've seen Sylvester kill a man for less than that. Lucas M. Thomas
Then, the success of the game in America carries it further around the world for a European release. But, there, the Rambo license isn't as viable -- so the game is rebranded again, as the more generically-titled "Secret Commando." But, then, someone figures out that there could potentially be confusion between it and Capcom's Commando -- inviting legal action and customer puzzlement for sure. So, ridiculously, the "O" is just dropped off the end of the game's name for the final packaging. Ta da, Secret Command.
So what you ultimately get when you download this 600 Wii Point comedy of errors is a misnamed, half-localized, cobbled together Import release -- the name of the game remains "Secret Command," the title screen when you fire it up still says Secret Commando (with the "O" intact), the reason you'd buy it is because it's really Rambo, and all of that is layered on top of the Japanese game Ashura. The game it once was, before Sylvester got all sweaty.
Looks like Rambo. Acts like Rambo. For legal reasons? Not Rambo.
Now that we've cleared all that up, the game itself. Secret Command is a arcade action run-and-gun, just like Capcom's Commando or Konami's Ikari Warriors. You control a headband-clad, shirtless vigilante renegade who is not John Rambo, but looks exactly like him. You march slowly up the vertically-scrolling screen, dodging enemy fire and countering with your own big white bullets, dropping foes to their deaths and rescuing kidnapped P.O.W.s along the way. Those rescued prisoners then toss power-ups and ammo refills to you, and you keep on marching along to kill more guys.
It's appealing in the same way that other games of the same genre and era always have been, even with the Rambo tie-ins mostly removed. You can choose to take the fight to the enemy alone, or fire up the two-player co-op mode. Adds a bit to the fun to bring a friend along.
But Secret Command is more than a little plodding, all around. Its pace is slow -- I said you march slowly up the screen, and you do. You might as well be crawling for as fast as your heroes move. It works a bit to the player's advantage, since most of the enemies are equally lackadaisical -- but it's certainly not too reflective of the intensity of the film the game's not themed after.
It's also more than a little picky, in that it often seems to require very precise placement of your shots to get things done. Your secondary weapon is a bow that fires explosive arrows (from the movie, of course), and you use it to blow up the bunkers keeping P.O.W.s captive -- but if your shot is just a little bit off, the building won't explode. You'll have to back up, readjust your position, and launch another. And then again, and again, until you get it right on. By the time you actually manage to hit the mark on the exact right pixel the game requires, you will have squandered more arrows than the refill that rescuing the P.O.W. earns you replenishes.
Last of all, it is more than a little annoying to be charged 600 Wii Points instead of the Master System standard five bucks for this download -- as it's being called an Import. But the only reason it's an Import is because someone must not have been able to get the rights to re-release the Rambo version -- which is the edition we would have wanted. So I've got to sacrifice an extra dollar to get a compromised "Import" of a game that actually came out in America? I've seen Sylvester kill a man for less than that. Lucas M. Thomas
