Rambo is a side-scrolling action-adventure

Action-adventure game

An action-adventure game is a video game that combines elements of the adventure game genre with various action game elements. It is perhaps the broadest and most diverse genre in gaming, and can include many games which might better be categorized under narrow genres...

 video game produced by Pack-In-Video

Pack-In-Video

is a Japanese video game publisher and developer which developed a wide range of games for the Famicom platform. The games published were mostly focused on the Japanese market although a few titles have been published abroad...

 and released in North America by Acclaim

Acclaim Entertainment

Acclaim Entertainment was an American video game developer and publisher. It developed, published, marketed and distributed interactive entertainment software for a variety of hardware platforms, including Sega's Mega Drive/Genesis, Saturn, Dreamcast, and Game Gear, Nintendo's NES, SNES, Nintendo...

 on the Nintendo Entertainment System

Nintendo Entertainment System

The Nintendo Entertainment System is an 8-bit video game console that was released by Nintendo in North America during 1985, in Europe during 1986 and Australia in 1987...

 (NES) on December 4, 1987 in Japan, and May 1988 in North America. It is based on the film Rambo: First Blood Part II

Rambo: First Blood Part II

Rambo: First Blood Part II is a 1985 action film. A sequel to 1982's First Blood, it is the second installment in the Rambo series starring Sylvester Stallone, who reprises his role as Vietnam veteran John Rambo...

.

Ending

The infamously bizarre ending sequence allows the player to throw a giant kanji character (怒, Ikari) towards Murdoch after returning to the base, which turns Murdoch into a frog. The kanji is a reference to the Japanese title of the film, which was known as ; the meaning of the frog is still unclear.