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#482 – Platoon

Not in my blessed house.
Now for kids of all ages.
Maybe you should get going, game. You ever think of that?

PLAYERS: 1

PUBLISHER: SunSoft

DEVELOPER: Ocean

GENRE: Action/adventure

RELEASE DATE: December 1988

What confused person greenlit a licensed game based off of “Platoon”? Oliver Stone’s insane Vietnam epic might make for a good film, but anyone with a cursory understanding of “Platoon” would argue that there’s not much of a game within. And here we are! Ocean’s Platoon is a series of mazes in which one must escape, and while escaping, kill as many Vietcong as possible. Your character starts off where he should, in the depths of the Vietnam jungle, where any turn can lead to death. Vietcong come from everywhere to kill you: the trees, the ground, right in front of your face, anywhere you can imagine. You’re allowed four shots before you’re dead and four lives before it’s game over. After you escape from the jungle, you venture to the sewers for more confusion. Once you emerge from the sewers, it’s time to get lost in even more jungle, except this tour, there’s a time limit. With enough time, ample amounts of grit, and a couple scratch pieces of paper, you can deduce what paths to take to reach the end of each area. But there’s no incentive to do so. Navigating ridiculously plotted mazes isn’t enjoyable in the least, and that is ninety percent of Platoon. I also felt guilty knowing that I was virtually killing Vietcong; sounds silly unless you’re actually playing the game. Which, if this review hasn’t made it clear already, you really, really shouldn’t.

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6 replies on “#482 – Platoon”

Seems to me that everyone had a copy of this damned thing. I was too young to watch Platoon, so I didn’t even know it was supposed to be DaFoe.

This game was way too hard for me to really enjoy when I played it. Plus was this movie really appropriate to market a game for kids towards? I’m going to say a big ol ‘NO’ to that one.

Sleepyweasel

My buddy and I really got a sense of accomplishment out of finishing this difficult game. We mapped out the maze and got good at jumping sniper shots. This was back in the day before we had anyway (near us) to rent a game. If you bought it, you played it.

I thought the gameplay was a realistic simulation of America’s strategy, right down to the getting lost and gunning down as many people as possible without a second’s thought…

And the cinema that plays after the title screen, if you don’t hit start? That music with those visuals did a great job of convincing me this game was about documenting a tragedy, so I was in the perfect frame of mind to appreciate all the sudden and cheap deaths – both mine and the enemy’s.

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