Rush'n Attack (Konami, 1985): Rescue Comrades in Arcade Action

Infiltrate the Enemy Base: The Rescue Mission

Konami's 1985 arcade action game assigns the player a single rescue mission: infiltrate an enemy base and free captured comrades. The published description divides the route into four obstacles that stand between the start and the comrades, so the infiltration is structured as a sequence to survive rather than an open battlefield. Each stretch must be gotten past before the next is reachable, and the comrades wait at the end of the infiltration rather than at its beginning.

Within that route, the documented actions are attacking, jumping and ducking. Foes are taken out with a knife, and enemies also drop weapons that the player can pick up and use in the same offensive role. Jumping and ducking serve to avoid incoming attacks while the player continues toward the goal. Reaching that goal is the stated progression objective, and the four obstacles and enemy attacks together form the resistance the player must pass through to complete the rescue.

Knife First: Melee and Dropped Weapons

In Rush'n Attack, the player's offensive options begin with the knife. The documented melee attack takes out foes at close range, and it works alongside the jump and duck actions that avoid incoming attacks. The knife is not the only offensive tool, though: enemies also drop weapons, and the player can pick those up and use them in the same offensive role against foes. Both the starting knife and the dropped weapons feed into the same goal, which is to get past four obstacles and rescue comrades. The honor of the Green Berets is the framing the publisher attaches to this mission.

The documented rules tie combat directly to the route. Getting past four obstacles is the condition for reaching the comrades, and foes stand along that route. Taking them out with the knife or with dropped weapons clears resistance, while jumping and ducking avoid the attacks that come in. The player continues toward the goal until the rescue is complete. Because the dropped weapons come from enemies, the offensive kit can change during the infiltration, but the mission objective stays fixed: infiltrate the enemy base, get past the four obstacles and rescue the comrades.

Jump and Duck: Avoiding Enemy Attacks

Jumping and ducking are the two defensive actions documented for Rush'n Attack, and both exist to let the player avoid incoming attacks while still heading toward the goal. The published description pairs them directly with enemy fire rather than with the knife, so they function as the survival half of the move set: foes attack, and the player answers by leaving the attack's path instead of trading blows. The mission framing keeps the goal at the enemy base, past four obstacles, where comrades wait to be rescued.

These evasive actions work alongside the offensive options rather than replacing them. The same description that lists jumping and ducking also lists taking out foes with a knife or with weapons dropped from enemies, and it names reaching the goal as the objective those actions serve. So the documented loop is straightforward: avoid attacks by jumping or ducking, clear resisting foes with the knife or a dropped weapon, and keep advancing until the goal is reached and the comrades are freed. The honor of the Green Berets is the publisher's closing framing for that run.

The 1985 Konami Arcade Original

Rush'n Attack is a 1985 arcade action game from Konami, the publisher credited on the game's documentation. The cabinet release places it in the action genre, and its play is organized around infiltrating an enemy base and freeing captured comrades. Four obstacles stand between the starting point and the waiting comrades, so each stretch of the route must be gotten past before the next becomes reachable. The rescue waits at the end of the infiltration rather than at its start, and the honor of the Green Berets frames the mission.

The documented move set pairs a close-range knife attack with jumping and ducking. Foes are taken out with the knife, and enemies also drop weapons that the player can pick up and use in the same offensive role; both the starting blade and the dropped weapons clear resisting foes along the route. Jumping and ducking answer incoming enemy attacks by leaving their path rather than trading blows. The loop is to avoid attacks, clear foes, and keep advancing until the four obstacles are passed and the comrades are freed.

Beyond the Cabinet: The Licensed Reissue

The licensed reissue places Rush'n Attack within the Arcade Archives series, which presents itself as faithfully reproducing classic arcade titles while keeping to the originals. The framing draws a clear line between the 1985 cabinet release and this later version: the rescue mission, the four obstacles and the knife-based combat belong to the original game, while the settings described for the reissue are presented as reissue context rather than features of the arcade release. That distinction separates what the player does in the mission from what the reissue wraps around it.

Within the reissue, players can customize game settings to their liking, with difficulty level named as one adjustable option. The same documentation states that, depending on the title, the nostalgic atmosphere of CRT televisions from back in the day can be recreated. High scores can be compared with players from around the world through online rankings. These belong to the modern licensed reissue, not the original release, so the difficulty setting, the CRT-style presentation and the online score competition sit outside the documented 1985 gameplay of infiltrating the base and freeing comrades.

First published Oct 18, 2026.