Rescue:  The Embassy Mission - 1989 -Nintendo Entertainment System

OK, first of all, this game goes by five different nom de plumes:  It is Rescue: The Embassy Mission, a.k.a., Hostage: Rescue Mission, a.k.a. Hostage: The Embassy Mission, a.k.a. Hostage: No Subtitle, a.k. fucking a. Operation Jupiter. Seriously, dudes, dubble yoo tee eff?   What in the name of the six hells of Q’o NoS is that all about?  

At any rate, in Mission: Hostage Rescue,  there is an embassy.  And terrorists are in it, with hostages.  You must rescue them.  That’s your mission. 

It is one of those you-can-do-four-different-things-so-none-of-those-things-are-fun kind of games.  You sneak your men into position.  You have your snipers take out some of the terrorists.  And then voom, you’re repelling down the building into a window where you shoot the hell out of some terrorists and rescue the shit out of some hostages.  Embassy: Mission Rescue is like a game of Rainbow Six a decade or so before making a game like Rainbow Six would a good idea.    

If you boil it down to the essence, there are three major elements to games: Gameplay, simulation, and narrative.  Different games focus on different bits.  This game is very heavy on the simulationism, which is a fine philosophy.  Trouble is, simulationist games are always always always aiming for greater sophistication and complexity.  They don’t age well at all.

Pac-Man is still a masterpiece even with the advent of more complex maze games like Pac-Man C.E..  Metal Gear still has an enjoyable, goofy-ass story even when goofier ass stories like that of Metal Gear Solid 2 came along.  Hostage: Jupiter was obsolete even before Tom Clancy started signing his name on video game boxes. 

Did you enjoy this article? Please bookmark it onto: