Ashura / Secret Commando title screen (1986) 🔗

This Sega title has the distinction of being both a properly licensed Rambo tie-in (in North America) as well as a Rambo rip-off (in Japan and Europe). But while the latter two versions don't have the lovingly pixeled movie poster pose the US release proudly features on the title screen, they still grabbed some photos from throughout the movie for reference. (They only use various vaguely Southeast Asian looking buildings for the images in between stages where the licensed one has more John Rambo, though.) Interestingly, the characters were redesigned for the Japanese original to give them a more unique look, but in the later European release they were turned (back?) into proper clones. In turn, only the Japanese version also features Sly's body on the box cover.

Ashura cover (1986) 🔗

While this game was released in the US as an actual Rambo game, the same isn't true for this Japanese version, so this is absolutely an illegitimate use of Stallone's likeness. I'm almost convinced the left guy isn't taken from the same movie (which is odd, given how deliberately the game borrowed from it), or it might have been a really obscure still only found in some contemporary Japanese magazine.

Adax cover (1992) 🔗

A late addition to the Atari 8-bit library made in Poland, Adax is a platformer with a sci-fi bend where you fight enemies mostly by punching and kicking them. Nonetheless, the dude on the cover art got a massive rocket launcher. That is of course because his pose is very recognizable as the poster for Rambo: First Blood Part II.

Mercs (1991) 🔗

Even though Capcom's game Commando predates the movie Commando, perhaps they got cold feet about similarities when coming up with the English title for the seque, but that still didn't prevent them from ripping off the Schwarzenegger vehicle in the game. Another character's portrait pose was taken from Raw Deal – not the most celebrated of Arnie's action movies, but it seems to have gained some popularity in Japan (where it was known as Gorilla), at least judging by the number of games riffing on the film's poster. The third guy in the game obviously has the Schwarzenegger physique as well, but I haven't found a matching pose yet. The item merchant that's only found in the Sega Genesis version also looks like she's based on something real.

Double Hawk cover (1990) 🔗

Sure, the two muscle men on Sega's shooting gallery are made to look like Arnold Schwarzenegger and Sylvester Stallone, but there's a kind of reverse Gryzor situation going on: At least both torsos are clearly both taken from the latter's Rambo poses, as you can clearly make out on the muscle definitions and even the scars on his chest. The big faces on top are a bit of a guessing game and they might be from different or a mix of references. I'd wager on the soldiers and war machinery in the foreground also being lifted from somewhere else, but those are a bit harder to find and identify.

Ikari Warriors flyer (1986) 🔗

The entire raison d'être for SNK's Ikari Warriors series is to let you play at Rambo in a legally (barely) distinct manner, so it would be weirder if the original artwork for the Japanese arcade version didn't rip off several publicity photos from First Blood Part II. The artist tried to draw one of Sylvester Stallone's arms in a different pose to have him appear ready to throw a hand grenade, with rather mangled results.

Navy Seals (1991) 🔗

One of the things British micro shovelware publisher Ocean specialized in was movie licenses (they might be a major contributor to the bad reputation of games based on movies in earlier years), another was copying stuff. The cover simply recreates the variant of the Navy Seals logo from the film, but at least for one of the still images in between stages they went to one of their favorite sources, namely Marvel's The Punisher. The whole composition with the hero hanging on front of the window is swiped directly from Mike Zeck's cover, except the crime going on inside is a different one. There are several other human poses in these intermissions that might or might not also have famous sources.

Discovered by kjn from the Hardcore Gaming 101 forums.

Zed Blade character portraits (1994) 🔗

For the promotional flyer publisher SNK graced NMK's Zed Blade (aka Operation Ragnarok) with original art by Shinkiro, but for the in-game portraits of the characters they had to gey by using other means, namely scraping them from famous movie stills. Zed Blade's Uncle Beard matches up near perfectly with a somewhat rare photo from the production of 1978's Deer Hunter (except for the animal on his shoulder), while Corporal Swift Arnold is a very obvious stand-in for Maverick from Top Gun. (The actual photo used might be a more obscure variant than the one in the comparison, but even the partially visible patch on his uniform seems to read 'TOPGUN'.) Only Sergeant Ms. Charlotte is currently unidentified.
Credits: The Deer Hunter reference was identified by downchasm on Bluesky.

Navy Moves cover (1989) 🔗

Navy Moves is a home computer game made in Spain, that's basically a series of different action sequences where you're riding a boat, diving, infiltrating an evil underwater lair, and so on. You might not have heard about this game, but the cover is once more graced by a familiar face - and not only the cover, as you can see Arnie's mug at the bottom of the screen all throughout the game, too. This specific pose originates from the poster motive for Commando. If you're wondering why I took the Italian variant for this, it's because the US one has a black background, so it would have been hell to cut out the dark parts of his clothing there.

Super Contra arcade flyer (1987) 🔗

Much like the first game in the series, the artist for Super Contra's promo material clearly understood the assignment, this time really uniting both of the 1980s big muscle action stars on one flyer. Not satisfied with telegraphing the game's influences through a picture, the English version of the flyer also proudly proclaims: "He's not human. He's not alien. He's the predator!!" There's some liberties taken, especially with the faces, but Sly's neckline is still an exact match. The Schwarzenegger stand-in doesn't fit quite as neatly, so either the artist modyfied the pose somewhat, or there might be an obscure alternate still out there that was used as a reference.