"What if McGruff the Crime Dog and your local DARE officer made a game?"

Only in America, baby! NARC is the videogame that took President (Herbert Walker) Bush’s War on Drugs out of the realm of metaphor and made it hyper-violently real. Even as a kid I remember this side scrolling, shooting “Beat ‘em Up” being uniquely politicized. And this was a time when almost every other arcade game had a “Don’t Use Drugs” screen that would flash periodically in attract mode.

NARC takes place in some kind of DEA fantasy world where the penalties for possession, use, or distribution of narcotics is quick, violent death. Yes, it’s possible to arrest “suspects” in NARC, but doing so takes more time and effort than simply blowing them away.

So, uh, the city’s anti-narcotics task force is made up of a guy in a blue jumpsuit and motorcycle helmet and a guy in a red jumpsuit and helmet. I think those identity-obscuring helmets are intended not to preserve the cops’ anonymity, ala “The Principal,” but to make the game more immersive and personal experience for the player. Yes, when I play NARC it feels like I really am a skinny vigilante in tight, brightly colored leathers with matching gaudy headgear.

Oh, and then you get a car. This was certainly inspired by Miami Vice, where vice cops got to drive $250,000 sports cars. Hey, anyway you look at it, the “War on Drugs” pays off big to somebody. Keeping track of your arrests, confiscated drugs and money, and, of course, kills, makes the level endcaps in NARC seem like those from Smash TV. Big money!

Just how politicized is NARC? You certainly won’t find any kind of dissenting voice or opinion other than Nancy Reagan chanting “Just Say No.” No aspect of the game comments upon the accountability (or lack thereof) of our police, our overburdened prisons and rehab clinics, or the economic aspects of waging unofficial “wars” against basically entire hemispheres and ethnic groups. There is no room in NARC for any other position on drugs than that of, say, DARE.

I find fault in this. Drug users in the game are depicted in such broad, menacing stereotypes (i.e. killer clowns, evil, trench coat-wearing pushers inspired by the Joe Pesci character from Michael Jackson’s Moonwalker, single injections of drugs being fatal, etc) that the game’s creators can’t possibly be asserting that these represent a true cross-section of drug abuse in America. We’ve all seen the affects of drugs in our communities, and it, uh, seldom results in the organized militancy of its most strung-out abusers.

Is this ok? We usually ask the media to present equal-handed, nonbiased views based on fact. Is it fair to hold a videogame up to the same standard? I would argue that if a game goes out of its way to politicize an issue, it gains the responsibility to do so fairly. At least until videogames reach such a creative pinnacle that the common consumer can differentiate between videogames that represent differing viewpoints. I don’t think that such a feat has been possible since the days of garage development, where a single designer/programmer could hobble together a shareware game that represents their beliefs and opinions alone.

NARC is a fine game. Outside of its message, the gameplay seems fairly nondescript. The graphics and sound were especially impressive in their day, and the unique way it depicts the American “War on Drugs” is certainly, uh, stimulating. But I can’t forgive the biased, stilted nature of its Public Service Announcement-style politics.

Reviewer's Score: 5/10, Originally Posted: 10/14/03