"Best anti drug propaganda ever."

During the 80's, a campaign against drugs was started by the U.S. Government. All sorts of propaganda was made to sway teens from using drugs such as cigarettes and weed. While most of the propaganda was fairly stupid (Truth Media and Cartoon All-Stars to the Rescue, anyone?) and didn't work for the most part, one really good thing came from it. That thing was the Arcade (and later NES) game NARC.

Gameplay: 7/10

NARC's gameplay can be best described as a beat 'em up that uses guns instead of fists. The main goal in each level is to find a keycard (while being attacked by a swarm of drug dealers and addicts) and use it to exit the stage. Your character can crouch and move in all four directions, but can only fire in two, left and right. You're equipped with an assault rifle and a rocket launcher. The rifle kills most enemies quickly, while the rocket launcher can kill anything in one shot and turns them into a nice and meaty pile of gibs to boot. While this may seem a bit lacking, it works out very well. There's only one real "powerup" in this game, and it's only located on one level to boot. The "powerup" a car that you can drive for a short while. You can't fire your weapons while inside it, but you can run over enemies, which is very gratifying.

The difficulty for this game varies from medium to very high. Enemies do a ridiculous amount of damage to the player and come in large groups. The Blue/Red dude isn't very fast, so dodging attacks is much more difficult than it should. One of the few graces you're given is that most enemies die with one shot of the rifle. Even that "gift" is limited in that some of the more powerful and aggressive enemies need to be shot multiple times multiple times in order to be downed. Thankfully, one rocket can kill any enemy with one shot, so things are balanced out a bit.

As this is an arcade game, there are items that will boost your points. In addition to points being rewarded for killing enemies, you can collect drug money, actual drugs and destroy things such as lab equipment and weed for points. If you want to, you can arrest certain enemies by standing near them for a couple of seconds and earn a hefty reward, but it's much more satisfying blowing them to little pieces than it is being a nice guy.

Ah, the enemies. While they don't have a lot of unique attacks, they defiantly make up for it in personality. Each character has a unique (and often humorous) trait that manages to stay in your head for a long time, which is something that you can't say very often about modern games. Some examples are the HQ Posse, who are 1930's era gangsters that moonwalk and seem to dance to the game's music at times; Kinky Pinky, a porn loving clown that drags away prostitutes and hops around like a ninja; and Dr. Spike Rush, a 40 year old punk rocker with a mullet that throws heroin syringes at the player.

Graphics: 7/10

The sprites are a bit different from other games. Instead of being drawn, they're pictures of real people that were digitalized. While all of the outfits look extremely silly, they help give the game a unique charm that you don't see in today's games. As for the actual sprites, they're decent for the most part. Some have rather bad coloring (such as Sgt. Skyhigh's, which makes him look like some sort of brown mutant instead of a person) and animation at times, but they actually help the game's cheesy as hell "atmosphere" rather than injuring it.

Backgrounds aren't as good as the sprites are. While they're digitalized, they seem to have less effort put into them. Nearly all of the levels can be described as the color blue, some digitalized buildings here and there and a road for you to walk on. The only levels that break up the monotonous backgrounds are the two levels before the final boss, and even then they don't look much better than the standard ones do.

Music and Sound: 7/10

The music sounds is average. Most of the songs seem sound the same and lack emotion. Thankfully, you'll rarely hear the music, as sounds frequently drown out the music, thanks to all the action happening onscreen.

Sound effects are defiantly this game's strong suit. Enemies share a common death scream, but have unique shouts they make during battle. Common drug dealers occasionally yell things like "I give up!" and "Oh no! It's the NARCs!". Even your character has voice clips that he says, such as "You're under arrest!" when you "bust" an enemy. The acting isn't the best, but it's good for a laugh or two.

The actual sounds effects are not as good as the voices, but still add to the game in a positive manner. Most of the sounds, such as the explosion one, are sound nice and fit with what happens on screen.

Story: 5/10

The main game's plot is average for it's time and today. As Max Force (Blue dude) and/or Hit Man (Red dude), you must take down a gigantic drug smuggling/terrorist ring lead by the mysterious Mr. Big. You'll start out in the slums and eventually get to Mr. Big's luxurious skyscraper. The only plot "developments" you'll get are screens between stages that show a new enemy at the level you're going to and then go a dorky looking mugshot of that foe.

Overall: 7/10

While NARC didn't change anybody's mind about using drugs, it was a fine and fun beat 'em up with it's own unique personality. Even without it's goofy characters, NARC is still a nice and legal way to waste time and money with it's solid gameplay. Besides, what other game will let you blow up moonwalking gangsters and nearly invulnerable PCP addicts?

Reviewer's Score: 7/10, Originally Posted: 05/01/05